In this recent satellite view of the Tropicana, its original hotel rooms — called the “bungalow” rooms in modern times — are marked with red dots on their roofs. (Image: Google Earth)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe 300 \u201cbungalow\u201d rooms, as they have been called for decades now, opened along with the casino hotel on April 4, 1957. They fanned away from the main casino in two three-story wings, making a \u201cV\u201d shape, and still do \u2013 even though the original casino was razed to build the resort\u2019s Tiffany (now Paradise) Tower, which opened in 1979.<\/p>\n
Most tourists have no idea the Trop\u2019s bungalow rooms are the Strip’s oldest. That\u2019s because the Flamingo and Sahara were mainstays on the old Highway 91 long before the Tropicana opened there on April 4, 1957. (It wouldn\u2019t be renamed Las Vegas Boulevard for two more years.)<\/p>\n
However, all original structures that the Flamingo and Sahara opened with — in 1946 and 1952, respectively — have long since been demolished.<\/p>\n
Trop Dog<\/h2>\n
The Trop was conceived by hotelier Ben Jaffe, a partner in Miami\u2019s Fontainebleau hotel. In 1955, he purchased 40 acres on Highway 91 and Bond Road, far south of the Flamingo. Eager to own the nicest resort in Las Vegas, but not to build or run it, he leased the property to a company called Hotel Conquistador Inc., which had experience doing both.<\/p>\n
The trouble was that its experience came via organized crime. Hotel Conquistador was owned by Phil Kastel, who ran the illegal Beverly Club gambling parlor near New Orleans under Luciano crime family boss Frank Costello. The two also ran a substantial illegal slot machine route.<\/p>\n