You can tell that the La Castaneda Hotel was something amazing around the turn of the century. Today, it has been vacant for at least 5 decades, but its allure and grandness are still apparent.
Blasterz have hoped that someone would rescue this amazing property in a dusty NM town, and now it seems our hopes have been answered.
From the Arizona Republic: (
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"Arizona hotel owner will renovate historic New Mexico property
Peter Corbett, The Republic
10:44 a.m. MST April 22, 2014
A northern Arizona hotelier, who restored La Posada in Winslow, has purchased a century-old railroad hotel in Las Vegas, N.M.
Allan Affeldt said Monday he bought the 25,000-square-foot La Castaneda earlier this month for $400,000.
The mission revival hotel, completed in 1898, was one of the first of the Harvey Houses, Fred Harvey's chain of hotels and restaurants that furthered tourism development in the Southwest.
La Castaneda in 1899 hosted the first reunion of Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders from the Spanish-American War.
"The town has been waiting for this for decades," Affeldt said. "After World War II, Fred Harvey closed most of their buildings and they were sold off or torn down."
Las Vegas leaders have long feared La Castaneda would be torn down but Affeldt stepped in just as he did at La Posada, a 1930 Harvey House that had an uncertain future two decades ago.
With his wife, artist Tina Mion, Affeldt bought La Posada in 1997 and together they transformed it into a tourism and cultural attraction with an acclaimed fine-dining restaurant and a wealth of historical artifacts.
The deal to buy La Casteneda closed two weeks ago and Affeldt said work crews have been busy cleaning up the property, fixing windows and tearing out old radiators.
New Mexico Gov. Susanna Martinez visited La Castaneda April 15 to promote its planned restoration as part of efforts to revive Las Vegas' historic district.
"This is the biggest thing that's happened in Las Vegas for years and years," said Cindy Collins, executive director of Main Street de Las Vegas, a nonprofit historic preservation and community development group.
The hotel has been closed since 1948 but a bar has operated out of the building on Railroad Avenue, near a restored depot.
Las Vegas, with about 14,000 residents, has more than 900 historic buildings, Collins said.
The Main Street group and others had worked for well over a decade to try to find a buyer for La Castaneda.
"The Harvey House coming back to life is bringing back pride to our town and jobs are already being created," she said.
In addition to construction work, La Castaneda will employ 25 to 30 workers depending on how big of a restaurant and bar operation it has, Affeldt said. La Posada has close to 60 employees.
La Castaneda, designed by Frederick Roehrig, had about 45 rooms, small by today's standards, so they will be combined into about 25 suites.
Affeldt figures it will cost about $3 million to restore the property, which is more than the cost of building a new hotel of a similar size.
The plan, just as with La Posada, is to open some of the rooms next year at La Castaneda and then continue with the restoration, Affeldt said.
La Posada, a much larger hotel, cost well over $12 million to renovate, he said. The latest renovation project is turning the former Winslow train depot, next to La Posada, into an art gallery.
Both La Posada and La Castaneda are very solid buildings that were well engineered, Affeldt said.
The Las Vegas hotel is a brick building on a stone foundation with a metal roof, stamped tin ceilings and actual steel rails used for trusses, he said.
"It's going to be a lot of work, but that's what's fun, making the space sing," Affeldt said.
One advantage of owning the two hotels is that Affeldt can step out of La Posada where he lives and ride the Amtrak about 400 miles to La Castaneda."