The Las Vegas Plaza is a plaza and historic district in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
,
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...
. The plaza was originally laid out in 1835 by Mexican settlers and is surrounded by a number of historically and architecturally notable buildings. It was listed in the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1974.
History
Las Vegas was established in 1835 after a group of settlers received a land grant from the
Mexican government. The town was laid out in the traditional Spanish Colonial style, with a central plaza surrounded by
adobe
Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...
buildings which could serve as fortifications in case of attack. Las Vegas soon prospered as a stop on the
Santa Fe Trail
The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, th ...
. During the
Mexican–American War
The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...
in 1846,
Stephen W. Kearny delivered an address at the plaza from atop what is thought to be the surviving Dice Apartments building, claiming New Mexico for the United States. In 1854, visiting attorney W. W. H. Davis wrote that the plaza "more resembled a muddy field than a public square, and all sorts of four-footed domestic animals were roaming at large over it."
[ and ]
Las Vegas prospered with the arrival of the railroad in 1880, and many of the one-story adobe buildings surrounding the plaza were replaced by larger and grander structures like the Italianate style
Plaza Hotel and Ilfeld Building. During this period, the plaza itself was cleared of livestock and wagons and converted to a tidy public park with trees, fences, and a bandstand.
Notable buildings
Contributing properties in the Plaza historic district include
[
* Plaza Hotel, built 1880
*Charles Ilfeld Building, built 1882
*Dice Apartments, the oldest surviving building on the plaza
*John D. Veeder Building
*Exchange Hotel, built 1850 (only one wing extant)
*Romero Mercantile Company Building
*First National Bank Building, built 1880
]
See also
*
References
External links
{{Commons category-inline
Las Vegas, New Mexico
National Register of Historic Places in San Miguel County, New Mexico
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico