Keyhole Bar, Las Vegas, Triblend Tee

Description

The Keyhole Bar was a small but unforgettable piece of early Fremont Street history, tucked into the Sal Sagev Hotel building at 13 Fremont Street in Downtown Las Vegas. Operating roughly from 1953 to 1955, it occupied a narrow slot between other Fremont businesses, just steps from what would become the Golden Gate Casino. True to its name, the bar’s most distinctive feature was its keyhole-shaped front door, echoed in its neon sign and matchbook art. That playful, literal branding made the tiny entrance instantly recognizable in photos and memorabilia, and it set the Keyhole Bar apart in a canyon of competing signs and storefronts on Fremont Street. Inside, the Keyhole was a classic mid-century Las Vegas watering hole: intimate, smoky, and aimed at locals, casino workers, and adventurous visitors drifting off the main casino floors. While detailed interior descriptions are scarce, contemporary commentary suggests it functioned primarily as a bar with at least some gambling, typical for Fremont in the 1950s where even small lounges often housed a few slot machines and a game or two. By 1955, the Keyhole Bar name disappeared and the space was rebranded as the Lucky 13 Club, still at 13 Fremont. Under that name it held a non-restricted license limited to slot machines and 21, operating until about 1957 before further changes in the block’s ever-shifting lineup of small casinos and bars. Over the decades, the Sal Sagev/Golden Gate corner evolved, expanded, and modernized. An alleyway once visible beside the Keyhole’s frontage survived into the 21st century before being absorbed into the Golden Gate’s 2017 expansion, effectively erasing the last structural traces of the little bar. Though short-lived and modest in scale, the Keyhole Bar embodies an important layer of downtown Las Vegas history—the era when tiny, personality-driven joints thrived alongside early casinos, using clever signage and quirky themes to stand out. Today, its memory lives on in vintage photos, matchbooks, and the ongoing fascination with Fremont Street’s formative years.