MainStreet de Las Vegas Arts & Cultural District

Constructed 1956 The Fort Union Drive-In has made the conversion to digital projection, but this was the story in 2013. New technology requires that the theater undergoes an upgrade to digital equipment and projection room. There are around 350 drive-ins left in the nation, and only two left in New Read more…

The Gallinas River flows out of the Sangre De Cristo Mountains from the Pecos Wilderness Area located between Las Vegas and Santa Fe. The Gallinas runs south to join the Pecos River near Anton Chico. The Gallinas nourishes the rich meadow and pasture lands from which the community of Las Read more…

Constructed 1912 Though it opened in 1912 as the Mutual Theater, the Kiva Theater is the second-oldest movie theater still operating in New Mexico, being seven years younger than the Fountain Theater in Mesilla. There is a photo of the auditorium of the Kiva Theatre in the April 29, 1939, Read more…

The Old Town Plaza of Las Vegas was founded by settlers from nearby San Miguel, NM as the Santa Fe Trail gained importance as an international trade route from Missouri to Santa Fe. The Las Vegas plaza is where Gen. Steven W. Kearny and the US Army of the West Read more…

The Las Vegas Railroad Depot replaced an earlier wooden depot constructed after the Santa Fe RR arrived in July, 1879, making Las Vegas the first railhead in the NM Territory. The existing depot is one of the earliest buildings built in the trademark California Mission Revival style in NM. The Read more…

Constructed 1890 Lincoln Park was one of two municipal parks platted in the City of East Las Vegas after the railroad steamed into the town on July 4, 1879. Lincoln Park’s close proximity to the railroad district two blocks away made it a popular location for housing for Santa Fe Read more…

Constructed 1937 Designed by John Gaw Meem and constructed by the WPA, Rogers Hall was completed in 1937 in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. The walls of the main staircase and the second floor foyer are covered with a mural, “The Dissemination of Education in New Mexico,” completed in 1937 Read more…

Constructed 1900 The large residential neighborhood north of Carnegie Park and east of the campus of New Mexico Highlands University contains a dazzling variety of historic residences reflecting nearly every popular historic architectural style during the gilded age of Las Vegas, 1890-1920. Many of the city’s leading citizens built homes Read more…

Constructed 1882 Currently vacant, the former East Las Vegas City Hall has the distinction of being the first municipal building erected in the New Mexico Territory in 1882. The large heavy stone arches on the ground floor are representative of the Romanesque Revival style. The contrasting reddish brown and light Read more…

Constructed 1880 After the Civil War, the prosperity of the Santa Fe Trail enabled the village of Las Vegas to expand out of the plaza vicinity. New adobe homes were built along the hillside near Our Lady of Sorrows Church and the Presbyterian mission church to the south. Some prosperous Read more…