Residences of Las Vegas: A Driving Tour

For the pedestrian or motorcar passenger, Las Vegas, New Mexico provides an architectural experience perhaps unparalleled in the Great American Southwest.

Of particular architectural quality and interest are the residences of Las Vegas, which collectively are virtually an "outdoor" living museum of architectural history in New Mexico. From the indigenous, earthen adobe architecture of New Mexico to the glamorous, machine-age International Style, Las Vegas boasts excellent examples of nearly every important architectural residential style found in America between 1840 and 1940. Many of these houses are in pristine condition, some unmodified for over 100 years.

Las Vegas continues to fascinate architecture buffs not only for the quality and variety of its architecture, but for its unique aspects of city planning. Founded in 1835, the Old Town Plaza was laid out according to traditional Spanish-Mexican colonial prototypes. The large, rectangular plaza, with streets emanating from its corners, is probably the best preserved in New Mexico. The plaza was established here on high ground above the Gallinas River for irrigation purposes; what is now Bridge Street (and adjacent fields) was used by pioneers to grow crops. Streets in Old Town radiate from the plaza like spokes of a wheel; they followed natural, organic features of the land such as arroyos, ditches, and cow trails. Since Tom Mix began making some of the first "Westerns" here about 1915 more than one Hollywood film maker has been enchanted by the Old World Hispanic quality of Old Town and its surrounding neighborhoods.

In sharp contrast, on the east side of the Gallinas River lies another Las Vegas, a refined example of Eastern United States turn-of-the-century urban planning sensibilities. (For nearly ninety years, from 1882 to 1970, Las Vegas was in fact two separate communities: the City of East Las Vegas, and the Town of West Las Vegas.) Upon the arrival of the Atchikson, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad in 1879, a logical grid-plan of streets and parks was designed for the new boom town on the east side of the Gallinas River. The new residents of a rapidly-expanding Las Vegas included a high percentage of European immigrants and Jewish merchant families who came West seeking economic opportunity.

As the shipping terminus for a large area which at one time included nearly all of New Mexico, Las Vegas became one of the largest towns in the Rocky Mountain region. (The census of 1900 shows Las Vegas as the largest city in New Mexico.)

The prosperous new citizens of Las Vegas yearned for the prestige and stability symbolized by brick and stone houses. As their fortunes grew, they seemingly outdid each other by building ever larger, more elaborate Victorian mansions. At the same time, in the 1890's, the City Beautiful movement encouraged cities throughout the country to build wide, tree lined boulevards and parks to provide civilized landscaping in urban settings. Las Vegas city fathers imported large lots of elms, maples, and elder trees near the turn of the century which today give parts of Las Vegas a "Midwestern" appearance. Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Street residential neighborhoods represent excellent examples of City Beautiful ideals.

Thus, the residences and town planning of Las Vegas literally preserve in brick, stone, and wood the tremendous encounter of two cultures and architectural values; the Spanish- influenced, indigenous New Mexican style, and the high style of Victorian and early Twentieth Century America. It is evident from a brief tour of Las Vegas that both cultural and architectural traditions remain as strong and vital today as they were on July 4, 1879, when the steaming, black Baldwin locomotive of the A T & F railroad first linked the sleepy plaza of Las Vegas with her economic destiny east of the Mississippi River.

The following buildings are on this tour:

• The Ludwig Ilfeld House, 1007 Eighth Street; Built ca. 1899
  
• The Jake Stearn House, 1027 Eighth Street; Built ca. 1900-02
  
• The Arthur Ilfeld House, 1053 Eighth Street; Built ca. 1908-13
  
• F. J. Gehring House, 1103 Eighth Street; Built ca. 1899
  
• The Johnsen House, 1523 Eighth Street; Built ca. 1920
  
• The M. M. Sundt House, 1607 Eighth Street; Built ca. 1910
  
• The Edward Durell Stone House, 1710 Eighth Street; Built 1938
  
• Chief Justice William J. Mills House, 1103 Seventh Street; Built ca. 1989-99
  
• 1108 Seventh Avenue; Built ca. 1910
  
• The Harold Raynolds House, 1037 Seventh Street; Built ca. 1902-08
  
• Milton Taichert House, 1036 Seventh Street; Built 1902-08
  
• The Herman Ilfeld House, 1029 Seventh Street; Built 1902-08
  
• The Harris House, 1023 Seventh Street; Built ca. 1900
  
• 2004 North Gonzales Street; Built ca. 1890 (1/2 block east of N. Gonzales)
  
• The Jack Johnson House, 2008 North Gonzales Street; Built ca. 1870
  
• The Benigno Romero House, 2003 Hot summers Boulevard; Built 1874
  
• The Vicente Silva House, 225 Moreno Street; Built ca. 1880
  
• 1311 South Gonzales Street; built ca. 1880
  
• The Lorenzo Valdez House, 1111 South Pacific Street; Built ca. 1870
  
• The Rheua Pearce House, 1208-16 South Pacific Street; Built ca. 1846
  
• 1305 South Pacific Street, Built ca. 1870
  
• The O. A. Larrazolo House, 1321 South Pacific; Built ca. 1880
  
• The Casa Redonda (the round house), 1409 South Pacific Street; Built ca. 1870
  
• The Fransico Lopez House, 1402-10 South Pacific Street; Built ca. 1870

CREDITS

The text is by Elmo Baca with reference to the work of Lynn Perrigo, Ellen Threinen and Chris Wilson. This brochure is a project of the Citizens' Committee for Historic Preservation with funds provided by the City of Las Vegas, and the New Mexico State Historic Preservation Division (Certified Local Government Program).