Constructed 1915. The Shuler Theater is a historic theater located in downtown Raton. Home to the local performing arts scene, you can see live plays, dramas, comedies, concerts and musical theater suitable for all ages. The foyer of the theater features eight mural panels created by Manville Chapman in 1934 Read more
The Santa Fe Trail National Scenic Byway passes through multiple New Mexico MainStreet communities. The historic trail had two routes over time: the Mountain Route that went through Raton with its important pass into Colorado; and the Cimarron Route, which cut across the eastern plains of New Mexico and passed Read more
Constructed 1904 Raton’s distinctive Mission Revival style railroad depot is an interesting variation of the California Mission Style, which was adopted by the Santa Fe Railroad as its trademark architectural style in the 1890s. The Raton depot originally featured an octagonal waiting room with a tower roof which matched a Read more
Joseph A. Fleck was commissioned to paint two murals in the Raton Post Office, “Butterfield Mail” and “Unloading Mail at Raton”, the first depicting Taos Indians and Raton miners in 1849 reading mail delivered by a scout on a white horse. The other mural focuses on the local mail system Read more
Constructed 1930 This one-story Art Deco-style building, constructed between 1930 and 1948, includes a white, horizontal tiled exterior. A stepped geometric parapet crowns the facade, and a large glass block opening with fluting above curves around the corner at the intersection of Second Street and Clark Avenue. The exterior veneer Read more
Constructed 1930. Developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Raton Downtown Historic District contains fine examples of the Romanesque Revival, Italianate, and Queen Anne styles, as well as the later Decorative Brick Commercial and Mission and Spanish Colonial Revival styles of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. The Read more
The Palace Hotel was built across First Street from the Raton Railroad Depot in 1896 in the Romanesque Revival style. The elegant brownstone hotel was the most luxurious hotel in Raton until WWII when the popularity of La Mesa horse racing track eclipsed its location and popularity. The Hotel has Read more
Constructed 1880. The original 320 acres for the Raton townsite were purchased from the Maxwell Land Grant in 1880. In 1879, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad bought a local toll road from famed frontier entrepreneur “Uncle Dick” Wooton and established a busy rail line. Raton quickly developed as Read more
Constructed 1910. The former Well Fargo Express Freight Office at the Raton Rail yard is now the home of the Raton Arts and Humanities Council and the Old Pass art gallery. The building has been handsomely rehabilitated and offers high quality art shows regularly throughout the year. 145 So. First Read more
Goat Hill is considered a cultural landscape for its association with the Santa Fe Trail. From the hill’s expansive overlook, the lower end of Railroad Canyon, the Raton group of mesas and multiple volcanic peaks can be seen. This includes a ten-mile portion of the Mountain Route of the Santa Read more