The South Dakota Constitution allows Deadwood to conduct gambling on the condition that the city use the proceeds for historic restoration and preservation. Black Hills native Eric Zimmer writes that Deadwood and the First Gold casino may be violating the spirit in which South Dakota granted Deadwood that favor.
Zimmer writes about the old Sinclair station at the north end of Main Street. Our French friends would laugh, but this 1927 structure was indeed a registered historic site.
Was. Zimmer says Deadwood's Historic Preservation Commission and the First Gold Casino cahootsified to knock down the Sinclair station and put in a parking lot:
But as the Rapid City Journal reported earlier this month, nearly a decade of off-and-on litigation—and what some have alleged to be calculated neglect on the part of First Gold—spurred the building’s destruction. (Newspaper photos of the demolition can be seen here.) From the very beginning, critics claim, First Gold sought to level the Sinclair building and expand parking for casino patrons. But in 2010, the state Supreme Court found that because the station was a registered historic site, First Gold needed a permit—endorsed by Deadwood’s HPC—to destroy the facility. The parties eventually reached an agreement by which the hotel owners could expand their parking but would also have to rehabilitate the structure. More than a year passed without any such effort by First Gold, and a series of code violations eventually brought the property back to the HPC’s attention.
Ultimately, the HPC commissioners voted 4–3 to allow the building’s demolition on March 27. First Gold followed suit and toppled the building the next day, before any appeals could be filed or the town’s head historic preservation officer could clear the site for demolition. In response, a group of angry community members organized the Deadwood Trust for Historic Preservation and filed a lawsuit protesting the Sinclair decision and other recent cases that have pitted casinos against the preservation of historic properties. The City of Deadwood has also cited the contractor who destroyed the building for failing to obtain a permit, an offense which could result in a small fine or jail time. Ultimately, the courts will determine the intentions of First Gold’s proprietors, their contractor, and the HPC—and the legality of all of their actions [Eric Zimmer, "Is Deadwood Gambling with History? (Part 2)," Public History Commons, 2014.05.14].
Just how much worthwhile history is in one shuttered stick-built structure? Surely the commitment to historical preservation does not require Deadwood to lacquer every loose two-by-four in place and never change. But Deadwood survives on the commerce of 80 casinos (80! How many South Dakota towns have 80 businesses of any sort?) authorized by a unique Constitutional exception. A developer who pitched a rock-solid plan to boost revenue, jobs, and world peace by razing every building, leveling Mount Moriah, and building a giant skyscraper casino with a skytram to Terry Peak would be S.O.L.
So where in those extremes does a 1927 gas station fall? Was it an extraneous bit of the past whose small story is not worth the loss in convenience and revenue for its owner? Or does Article 3, Section 25 amplify that story and the story of other shops and homes in Deadwood and require casinos to take more care of the town they promise to perserve?
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWwUJH70ubM
Same old story Cory. People love to get control of things they do not own. If HPC would have offered enough money to offset the loss in revenue they might, I said might have been able to save that building and then spent the money to fix it up.
Money talks and bullshit walks and that's the way it has always been. If people couldn't see this happening when gambling was legalized they were either blind or stupid.
The Blindman
Who gets to decide what value to place on historic sites? Doesn't SoDak have a state historical preservation group to assist Deadwood in these decisions? Was there still a holding tank for fuel underground? Did they save the gas pumps and/or any other artifacts that may have been on site?
The Deadwood Trust for Historic Preservation has formed from a group of residents with the mission to preserve Deadwood's Historic National Landmark status. We have also filed a writ with the courts to review whether two Historic Preservation Commissioners should have recused themselves because of conflict of interest. Thanks for sharing this information! Save Deadwood! http://savedeadwood.com
People are tired "angry" that some casino owners assume they should not be and are not held to the same guidelines as homeowners of historically contributing structures or someone building a new structure in Deadwood....That attitude was displayed by the First Gold owner not only by his actions but by the verbal finger he gave to the citizens with his remark after his smart ass actions. He was so rushed to gain 3-4 parking spaces he wanted to "clean up the rubbish".....He demolished a structure listed on The National Register of Historic Places that he had agreed to rehab..... He doesn't have the parking spaces and the rubbish is still there. Hopefully he and another casino will be examples to other deep pockets that their continued destruction of Deadwood for the parking spaces or any other excuse is going to end
Also the appointments to the HPC of people totally ignorant of or for some reason refuse to adhere to in certain cases the guidelines laid down by the Department of Interior will not be quietly accepted as in the past.
