LOOKING BACK
PHOTOS FROM THE LAS VEGAS SUN ARCHIVES
CRASH AT
THE ORBIT
22
20140113_VI22_F.indd 22
P
reviously
located
at 707 E.
Fremont
St ., the Orbit Inn
opened in 1964
featuring a rooftop swimming
pool and an enormous UFO-shaped
neon sign. On Jan .
7, 1967, a blast
ripped through the
three-story building when Richard
James Paris, an
Army deserter,
committed suicide
by firing a handgun
into a pile of dynamite. The explosion
killed six people —
Paris and his wife
included — and injured eight others.
The tragedy caused
the closing of the
property for nearly
a decade, but it
reopened in 1976
only to close again
in 1987. Years later,
it was reopened
as a Motel 6, then
it was named the
Fremont Plaza Hotel. In 2012, it was
purchased by Tony
Hs ieh as part of the
Downtown Project
for $5.2 million
and demolished to
make way for the
new Downtown
Container Park.
— Rebecca Clifford-Cruz
|
13 JANUARY 2014
|
1/9/14 1:30:02 PM
