[1] During the Mexican–American War, in 1846 Stephen W. Kearny gave a speech on the plaza where he proclaimed that New Mexico was part of the United States.

[1] This changed when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway reached the town in 1879, with a station 1 mile (1.6 km) to the east of the plaza.

[2] In 1880, after a campaign by the local newspaper, The Las Vegas Optic, a public subscription was raised to convert the plaza into a park.

[2] In 1885 the former outlaw Dick Liddil (1852–1901) sold his saloon in West Las Vegas and leased the Plaza Hotel's bar and billiard room.

[2] The dry climate of Las Vegas began to attract invalids suffering from pulmonary ailments, particularly tuberculosis, for which no other cure was known.

[11] The One Lung Club was organized at the hotel in the 1890s to provide social activities for the invalids that did not require exertion.

His five-reel thriller The Golden God employed about 5,000 local extras and featured a cavalry and artillery charge through the streets of the old town.

[8] The adjoining building was purchased later, adding another thirty five rooms and 3,100 square feet (290 m2) of space for meetings and banquets.

[13] The rooms in the new Ilfeld section are more modern than in the older part of the hotel which holds its comfy luster.

[21] In March 2014 it was reported that the entrepreneur Allan Affeldt was investigating purchase of the hotel from the Valley National Bank in Española, which held an outstanding $3.7 million note on the property.