32 Grand Old Railway Hotels Left Vacant Along Forgotten Routes

13. Plaza Hotel (Fred Harvey House), Las Vegas, New Mexico, USA: Frontier Elegance in Stasis

Opened in 1882, the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas, New Mexico (distinct from the Castañeda), was a pivotal grand hotel serving the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. It blended Victorian grandeur with Southwestern charm, welcoming figures from Theodore Roosevelt to Billy the Kid. While the hotel eventually closed and saw periods of vacancy and decline, its significant history as a railway-era hub before later restoration makes it a prime example of a grand establishment tied to a now less-traveled rail line, its empty rooms once echoing with frontier ambition.