Page 26 - 2019 Las Vegas & San Miguel Co. Visitors Guide

A.T. and S.F. RR Depot, Las Vegas, ca. 1912. (postcard courtesy City of Las Vegas Museum and Railroad Avenue, Las Vegas, ca. 1908. (Photograph by Harry H. Lake, ca. 1905-08, Courtesy of Denver Public Library,
Rough Riders Museum
Las Vegas Railroad District Rises
Western History Collection, L-511
Hotel (1899), and the neo-classical style Gross Kelly mercantile building (1901) and Rawlins Building (1898) were all built simultaneously.
Together these buildings frame a “railroad plaza” that opens onto East Lincoln Avenue,
By Elmo Baca
The few blocks of brick buildings on the east side of Douglas and Grand Avenues in Las Vegas (New Mexico) - the legendary Railroad district - have slumbered the past half century, awakened every so often by a Hollywood film
of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe (AT & SF) Railroad.
From its beginnings in the late 1850’s, the “San- ta Fe” railroad was destined to become a great American brand; today Burlington, Northern, Santa Fe (BNSF) still hauls much freight (and some passengers) cross-country. Las Vegas was a rowdy and bustling frontier oasis on the Santa Fe Trail when the first Baldwin steam locomo- tive roared into a makeshift station one mile east of the plaza on July 4, 1879. Within a few years, the town doubled in size and rivaled Al- buquerque and Denver in the region.
Today Las Vegas boasts one of the best pre- served railroad districts in the American Southwest, with a cluster of historic hotels, mercantile houses, depot station, former Wells Fargo freight office, and a stunning locomotive
Castañeda Hotel with crowd for First Rough Riders Reunion, June 1899. (photo by Josephine Hays, Courtesy LV Citizens Committee for Historic Preservation)
roundhouse service building nearby. The dis- tricts golden moment can be described as turn- of-the-century 1900, as the Mission Revival style A.,T., and S.F. Depot (1898), the Castañeda
Morris Greenburg, proprietor Boston Clothing House, Railroad Avenue, ca. 1890. (Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA).
New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt at Castañeda Hotel, First Rough Riders Reunion, June 1899. (Courtesy Las Vegas Citizens Committee for Historic Preservation)
crew or a U.S Presidential candidate on a whis- tle stop campaign. Now however, Railroad Av- enue is abuzz with trucks, construction crews, and curious gawkers as the iconic Castañeda Hotel is being rehabilitated and refurbished for new visitors in Spring and Summer 2019.
Across Railroad Avenue from the Castañeda’s backside, two other important historic land- marks, the Strousse and Bacharach building (known locally as Moonlight Welding) and the Rawlins Building (fondly remembered as the Harvey girls dormitory) are also in process of rehabilitation. The “railroad renaissance” cur- rently underway in Las Vegas has captivated locals and also generations of Fred Harvey ro- mantics, aka “Fredheads,” fascinated by the lore
Gross, Blackwell and Co., Railroad Avenue, July 4, 1881. (Courtesy Pal- ace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), Neg. No. 040175
Jack Johnson arriving in Las Vegas, 1912. (Courtesy City of Las Vegas Museum and Rough Riders Museum)
a broad swath of pavement that was traversed hourly by horse-drawn trolleys and after 1903 by electric streetcars. From the depot, the “ur- ban transit” system of Las Vegas ferried passen- gers to nearby hotels and attractions on Doug- las Avenue, the plaza, and the Montezuma Hot Springs Hotel and resort five miles distant in Gallinas Canyon.
For roughly forty years, from 1880 to 1920, Railroad Avenue provided a stage for a daz- zling parade of characters, including immigrant and Yankee entrepreneurs, cowboys, politicians, aristocrats, movie stars, ladies of the night, sheepherders, outlaws, tourists and many others.
Maybe the greatest crowd ever gathered at the depot and Castañeda (said to be at least 5,000 people) whooped and hollered when New York
Browne and Manzanares Mercantile Co., Railroad Avenue, ca. 1880. (Pal- ace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA) Neg. . No. 009436
26 | Las Vegas & San Miguel Co. Visitors Guide 2019