Plaza Hotel (Las Vegas, New Mexico)

Plaza Hotel
Location in New Mexico
General information
Type	Hotel
Town or city	Las Vegas, New Mexico
Country	United States
Coordinates	35°35′35″N 105°13′39″W / 35.593003°N 105.227600°W / 35.593003; -105.227600Coordinates: 35°35′35″N 105°13′39″W / 35.593003°N 105.227600°W / 35.593003; -105.227600
Completed	1882
Website
www.plazahotel-nm.com

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.

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. 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. 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. 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.

By 1882 the town's population had grown to six thousand. The Plaza Hotel was built that year by a group of businessmen led by Don Benigno Romero. The local merchant Carlos Blanchard was among the partners. Construction cost $25,000. The Plaza is a three-story brick building with an Italianate facade. The hotel was grandly decorated, with high-ceilinged guest rooms. The lobby was connected to the second floor by towering twin staircases. The first floor balcony had ornate iron railings, since removed. It was advertised as the finest hotel in the territory. The Plaza was often called the "Belle of the Southwest".

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. 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. 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. By the end of the 1890s Las Vegas rivaled Denver, El Paso and Tucson in importance.