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Hotel in New Mexico, United States From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Plaza Hotel is a hotel in Las Vegas, New Mexico. It was opened as an upmarket hotel for the booming town in 1882. Since then it has had a complex history. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing property in the Las Vegas Plaza historic district.
Plaza Hotel | |
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General information | |
Type | Hotel |
Town or city | Las Vegas, New Mexico |
Country | United States |
Coordinates | 35.593003°N 105.227600°W |
Completed | 1882 |
Website | |
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References | |
Plaza Hotel | |
Part of | Las Vegas Plaza (ID74001202) |
MPS | Las Vegas New Mexico MRA (AD) |
Designated CP | December 16, 1974 |
The Plaza Hotel is on the north side of the old town plaza in Las Vegas, originally an area where wagons were parked. The town was founded in the 1830s.[1] During the Mexican–American War, in 1846 Stephen W. Kearny gave a speech on the plaza where he proclaimed that New Mexico was part of the United States. The town remained relatively small and quiet for many years.[1] This changed when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway reached the town in 1879, with a station 1 mile (1.6 km) to the east of the plaza.[2] In 1880, after a campaign by the local newspaper, The Las Vegas Optic, a public subscription was raised to convert the plaza into a park. Trees were planted, a bandstand was built and the plaza surrounded by a picket fence.[3]
By 1882 the town's population had grown to six thousand.[2] The Plaza Hotel was built that year by a group of businessmen led by Don Benigno Romero.[3] The local merchant Carlos Blanchard was among the partners.[4] Construction cost $25,000.[5] The Plaza is a three-story brick building with an Italianate facade.[3] The hotel was grandly decorated, with high-ceilinged guest rooms. The lobby was connected to the second floor by towering twin staircases.[6] The first floor balcony had ornate iron railings, since removed.[7] It was advertised as the finest hotel in the territory.[8] The Plaza was often called the "Belle of the Southwest".[3]
In 1883 Charles Ilfeld opened his Great Emporium, a three-story department store, next door to the hotel. The plaza was the commercial center of the region for the next thirty years.[2] In 1885 the former outlaw Dick Liddil (1852–1901) sold his saloon in West Las Vegas and leased the Plaza Hotel's bar and billiard room. [9] The Plaza was the leading hotel in Las Vegas until the late 1890s, when Santa Fe Railroad built the luxurious La Castañeda, which was operated by Fred Harvey as part of the Harvey House chain.[10] By the end of the 1890s Las Vegas rivaled Denver, El Paso and Tucson in importance.[2]
The dry climate of Las Vegas began to attract invalids suffering from pulmonary ailments, particularly tuberculosis, for which no other cure was known. By the 1890s many of the guests at the Plaza were convalescent victims of tuberculosis.[11] The One Lung Club was organized at the hotel in the 1890s to provide social activities for the invalids that did not require exertion.[12] The first reunion of Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders was held at the Plaza Hotel in 1899.[3] Roosevelt stayed at the hotel twice, and announced his presidential candidacy from Las Vegas.[6]
The hotel was used in many cowboy films, including Tom Mix westerns.[3] From 1913 to 1915 the silent film director and actor Romaine Fielding leased the entire hotel, and renamed it the Hotel Romaine. It is still possible to see traces of that name on the brick facade.[13] The first film than Fielding made in Las Vegas was The Rattlesnake, a story about two rivals in love. Four more shorts were made within the next month. His five-reel thriller The Golden God employed about 5,000 local extras and featured a cavalry and artillery charge through the streets of the old town.[14] The print for the film was lost in a fire, and there are no surviving copies.[15]
Mrs. Lucy Lopez, known as Mama Lucy to her friends, ran the Plaza Hotel Restaurant and Bar for fourteen years with her husband.[16] They rented part of the hotel as a dormitory for New Mexico Highlands University students and sold meal tickets for the restaurant as an alternative to the university cafeteria. Daily lunch and dinner cost $30 a month. Students who were short of money could make a special arrangement in exchange for helping out.[16][lower-alpha 1]
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