Constructed 1890
On July 4, 1879 a rowdy crowd greeted the first Iron Horse locomotive in the New Mexico Territory at the Las Vegas railyard. Within days and weeks, a ramshackle collection of tents and wooden makeshift businesses appeared, attracting fortune seekers from hundreds of miles away. Great mercantile companies such as Gross Kelly, Otero and Sellars and others built large warehouses here. The Santa Fe Railroad built a luxury spa resort called the Montezuma five miles north, and a spur rail line transported passengers along the Gallinas River to the castle hotel in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. A horse-drawn street car took passengers to the plaza and other stops. Within two decades, Fred Harvey would build the majestic Castaneda Hotel next to a new railroad depot built in the new Mission Revival Style. The assemblage of railroad buildings, preserved at the Las Vegas Railroad Depot, represents a sophisticated railroad urbanism in the New Mexico Territory.
Railroad Ave. and East Lincoln Ave. | Las Vegas, NM 87701 | 505-425-8803
open
mon: 24/7 | tue: 24/7 | wed: 24/7 | thu: 24/7 | fri: 24/7 | sat: 24/7 | sun: 24/7
photo by Elmo Baca
