Page 28 - 2019 Las Vegas & San Miguel Co. Visitors Guide

Inspired by the success of La Posada, Affeldt and Mion bring an enhanced cultural sensibility to the Castañeda project. The splendid historic hotels under their ownership and management not only provide exceptional hospitality, but are also a showcase for Tina’s clever paintings, oth- er local and regional artists, Southwestern crafts and textiles, memorabilia and historic photo- graphs. Of interest is the awesome collection of historic furniture on display throughout the guest rooms and lobbies. Charming hand-paint- ed furniture from the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe will grace rooms and public spaces at the Castañeda. Although the Castañeda will be faithfully restored, some new accents such as stained glass transom windows in guest rooms designed by Tina and a redesigned bar lounge area will delight patrons.
Fred Harvey’s legacy will live on, maybe most apparent in the gracious dining room, flooded by sunlight and wearing its timeless finishes of pressed metal architectural ceiling, terraz- zo floors, Palladian windows and architectural moldings with elegance. Antique kitchen equip- ment will serve as props and counters in the restaurant, gentle reminders of an era when the Castañeda’s ovens produced breads and pastries for the entire Harvey empire.
There’s a greater long term vision at work in the Castañeda project that forms a continuum with Winslow and La Posada - the partnership with
Strousse and Bacharach Building, aka Moonlight Welding, March 2019. (photograph by Elmo Baca)
acclaimed artists James Turrell in Arizona and Charles Ross in New Mexico. Los Angeles based Turrell has been working on a monumental land art project to transform Roden Crater outside Flagstaff into a “massive naked-eye observatory.” New Yorker Ross has toiled for nearly 40 years on his “Star Axis,” a colossal earthen tunnel sit- ed near Las Vegas focused on the celestial mi- gration of Polaris, the north star. Affeldt gushes when he describes the tourism potential of the Fred Harvey railroad experience, Rt. 66 motor- ing and pop culture, and cosmic astro land art.
Indeed, Ross and his artist wife Jill O’Bryan have invested considerable time, thought, ener- gy and resources in their art projects and sum- mer residencies in the Las Vegas area. A recent joint exhibition of Ross and O’Bryan’s works at the Christian Mayeur gallery on the Las Vegas plaza demonstrated the couple’s sensitivity to subtle cosmological and natural forces that can affect the human experience.
As more earthbound and place-oriented proj- ect, Ross is rehabilitating a two-story com- mercial building (former Moonlight Welding) across the street from the Castañeda into an apartment, studio and office spaces. The some- what modest building is typical of commercial railroad buildings built for more industrial and warehousing purposes to serve the flourishing rail business of a century ago.
Only a few doors north of Ross’s building, a Highland Co. construction crew is performing
Rawlins Building, ca. 1900. (photo by Rex Studio, courtesy Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), Neg. No. 070715
Rawlins Building rehabilitation, March 2019. (photograph by Elmo Baca)
major surgery on the Rawlins Building of 1898, owned by Tom and Tina Clayton. Known to locals as the rooming house where the Harvey girls lived, the Rawlins Building is fascinating to architectural historians and preservation buffs as an example of a “Mesker” ornamental sheet metal facade.
After 1890, “Mesker” buildings, so-called for the manufacturer Mesker Bros. of St. Louis, were popular in small Midwestern towns where professional architects were scarce. The molded sheet metal panels, festooned with neoclassi- cal motifs such as columns, garlands, urns and
cornices, could be easily attached to wooden frames on the storefront of a building to pro- duce a handsome effect. With a polychromatic paint finish, the Mesker buildings looked rich and substantial.
In New Mexico, Mesker buildings tended to follow the railroad lines, with a few exceptions. Today however, few are preserved and even less are occupied,
For attorney Tom Clayton and his family, the project has been a life-long dream come true, as the property was deadlocked in family estate complications for decades. On the second floor where the “Harvey girl” rooms were located, a generous skylight floods the central foyer with rays of optimism. A new roof was the first ma- jor challenge the Clayton family faced, and re- painting the Mesker front caused a buzz in the community.
With the Castañeda’s first guest rooms sched- uled to open in April, 2019 in a “soft opening,” and the bar and lounge opening a few weeks later, and the Kin restaurant fully operational in June-July, the excitement is palpable in Las Vegas and elsewhere.
MainStreet de Las Vegas, a downtown revital- ization group, and the City of Las Vegas are also diligently working on critical infrastructure projects. A $150,000 New Mexico Main Street “Great Blocks” grant will fund traffic calming and street beautification improvements. A new directional wayfinding system will help visi- tors navigate Las Vegas’ sometimes confusing street grid. Newly elected New Mexico Gover- nor Michelle Lujan-Grisham and many other state and local elected officials will gather in the Plaza Hotel on April 19 for an “Amtrak Rally” designed to muster support for railroad pas- senger service in New Mexico and the Rocky Mountain West.
The early glow of the rising sun bathes the Las Vegas Railroad District in honeyed tones, and the red brick buildings with white trim sprout from the Meadow town anew each day. These streets ushered in an avalanche of change in the New Mexico Territory 140 years ago, and perhaps a new wave is on its way. Allan Af- feldt is confident of what he sees, ...”this ..(re- naissance)..will help put Las Vegas on the map again as one of the most beautiful and interest- ing places in the Southwest.”
28 | Las Vegas & San Miguel Co. Visitors Guide 2019
Las Vegas RR Depot and rail cars, March 2019. (photograph by Elmo Baca)