In the 1890s, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway operated a small frame boarding house called the Depot Hotel where passengers could eat during lunch stops in Las Vegas.

[8]The hotel remained mostly vacant for the next 70 years, but it was saved from demolition by a preservation-minded owner, unlike the Alvarado in Albuquerque.

[10] The Castañeda was designed by Pasadena architect Frederick Roehrig and was the first example of Mission Revival architecture in New Mexico,[11] as well as the first Mission-style Harvey house.

The Castañeda is a two-story, U-shaped brick building surrounding a central courtyard that opens onto the railroad tracks.

[4] In its original configuration, the hotel's ground floor contained a 108-seat dining room, 50-seat lunch counter, and a newsstand.

[5] The Castañeda appeared in the 1984 film Red Dawn, in which Las Vegas stood in for the fictional town of Calumet, Colorado, which is invaded by Soviet troops.

It also appeared in the 1994 film Speechless as the location where the main characters, played by Geena Davis and Michael Keaton, first meet.