The Native Juice – Honoring Herbert Gerson

NATIVE Juice

By Candice Wiener

A Legacy to be Honored Despite a Tarnished History. Herbert Gerson’s Contribution to our City will Remain Celebrated and Intact.

We recently had the opportunity to catch up with a dear friend, Rebecca Raymond, who’s family also has long time history here in Las Vegas. We asked Rebecca about her Grandfather, Herbert Gerson, who was the Executive Housing Director of Las Vegas for purposes of urban renewal. Herbert Gerson, aka, Shorty, was born in Ohio in 1893. When he was young, he and his brother were sent to live in an orphanage. The boys decided to run away to escape the orphanage and ran west until they eventually landed in Lincoln County, Nevada. Herbert became head of the Housing Authority there. Pat McCarran learned of the work he was doing in Lincoln County and liked what he was doing with the housing projects and development. He invited and welcomed him to come to Las Vegas and head the Housing Authority in Clark County. That was in 1946 and when Herbert was appointed, Clark County didn’t have any housing authority commissioned yet to date. Herbert implemented and went on to build several low-income housing projects all over Las Vegas. Prior to his arrival in Clark County, Las Vegas had no housing developments being built for low-income communities. In the 1960’s, Herbert worked directly with John F. Kennedy and successfully lobbied for things like air conditioning units inside the low-income housing projects, instead of swamp coolers or no air conditioning at all. Us locals know how brutal our temperatures can be in summer and how vital air conditioning is. Although swamp coolers may be sufficient in cooler climates or on the East Coast, it was and is imperative to have air conditioning units is all the houses in Las Vegas.

Rebecca remembers her Great-Grandfather fondly. She stated “his nickname was Shorty; he was a little Jewish man, and I was 10 when he died. I seem to remember almost being just as tall as him at that time; he couldn’t have been more than 5 foot 4,” hence the nickname, Shorty.

This picture was taken of Herbert Gerson on April 13, 1963 in front of Gerson Park, which was named after him Original House Herbert Built in 1946 on 8th Street, Which the Family Recently Sold

Herbert Gerson Gravesite

Despite all his efforts and good deeds to improve the local Las Vegas community with low-income housing projects and senior living facilities that were 2 things our city lacked back then, it’s unfortunate that since Gerson Park, which was 1 of the original housing communities that he developed, now has a negative connotation due to the well-known Gerson Park Kingsmen gang that overtook the housing project. The Gerson Park Kingsmen were 1 of the oldest criminal street gangs that date back to taking over that area as early as the 1970’s. Now, his name is referenced as a joke in just about every prison in Nevada; however, we like to take a moment to reflect on his positive contributions to low-income families and all that he did in housing and development in our local community. To the best of Rebecca’s knowledge, only 1 of the housing projects that her Great Grandfather built and developed is still open to this day, which is on 28th street, which she notes, sadly is gang affiliated too

We thank you to Herbert and his continued family’s legacy here in our Las Vegas community for paving the path in the Housing Authority and industry! That’s 4 generations in Las Vegas, which is basically like a unicorn these days. Thank you, Rebecca for your help in telling your family’s legacy and sharing with our readers! Rebecca Raymond