Boulevard Mall Aerial, Photo Courtesy of LVCVA
You don’t get more Vegas than Irwin Molasky.
Visionary developer, dad, mentor, sports enthusiast, philanthropist, racehorse aficionado; Irwin is everywhere in this city. He built our local hospital. He researched, developed, built, and ran a hospice that changed the landscape of end-of-life care in Southern Nevada, a project that the “regular guy” Molasky admitted, “I’m proud to talk about it.” His vision for our city was grandiose, but also a forward-looking community where people worked together to help one another.
Working with his longtime partner Merv Adelson, Irwin Molasky made Las Vegas a place where people wanted to live. The duo gave Vegas one of our most enviable and enduring calling cards—a mid-century modern neighborhood he named Paradise Palms. Whether the homes around the Las Vegas Country Club or those at Desert Inn Estates, Molasky’s golf course communities gave many important transplants and regular families a place to live. His retail centers gave us a place to shop—Commercial Center, Boulevard Mall, and Best of the West. The spirit of the city inspired Irwin and his many collaborators: “New people come here and bring new ideas, new backgrounds, new social instincts to the city.”
Whether he was working alongside his partners, collaborating with his sons, or brainstorming projects with the founding fathers of UNLV, Irwin Molasky’s influence on Las Vegas is nothing short of profound. What we have found in archives all around the Valley, Southern California, and Northern Nevada, is truly a treasure trove of Vegas history—oral histories still on cassette tape; photographs of the day Irwin broke ground on UNLV’s Interfaith Center in 1968; a key chain from the Pyramids Hotel, the property that he opened with his parents in 1952.
At the Reid Institute, students learn by doing. Researching and celebrating the life and legacy of Irwin Molasky has given us plenty to do.