The first Montezuma Hotel Photo Courtesy of Museum of N.M. # 14713

55. Montezuma Hotel

Montezuma, NM

1882-1884

The first Montezuma Hotel was built by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad for $150,000 in 1882. It was the largest wood frame building in the country at the time. The architect for this Queen Anne style hotel of four stories was John Wellborn Root, of Chicago. The hotel included 270 rooms, a 500-person dining room, bowling alleys, a billiard hall, card rooms, a wine cellar, and a casino, with the fifth floor cupola reserved for the gentlemen's clubhouse. The grounds included an archery range, croquet and tennis courts. The 500-person capacity bathhouse included six kinds of baths: medicated, vapor box, tub and pack, shampoo, ring douche, and spray and shower. Many prominent visitors, such as the Marquis of Lorne, the Duke of Rutland and Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria, were attracted to stay at this "Saratoga of the West." The Montezuma's manager was the famous Frederick Henry Harvey, whose specialty was exotic foods, such as green turtles and sea celery. Harvey once responded to some cowboys who were shooting up the billiard room, "My name is Fred Harvey. I am running this place and I will not have any rowdies here if you don't behave like gentlemen you can't stay here and you can't come again. Now darn you, put up your guns and take a drink with Fred Harvey."* The Montezuma burned down on January 18, 1884. *Wesley Poling-Kempes,Harvey Girls. pg. 154

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