Raton MainStreet Arts & Cultural District

This building was originally the Raton Post Office and was built during the WPA era. Paintings by various well known New Mexico artists can be viewed in the library. 244 Cook Ave. Raton, NM 87740 | (575) 445-9711 openmon: 1-6pm | tue: 10am-6pm | wed: 10am-6pm | thu: 10am-9pm | fri: 10am-6pm Read more…

Constructed 1936. The 1936 Art Deco style Colfax County Courthouse is a five-story blond brick building embellished with glazed tile cornices and bas relief metal panels. The larger bas reliefs depict farming, mining, and cattle raising, the main industries of Colfax County. The motifs on the embellishments include cattle brands Read more…

Constructed 1930. This little theater is a gem. Constructed as an Atmospheric style theatre, in the style of a medieval Spanish castle, the building was designed by the Albuquerque, New Mexico, architectural firm George Williamson, Inc. It was built for the partnership of Dr. L.A. Hubbard and Thomas F. Murphy. 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…

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…

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…

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 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…

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…

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…