Perhaps no one else better represents the "heart and soul" of Old Town Las Vegas than the Romero family. While facing conflict and tradgedy, they maintained a charitable community attitude. Margarito having been a freighter on the Santa Fe Trail with his family, later established his own general merchandise store on the Plaza.
Early in the railroad era and the creation of New Town, he fought against the establishment of a unified Las Vegas. At first he fought against many local interests in his pursuit to legitimize his Land Grant claims, yet later he virtually single-handedly supported West Las Vegas's interests in numerous Land Grant court battles. He became the first Mayor of the Town of Las Vegas, after its' reincorporation in 1903, although in the same year he was arrested for timber cutting in the Gallinas Canyon. The Romero's were by all accounts very generous people, including sponsoring annual Christmas parties for needy children that had hundreds in attendance. At Don Margarito's funeral in 1917 a very large crowd came to give tribute.
After the establishment of Brown and Hill's Brickyard in 1898 many homes in Las Vegas were built of brick, such as this inspired mixture of Mission and Greek revival architectural styles. Below is an advertisement using the head of Margarito Romero.
