KVIG Informative

Nevada recorded its first subdivision built by and for Black residents on May 17, 1954, when segregation confined most of Las Vegas’s Black population to the city’s Historic Westside. Seventy-two years later, Las Vegas ranks 43rd among the nation’s 50 largest metro areas for Black homeownership, and many of Berkley Square’s original 148 homes are still owned by the families who bought them under financing they could not get anywhere else in the city.

Architect Paul Revere Williams designed two ranch-style home models for the development, and Clark County recorded its plat as Berkley Square on May 17, 1954, according to a history of the neighborhood published by the Nevada Preservation Foundation. Williams laid out 148 homes on 22 acres in what is now the Historic Westside, the same history states. He had become the first Black member of the American Institute of Architects in 1923, according to the nonprofit Docomomo US.

Oakland attorney, newspaper publisher and developer Thomas L. Berkley financed the project and gave it his name, according to the Nevada Preservation Foundation history and the Paul R. Williams Project, a nonprofit that documents the architect’s work. Development streets carry the names of two other financiers, J.J. Byrnes and Edward A. Freeman, and of construction supervisor Harry L. Wyatt, the Nevada Preservation Foundation history states. The subdivision’s original name was Westside Park.

The Federal Housing Administration insured loans on the homes, and the Veterans Administration financed purchases as well, according to the same sources. Agnes Marshall bought her home at 1666 D St. in 1955 for $1 down through the FHA program, the Nevada Preservation Foundation history states. William and Mattie Eppinger, who had moved to Las Vegas from Arkansas in the 1940s, bought at 420 Freeman Ave.; their daughter, Ruth d’Hondt, has lived at 500 Freeman Ave. since 1976. Russell and Annie Chaney owned their home at 1620 G St. until 2016.

Dr. Charles West, the first Black physician licensed to practice in Las Vegas, also owned rental property in the development. He used it to house Black entertainers who performed on the Strip but were barred from staying in its hotels, according to the Nevada Preservation Foundation history.

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The National Register of Historic Places listed Berkley Square on Oct. 23, 2009, under reference number 09000846, following a nomination from the City of Las Vegas’s planning and development department, according to National Register listing records cited by the Nevada Preservation Foundation and Docomomo US. Ron James, Nevada’s state historic preservation officer at the time, said the listing helped promote African American history in the state. Then-City Councilman Ricki Y. Barlow, whose ward included the neighborhood, called the designation an honor for the community.

Most of Berkley Square’s homes remain intact, and many stay in the hands of descendants of the families who first bought them, according to the Paul R. Williams Project. That kind of multigenerational ownership is rare in Las Vegas today. LendingTree, the online lending marketplace, reported in February 2026 that Black residents owned 32.8% of homes in the Las Vegas metro area, ranking the city 43rd among the 50 largest U.S. metro areas the company studied. The average across those 50 metros was 43.6%, and white residents owned 70.3% of homes in the same group, LendingTree reported.

Matt Schulz, LendingTree’s chief consumer finance analyst, tied part of the gap to income. The median household income in 2024 was $88,010 for white households nationally and $56,020 for Black households, LendingTree reported, citing federal income data.

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Marble Manor, the public-housing project built for Black Las Vegans in the same era, is being cleared this year for a $50 million, federally funded redevelopment, according to the City of Las Vegas. Berkley Square never needed that kind of intervention. Its future now turns on inheritance — on whether the descendants of Agnes Marshall, the Eppingers and the Chaneys keep the deeds that a segregated city once made almost impossible for Black families to hold anywhere else.