The Morelli House

This house heard the Rat Pack after hours. Antonio Morelli, orchestra conductor and music director of the Sands Hotel during its Rat Pack heyday, built this mid-century modern home in 1959, and for decades it was an after-hours gathering spot for the entertainers who played the Strip—Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and the rest. Morelli brought classical music to Las Vegas too, organizing the city's first pops concerts. The house once stood in the Desert Inn Country Club Estates; in 2001 the Junior League moved it downtown to save it when the Wynn rose on its old site.

What the plaque says

The Morelli House is a classic example of Las Vegas mid-century residential architecture. It was built in 1959 by the Sands Hotel orchestra leader Antonio Morelli and his wife Helen. Originally located at 52 Country Club Lane in the former Desert Inn Country Club Estates, now the Wynn resort, the modernistic house then featured an open plan that integrated interior and exterior spaces, natural materials, and the latest innovative home appliances. In 2001, the Junior League of Las Vegas relocated the Morelli House to its present site and completed restoration in 2009.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fremont Street — 0.4 mi
  Glitter Gulch — the neon canyon where Las Vegas actually began
• The Mob Museum — 0.6 mi
  Organized crime, told in the downtown courtroom that first exposed it
• Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort State Historic Park — 0.7 mi
  The 1855 adobe fort where Las Vegas began — a mile and a world away from the neon
• The Neon Museum — 0.8 mi
  The Neon Boneyard — where the Strip''s discarded signs are rescued and lit again

More markers nearby

• Original Home of “Pop” Squires (1865-1958) — steps away
• Las Vegas Mormon Fort (Nevada’s Oldest Building) — 1.1 mi
• Old Spanish Trail — 1.1 mi
• Kyle (Kiel) Ranch — 2.6 mi