The Formosa Cafe in West Hollywood, California, and 10 other historic sites — including a fire station in Las Vegas, New Mexico — earned Partners in Preservation: Main Streets grants after a monthlong online vote by the public to decide the winners.
The 11 sites will receive a total of $1.5 million in grants to help fund various preservation efforts, according to a news release Thursday from American Express, Main Street America and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the key sponsors of the effort. Another $500,000 in grants was provided to the nonprofit partners of the 25 main street communities that participated in the program at the outset of the campaign.
The Los Angeles Conservancy intends to use the $150,000 grant to help rehabilitate the Formosa Cafe along Route 66. Now closed, the restaurant was established in 1925 by a former prize-fighter who renovated a retired Pacific Electric Red Car trolley for use as a lunch counter. The business later was expanded in 1945. The restoration will focus on the long-neglected 1902-1906 trolley part that still functions as the centerpiece of the cafe.
With a long association with early Hollywood and organized crime, the walls were lined with over 250 photos of stars who dined here. It recently appeared in scenes from the Oscar-winning films “L.A. Confidential” and, more recently, “La La Land.”
The MainStreet Las Vegas Corporation intends to use the $150,000 grant to complete the restoration of the E. Romero Hose & Fire Building in downtown Las Vegas, home of the first volunteer fire department in the Southwest, and convert it into a museum commemorating the fire company and exploring the history of northern New Mexico’s acequia system.
The Romero building isn’t on Route 66, but it sits close to the original alignment of Route 66 that snaked north to Santa Fe.
More from the release:
Established in 2006 by American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Partners in Preservation is a community-based partnership created to raise awareness of the importance of preserving historic places and their role in sustaining local communities. To date, Partners in Preservation has awarded $19 million in support of more than 200 historic sites across the United States. […]
“These grants will enable main streets to preserve the historic features that make these districts so special,” said Timothy J. McClimon, president of the American Express Foundation. “When we support our local historic sites and main streets through philanthropy or through events like Small Business Saturday, we drive development, preserve character, attract visitors and propel commerce.”
The other winners were:
- Parker Hall and the John Trower Building in Philadelphia
- Vintage Neon Sign Park in Casa Grande, Arizona
- The Lyric Theater in West Des Moines, Iowa
- The Carolina Theatre in Greensboro, North Carolina
- The Alabama Theatre in Birmingham, Alabama
- The Woodward Theater in Cincinnati
- Ivers Square in Cape Girardeau, Missouri
- McKinney Performing Arts Center in McKinney, Texas
- Utah Pickle Company and Hide Buildings in Salt Lake City
(Image of the Formosa Cafe in 2012 by Don Barrett via Flickr; image of the E. Romero Hose & Fire Building in Las Vegas, New Mexico, via Main Street de Las Vegas)
Normally, your presenations are complete and full of information – HOWEVER, the mention of the famed Fire Station brought to mind the fact this site was also in an important film. The first scene presenting the gaining-in-popularity actor, Jack Nicholson in ‘EASY RIDER,’ has the trio of main characters standing in front of this building. The movie has Jack’s drunken-lawyer character offering the two lads ‘a morning swig of whiskey.’ When he takes a drink, he adlibs a toast to D.H Lawrence (mentioned as the cast had visited his nearby burial site just a few days previously) – does an unforgettible noise as the liquor ‘goes down’ and then says – another concluding adlib – ‘Indians!’ (as though the tribes were troublesome to him.) It is an amusing scene and causes the audience to become infatuated with the charmingly odd fellow Jack Nicholson is portraying. He is invited to join the guys on their ride to New Orleans and the next scene – after departing this historic Fire Station – is the trio on motorcycles hit’n the road.
Here is the YOUTUBE link to see the building — not looking THEN (at the time the picture wa shot) as well as it does TODAY.