View of the Historic District, c. 1890-1900. Photo Credit: Photographer unknown. Courtesy of the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DC. Neg.#009395)
Enjoy a two-hours walking tour of the Mesquite Street and the Original Townsite National Register Historic District in Las Cruces. As you walk you will learn about the settlement and early history of Las Cruces.
In the spring of 1849 Lt. Delos Bennett Sackett arrived to lay out the new town, at the request of Pablo Melendrez, acalde of the Dona Ana Bend Colony Land Grant. He found 120 eager settlers camped in brush shelters on land that later became the heart of Las Cruces. The Lieutenant and his men, using a rawhide rope, marked off the city’s new streets. When the men finished, they gathered under a big cottonwood near what is now Griggs Street and set up for drawing of lots. The heads of families drew lots from a hat to determine which property each family would own.
The original town was thirteen blocks long by six blocks wide, laid out in an American-style grid. The first blocks settled included Water Street, named for its proximity to the acequia, Main Street, Church Street, and Campo Street. In the first years Las Cruces was mainly a one-story town. Its dusty streets were lined with adobe houses, courtyards and corrals.
The Las Cruces of 1849 is still evident today in the Mesquite Street Historic District. Meet at the intersection of Griggs and San Pedro in the southwest corner of Klein Park (MAP). Your tour leader is historian Mary-Kay Shannon.
More information about the historic district can be found HERE.
Above: the original St. Genevieve Church torn down early 1970s after portions had been condemned by the state as unsafe. Happened the same time as "Urban Renewal" which created the "downtown mall". Many locals to this day believe the church was razed by the renewal program. It wasn't, timing was coincidental.
Site is remembered by ghost structure on Main Street (below).
