TONOPAH - Even without slot machines, the Mizpah Hotel's owner has visions of bringing gambling back to the historic hotel as well as building a golf course and a park to help make Tonopah a tourism destination.
For now, the Mizpah is still reeling from its yearlong closure having been dark from August 1998 to August 1999.
"It's been so difficult to get things going," Mizpah general manager Mariann Cirelli said. "Hardly any of the locals support us."
The Mizpah's main restaurant, the Jack Dempsey Room, is only open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, the deli doesn't open until 3 p.m., and the slot machines left April 11.
Owner Bill Allison failed to get a gaming license to replace the slot route operator who had run the Mizpah's casino before and after the closure. But he does have short-term goals to open the deli by noon and have the Jack Dempsey Room serve steak seven days a week.
Bill and Delores Allison sold the Mizpah in summer 1998 but reacquired the five-story, 54-room hotel a year later in foreclosure when Equivest Holding Group of Tucson, Ariz., never made a payment, Cirelli said.
By the time the Allisons got the Mizpah back, ceilings had caved in, water pumps had broken, the carpets needed shampooing and walls had to be repainted.
Allison spent nearly $200,000 to reopen a hotel. The Allisons had owned the Mizpah for 16 years but had tired of running a hotel.
They didn't think Equivest would close the Mizpah a month after buying it. The hotel stayed closed until the Allisons returned, though Equivest reportedly did $100,000 worth of improvements, including new carpeting downstairs, fixing the air handlers in each room and installing some 1,700 lights into the Mizpah roof sign.
"It was devastating," Cirelli said. "I think it was the first time the Mizpah was closed."
The Mizpah was built in 1907 during Tonopah's heyday and played host to a number of key figures in Nevada history whose names appear on streets, parks and airports: longtime U.S. Sen. Key Pittman, Gov. and U.S. Sen. Tasker Oddie, noted businessman George Wingfield and U.S. Sen. Patrick McCarran.
The Mizpah stood as Nevada's tallest building from 1914 to 1929 and it remains the tallest hotel between Carson City and Las Vegas. The hotel still offers historic touches such as a 1926 Otis elevator and overhead oak tank and chain toilets.
Tonopah is 225 miles south of Carson on the most direct ground route to Las Vegas.
Attorneys in Las Vegas are evaluating a three-prong plan Allison has to attract investors. Underwriters will then present the plan to investors, said Cirelli, who is Delores Allison's sister.
"Tonopah is going through this urban renewal," Cirelli said. "Tonopah has never been a final destination for anybody - just a stopover. It hasn't been marketed as a destination. That's what Mr. Allison is trying to do, make it a final destination. What he's trying to get is some investors to get back into gaming."
Step one is to expand hours at the restaurants and revive gaming. The second phase calls for building an 18-hole golf course on the west side of town and phase three would bring a park to town.
"There's all kind of talk like putting a restaurant on the roof," Cirelli said, "And to put in plumbing for mobile homes. We're just hanging in there for all these things to come together."