Documentaries about buildings are a rather rare breed. It takes a combination of history, money dealings and intrigue coupled with a cast of characters and wild stories to make it actually interesting. And even then, it still would have a very specific audience. In the case of This Building of Ours, it targets longtime Las Vegans, history buffs and folks fascinated with the Mob—so quite a few of us.
The just-released documentary is a tribute to one of the most historic buildings in Las Vegas—one that’s not a casino but still has a compelling past. This Building of Ours tells the story of the city’s former federal building, now the Mob Museum, in downtown Las Vegas.
The Las Vegas federal building opened November 11, 1933 and served as the post office and courthouse until the city outgrew the space and built a newer version nearby. In a city that usually erases its history with a boom (the Tropicana will be imploded in October), this building survived when the feds sold it to the city for $1 with the stipulation that it be restored and used for cultural purposes. It then became the Mob Museum.
The new documentary, now available for free on YouTube, is an interesting look at how a town of ranches and gambling halls developed into a full-blown city and how the federal building was at the center of it all. It hosted the Kefauver Committee hearings on organized crime in 1950, newspaper publisher Hank Greenspun battled the Mob under its roof and Frank Sinatra once testified before a grand jury and then snuck out a back door to avoid fans who had gathered out front.
This Building of Ours won’t be for everyone, but the Mob Museum itself is a cool spot to check out. One of the top museums in the city, it houses hundreds of exhibits with law enforcement and Mob ties including a tommy gun and a section of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre wall from Chicago. There is also a basement speakeasy called the Underground where you can drink pineapple-tea moonshine and Prohibition-era cocktails like Giggle Water–fruit-infused vodka and bitters. A new menu of shareable dishes was just introduced, too. It includes shrimp cocktail, meat pies and colcannon crisps, which are kettle chips topped with Irish cheddar, bacon, green onions, sour cream and pickled cabbage.