Then and now: Hwy. 50 near Lakeland area
Highway 50 in the 1930s was much more of a rural route. Photo/Stephen Gennerich collection
If you stood on Highway 50 in 1930 near today’s Lakeland Village on the South Shore, the photo above would have been your view toward Mount Tallac.
Civilization had taken hold by the 1950s. Photo/Stephen Gennerich collection
Slowly the area began developing in the early 1950s with more poles and wires, more facilities and services. Harrah’s and Heavenly Valley both opened in 1955. The late 1950s brought hurried development in anticipation of the 1960 Winter Olympics. Dozens of motels, gas stations, eateries and tourist attractions sprung up.
Highway 50 is very much an urban area today. Photo/Bill Kingman
Today at the same location the view is of more cars, more lanes, and more development, but now the poles and overhead wires are gone.
— Bill Kingman
Bill Kingman, My folks honeymooned at Lakeland in 1953. When we had the Echo motel next door, Lakeland was just a bunch of old cabins painted white with green trim, all connected by a one lane road that ran thru the woods close to the lake.
Thank you , OLS
I’m so grateful the poles and wires have gone underground.
Before too long all the trees will be gone again, all the roads will have 4 lanes and the buildings will be so tall you wont be able to see Tallac unless you are climbing her. Cant wait!
I hope this area looks like San Francisco ten years from now! Bring on more buildings. It’s also not fair that we don’t have more housing projects and section 8 options. Trees? Those are just stupid and we don’t need them. Chop chop!
Just wait- you’ll get your housing projects and section 8 soon enough. With TRPA’s proclamation that there will be Town Centers (whether residents like it or not) around Tahoe, there will be high density growth like is proposed at Squaw- with a 1,000 ft high rec center and 10, 100 ft bldgs. No, that won’t affect the views or the environment. Right?! Does anyone wonder what money is behind this huge change in TRPA’s mission to protect Tahoe?
Isee, you do realize that the TRPA has no oversight of what goes on in Squaw Valley by virtue of it being outside the basin and the Lake Tahoe watershed?
No, and Thank you.
Interesting – the same uninformed conjecture on a future, when the need to review historical perspective is vitally needed in order to have a vision for one that works, regardless of what machinations one THINKS (serious ? there) TRPA can conjure up.
Lakeland Village was also the unlikely beginning of Dave Gay Propane (from an office on the grounds the Gay family owned), a prime propane provider in South Shore. . .
Dave Gay also developed the Heavenly Tramway, which opened the year his daughter DEanna (a contemporary of mine as a classmate) graduated from South Tahoe high, today’s Middle School. . .
“The late 1950s brought hurried development in anticipation of the 1960 Winter Olympics. Dozens of motels, gas stations, eateries and tourist attractions sprung up. . .” The 1960 Olympics were, overall, a disappointment to the South Shore, as the expected crowds never really made it down this far (not sure where they ended up) – but the South Shore had plenty of their own projects moving along: the aforementioned Tramway, the new-at-the-time South Shore Room (in 1957, originally in Harrah’s Lake Club (originally George’s Gateway Club, now a prt of Harvey’s) while the “big room” was being built as a back-side addition to Harrah’s (originally Shehadi’s) as the beginning of a boom expansion.
With entertainers like Anna-Maria Alberghetti, one went into the Lake Club and down some stairs off-to-the-right to the South Shore Room, much smaller than the heralded 750-set one being built just across the street, which openeed in1959, a year before the Olympics. . .
Unbelievably, there were 50+ gas stations in South Shore (on every corner, in the middle-of-the-blocks, etc.) as the amount of traffic seemed to warrant them, but of course some made it & some didn’t. . .we’re now down to a handful. . . struggling to figure out where it all went. . . and why. . .
Once again, thanks, Bill. . .
Hey folks, The Lake Tahoe Historical Society is presenting another “Fireside Chat”! This one is out at the airport. and starts at 7.00 pm. June 10th. Speakers being Betty Mitchell, Laurel Ames and John Cefalu. These long time locals will be telling us about the formation of the the city in 1965 along with some Tahoe history.
Free for members of the LTHS or $3.oo for non members. Refreshments will be served and there is a a fine restaurant and bar in the building with lots of parking out front.
Hope you can make it! Old Long Skiis