This 1860's photo shows a corner of the original Plaza, the last corner to be opened up for a road. Don Miguel Romero and his wife Dona Josepha Delgado de Romero and their children resided here after the family moved here year round, about 1840. Miguel and his five sons, Trinidad, Eugenio, Benigno, Hilario, and Margarito became involved in Trail business by freighting goods between Missouri and New Mexico. Much of this commerce was contracted by the U.S. government to supply western forts. Lynn Perrigo has stated that although the Santa Fe Trail business was started by midwesterners it "soon became to a remarkable extent the enterprise of Las Vegans, notably F.O. Kihlberg, Andres Dold, Charles Blanchard, Francisco Lopez and Miguel Romero and sons."*

Don Miguel was appointed magistrate by General Kearny and later elected probate judge. He led a fascinating life which included helping his friend Don Santiago Montoya rescue his nephews from Navajoes in 1836, and meeting Giovanni Maria Augustini, known as the Hermit, on the Trail and returned with him to Las Vegas. The Romero house had twenty-three rooms that formed a courtyard, or a placita, which had a complete portal decorated with painted flowers and grapes and the "little room" being reserved for storage of imported candies. Although some of the original adobe walls may still exist, with the introduction of N. Gonzales St. and a sequence of remodelings, by the beginning of the twentieth century this locus of the Santa Fe Trail days was lost.

*Lynn Perrigo, Gateway to Glorieta,pg.66