Our Town

Las Vegas is nestled at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, or as the locals like to say, where the Rocky Mountains meet the Great Plains.

Located near the heart of a spectacular wilderness area, sweeping forest lands, fascinating historic sites and wonderful national parks, Las Vegas welcomes visitors to this western boomtown to enjoy everything from trout fishing on the Gallinas River to searching for wagon ruts along the Santa Fe Trail.  If you don’t know where it is or how to find it, just ask. Las Vegans have a tradition of hospitality that includes making new friends and welcoming them when they return. Hikers, campers, birders and fishing buffs have a wealth of outdoor fun within easy driving distance. Heritage travelers will revel in the architecture and history oozing from every structure! 


City Highlights                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
Bridge Street Historic District

The link between Las Vegas’ historic Old Town and New Town, Bridge Street is among the city’s most scenic thoroughfares. A walk provides impressive views of century-old commercial buildings constructed in Victorian, Italianate and Panel Brick styles. Bridge Street is home to a revitalized commercial district where locals and visitors enjoy strolling among the galleries, shops, and restaurants. Bridge Street is also home to the Las Vegas Citizens’ Committee for Historic Preservation and the Santa Fe Trail Interpretive Center (CCHP), where walking tour brochures and other information are available.

Old Town Plaza Historic District

Unmatched in its style and unparalleled in its history, the Plaza Historic District is built on the original town site founded as part of a Mexican land grant. The plaza, which originally served as a defensible enclosure and place to park wagons of Santa Fe Trail merchants, was also the site of vigilante gallows when a windmill was erected there in 1876. Today, beautiful examples of grand Victorian architecture and one-story adobe buildings stand side by side on the enduring square surrounding Plaza Park.

Cradled among the trees of Plaza Park is the gazebo, a lovely symbol of days-gone-by and the centerpiece of historic Old Town. From the vintage Plaza Hotel to the Dice Apartments where Brigadier General Stephen Watts Kearny presided over New Mexico’s 1846 transformation to a U.S. territory, the history of the West surrounds this enchanting structure. Summer evenings often bring music to the gazebo with Fridays al Fresco concerts.

Library Park Historic District and Carnegie Library

The first and only surviving Carnegie Library in New Mexico, (and one of only a dozen or so functioning Carnegie Libraries nationwide) this beautiful library was built with a $10,000 donation from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. This prime example of Neo-Classical Revival architecture, resembling Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, occupies one city block bordered by handsome Victorian-style structures. Fans of Western and Southwestern literature should visit the S. Omar and Elsa Barker Reading Room. Carnegie Library is located at Sixth and National. The houses surrounding the Carnegie Library are a lasting tribute to the grand architectural styles of the early 1900s.