http://savedeadwood.com
Many years ago, having recently read Pete Dexter's "Deadwood", I was excited to visit a piece of the Old West. I told my daughters a lot of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill stories to get them primed for the trip. Our first stop was Mt. Moriah cemetery. They both thought it was pretty cool. Then I told them we were about to walk the streets that those two had walled. As we made our way up the street, my 8-year-old observed "This is it? All they have here is casinos." Out of the mouths of babes.
Money talks and bullshit walks. Al Swearingen would be proud. Deadwood is nothing but a hustle. Which is all it ever has been. You really expected anything else from a pack of Chamber of Commerce grifters?
Another South Dakota gambling lie.
Remember when South Dakota brought video lottery to the state? The promise was that profits from gaming would go to education. They didn't.
Nobody is claiming that the money from gaming to the city is not being used the way it should..I have never heard that said.
I am going to admit my ignorance, but what made the building an historic landmark?
Was the building re-stored and/or maintained as it was in its glory days?
Thank you.
JeniW
Any building built before 1943 (I think that is the year) is considered a historic structure. Gustafson had been cited for neglect regarding the Sinclair Station and had made promises to rehabilitate it. Based on his actions, it would appear that it was never his intent. Unfortunately, four Historic Preservation Commissioners voted to reward his negligent behavior, despite the staff recommendation.
Curt's Sinclair was run by a guy who drove a 1970 Chevy tow truck with rifles in his gun rack and a German Shepherd in the cab. He fixed tires. Fifty years of age determines a contributing structure.
The instances of D-9s striking fear in the hearts of preservationists in the dark of night are too numerous to mention.
Deadwood is the Branson of bad architecture.
As the recent Deadwood-hired consultant said, more than once, Deadwood has no idea what it is, what it wants to portray itself as. That is why, in 2008, years prior to the consultant, that the National Geographic Traveler Magazine rated Deadwood as one of the worst tourist destinations - 'an embalmed lifeless museum or a Disneyfied parody of its true heritage, a place for rubes to drop a few bucks.' The learning curve is flat for the rubes and for Deadwood; but I repeat myself.
It doesn't matter who owned that particular structure or what he ate for breakfast, it was in the limits of a city with the designation of National Historic Landmark. The structure was designated a contributing structure according to the Dept. of Interior guidelines.
Age is not the only determining factor in designating a contributing structure.
Any persons personal opinion of Deadwood has nothing to do with this issue.
D9s huh? Cute....."preservationists", as opposed to what?
Just got off the phone with the person who applied for Deadwood's National Landmark. So, sue someone anonymously, LaLa.
Gold Pan Pizza ring a bell, laadeedaa?
The Pineview is standing today because I intervened on her behalf: a drunkard's dream if I ever did see one.
stupid state.
An interesting piece below on gas stations, a little bit about their history and how to preserve them. The particular one we're talking about in Deadwood never seemed that special to me, but it probably was built just at the time when tourism really started catching on in the Black Hills.
http://www.nps.gov/tps/how-to-preserve/briefs/46-gas-stations.htm
obi wan cannabis: you're our only hope.....
This is not the first building to be razed that fell into the category of historic buildings in Deadwood. Another went down a year or so ago and crickets outside of the usual "outrage" that the owners could possibly do such a thing. Here is the deal, the place has gambling. When have you ever met an honest gambler outside of Maverick and he always had a trick up his sleeve. The house always wins is what my daddy used to tell me, guess it still is the truth. Now if the Deadwood preservation folks had any juevos at all, they should demand that he build the Sinclair building back just like it was.
let it go, jerry. namaste, bro.
Oremus:
Dear Grizzly Gulch tailings impoundment, hear our prayer.
