Then and now: Cal-Neva a once bustling casino
Today the Cal-Neva is closed. Photo/Bill Kingman
Cal-Neva int the late 1930s. Photo/UNR Special Collections
The historic Cal-Neva Lodge straddles the North Shore state line on the promontory between Brockway, Calif., and Crystal Bay, Nev.
A postcard of the Cal-Neva pool in the 1950s.
The original lodge, built in 1926, was destroyed by fire and was rebuilt in 1937.
The state boundary line prominently dissects the main room (gaming only at one end) as well as the outdoor swimming pool.
Frank Sinatra owned the Cal-Neva in the early 1960s and he added a major showroom. Currently, the 219-room, 10-story hotel and 6,000-square-foot casino facility is closed for total renovation,
Cal-Neva in 1940. Photo/UNR Special Collections
including the Sinatra Showroom. The new owners plan to reopen in December 2014 on what would have been Frank Sinatra’s 99th birthday.
— Bill Kingman
Bill Kingman, Nice photo of the old and new Cal-Neva. Boy, if those walls could talk. I heard that there are secret rooms below the casino/hotel for drinking and distilling during prohabition, which later turned into private rooms for Franks private partys(Maryln Monroe?).
Bill, did you find anything of use in those old Tribunes I loaned you. Donald O’conner, Hydro-plane races, our first city council?
Keep up the good work Bill, Old Long Skiis
We took one of the last Tunnel tours at the Cal-Neva before the recent closures. I agree with Old Long Skis… if those walls could talk. We learned so much and caught a glimpse of this Casino in its glory days.
I wish the new owners great success and I hope they keep the nostalgic memories alive, somehow.
Awesome Then & Now Bill.
We ate lunch at the bar and took a tour of the tunnels and heard some of the ghost stories. We are so excited that there is a new owner and a renovation planned. Brilliant!,