The Plaza - Santa Fe, NM - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

pgs. 192-193 -- New Mexico: Guide to the Colorful State, 1940

THE PLAZA, bounded by Palace Ave. on the N., San Francisco St. on the S., Washington Ave. on the E., and Lincoln Ave. on the w., is the center of town, and from it most of the streets radiate. It is a peaceful old square, with trim flagstones, walks, and benches, and pleasant arching trees. In Spanish times it was much larger and included the whole block now occupied by the post office and the buildings along the east side; it was then unpaved, a lake of dust in dry times, a sea of mud in wet; it was the market place for the produce of the Rio Grande Valley, sold by Indians and Spaniards. When the Americans came, they enclosed it in a white picket fence, planted it to alfalfa, reduced it to its present size, and built two spindly columns on the three sides confronting the Palace. It was at the Plaza that the wagon trains ended their strenuous journeys over the Santa Fe Trail, and here the ox-drivers, cowboys, and gamblers caroused in and out of the eight saloons that at one time graced the square; here criminals were locked in stocks or flogged in public view; here Billy the Kid once sat in chains. Today, except for the Palace, the Plaza is surrounded by an old assortment of buildings; some ugly remnants of the early railroad days which now house business establishments; others, more recent, built in the more indigenous Pueblo and Spanish styles.

Book: New Mexico Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 192-193 Year Originally Published: 1940

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