About 20 years ago, I took my kids to see Deadwood. My wife and I looked for something that we could do with the kids in town. Yes, we visited Mt. Moriah cemetery and saw the grave sites of several notable people. When my son said he needed to go to the bathroom, we had a difficult time finding a place suitable for him to go in. When I did find a bathroom, the condom dispenser with a nude woman was staring at my son. I sort of covered it as he went. I am no prude, but I really did not believe that was appropriate viewing for a less than 10 year old boy. After a short visit to Saloon #10, we left. The only thing we ever went back for was the Trial of Jack McCall. The last time we went there, that had been destroyed as well. I only go there on rare occasions, usually to partake in a prime rib buffet. I never take kids there anymore.
I'm amazed that they didn't offer the building for sale- surely someone would have bought it, moved it, just to have that funky old gas station. They missed the opportunity to make money, which isn't like Deadwood at all...
Looking at the photos all I can see is a run down, rectangular two-stall garage size building sitting on a newer foundation that is not original to the building, with parking lot wrapped around it. No gas pumps. No signage. No character of any kind.
Yes, the owner flipped the finger to the preservation folks. Yes, he cut corners in demolishing it. Yes, I can see why people are ticked about that. But maybe at his house he can build a two-stall garage and throw a Sinclair sign on it from that place in town that sells old signs. Put an antique gas pump and a rusty Model T outside and call it a tourist attraction. Actually, I think that place that sells the old signs was a gas station, and it has a lot more character than the place that was torn down.
Jerry-- "Now if the Deadwood preservation folks had any juevos at all, they should demand that he build the Sinclair building back just like it was."--- ..The courts will decide with the Dept. of Interior, the S.D Historic Preservation Commission, the S.D. Gaming Commission, and a lot of peed-off citizens watching.
----------------------------------------------
I thought on this forum I might get away from the wack-jobs on newspaper forums. Nope.
Re:--Eve Fisher---After court battles for years the owners had agreed to restore the structure. They didn't. they let it continue to deteriorate to the point they thought they could claim it was beyond saving. It was not..... The March vote by the HPC commission contradicted the ruling by the HPC commission in 2010,
The owners could have turned the structure into a business to compliment their existing business and made it an asset....That shows the mentality of these kind of people when a parking space becomes sacred.
It is a stunning comparison when we look at what happened to that 1920's station then on the other end of town a person spent big bucks to build a replica of a 50's Texaco station..
--------------------------------------------------------
Whack job indeed: more anonymous drivel from the peanut gallery and from Barnes. Deadwood was better when lines of coke could be snorted off the bar anyway.
If Interior really wanted to restore Deadwood, the box culvert that spans the creek should come out and the bridges put back in. The Christmas massacre on the Deadwood Electric building resulted in a wrist slap, the Methodist Church and parsonage came down without a whimper: I helped move the stained glass into the Trinity Lutheran building in Lead and did the Tabernacle.
The numbers of projects where historic preservation just signed off are too numerous to mention.
The slag pile in lower Deadwood is still sloughing into Whitewood Creek, SDDENR and SDGF&P has completely blown it off as has EPA. Know why? Nobody gives a shit.
https://madvilletimes.com/2011/10/ip-slag-scoop-deadwood-mining-debris-slides-into-whitewood-creek/
The go-kart track and 'convention center' are eyesores, the old Safeway building (not a contributing structure, btw) is a dollar store, what Silverado did to the Franklin is a crime.
Who owned the building before the owners of the casino bought it? Did the previous owners maintain the building to the level it was in its glory days?
If the people in Deadwood felt strongly about the building, could they have not created a co-op to purchase, restore, and maintain the building?
But all of that is water under the bridge. I doubt that it can be re-built to what it was and still meet the various codes.
A lawsuit could be filed against the casino owner, and the owner might have to pay the fines and etc., but how would that money be used, and who would benefit from it?
Sinclair only recently allowed buyouts of properties: they several scattered around the Hills.
Archaeologists should be the next step on that site like was done in the Badlands area of Main.
http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/communities/lead-deadwood/new-technology-used-to-preserve-historic-deadwood-craftsmanship/article_6a43d34c-8dbd-526c-b7f1-4b8d4641022c.html
Ask Lance Rom of Quality Services what happened when his company did some work for the Mineral Palace on the site of the old Gem Theater. I don't think he ever did get all the money he was due for the work his company did. The gambling concerns are just like the mining concerns; can't trust 'em.
Paul Miller of Trojan, I presume since Paul Miller of TCF is quite dead.
Sorry, I'm the Custer one.
You don't know Don Valentine, Paul?