Las Vegas, New Mexico

 

Our hotel

Located about 120 miles northeast of Albuquerque, Las Vegas, NM, was at one time the gateway to the Wild West and largest city on the Santa Fe Trail. Today, it's a remarkably well-preserved example of an Old West town with some 900 homes, hotels, schools, and churches on the National Historic Register—making Las Vegas, of course, the perfect spot to film contemporary westerns, like the TV show Longmire and Academy Award-winning movie No Country for Old Men. The town may be old, but it's also certainly hip.

 Old City Hall (1892), no longer in use and 

in need of repair, but still impressive

 

Refurbished old buildings downtown

 

Tim strolling by an assortment of old buildings in various states of repair

 

Original brick-and-masonry wall

I became intrigued by Las Vegas after reading an L.A. Times article about the recently renovated La Castañeda, a hotel built in 1898 by Fred Harvey as part of his nationwide chain of hospitality "houses." Abandoned for 70 years, the mission-style Castañeda was eventually purchased by entrepreneur Allan Affeldt and his artist wife Tina Mion after successfully renovating another famous Harvey hotel, La Paloma, in Winslow, AZ. Although we knew little about Las Vegas, we decided to book three nights at La Castañeda so we could fully experience the hotel and its town. For such a small town (pop. 13,000), there was plenty to do.

 

Winter gloom: view of La Castañeda from the train

 

Hotel lobby

 

Original mural above the hotel bar

Las Vegas train station

Situated right next to the railroad track, our large corner bedroom—with a huge four-poster bed—ended up being very quiet, even though the original wood floors did creak whenever anyone walked by. In addition, the hotel restaurant, which is just about the only place to eat in this part of town, was excellent: exceptional modern food in a 19th-century setting. Extremely charming and, quite frankly, completely unexpected.

 

 Real room key on original hotel keyring (cool!)

Each room is named after an endangered NM animal

and is decorated in furniture salvaged from other old-time hotels

As much as we enjoyed the Castañeda, we absolutely fell in love with Affeldt's other property, the Plaza Hotel, located in the old downtown area called the Plaza. Built in 1882, the hotel stands three stories high and is an lovely example of Renaissance Revival architecture. Plus they serve an excellent breakfast. The only drawback is that it's a mile from the train and no shuttle service going to-and-fro, so I'm not sure how we'd get there the next time we're in town. (We walked everywhere and didn't need a car.) But I'm determined to go back and spend at least one night in late 19th-century luxury.

 

Plaza Hotel

 

Staircase and tin ceilings inside the Plaza Hotel

 

Door to fictitious sheriff Longmire's office (exciting!)

 

Plaza Hotel on right and Longmire's office building

at end of street

 

Inside historic Plaza Drugs and soda fountain (1919)

 

With our friends Mike and Suzanne

 

Lunch at Charlie's Spic and Span, home to good old-fashioned

American and Mexican cuisine

 

Charlie's specialty: homemade cream puffs, which we marveled at

but resisted

 

Santa Fe Trail remains the main road through town 

Finally, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Las Vegas is home to the only surviving Carnegie library in New Mexico. Built in 1903 and modeled after Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello, the library could use some loving restoration, but is still faithfully serving its community.

 

Carnegie Library

 

Front door

 

Original, ornate doorknob 

We awoke to snow our last morning in Las Vegas, but were able to drive down to the Albuquerque airport with no problem. We promise to return during warmer weather . . .

Our last morning: snow on the ground