Frederick Carter "The Old Amador Hotel circa 1873" Signed Print, Las Cruces

A reproduction of Frederick Carter's painting The Old Amador Hotel circa 1873, depicting the historic Las Cruces landmark in Carter's signature loose, gestural style — saturated ochres and earth tones against a turquoise sky, the building's facade rendered in mustard yellow with green shutters, a Concord stagecoach pulled up at the entrance and figures in period dress gathered at the columned portico. The print carries a plate signature lower right and the title printed beneath the image on cream paper stock.

Over a century ago, the Amador opened its doors as a rooming house for bone-weary teamsters and travelers on Don Martin Amador's freight routes. Since those early 1850s days, the building served a growing Las Cruces as its first post office, court, jail, theater, fortress, and hotel. Through each transition, it retained a fascinating mixture of the old and the new — collecting stories and traditions and preserving them within its walls.

The hotel lobby was an enchanting record of four centuries. A Bengal tiger skin from India shared the spotlight with a hand-carved Buddhist shrine from China. A life-sized figure of Mexican matador Miguel Lopez — dressed in the cape and suit he wore when killed in an Oaxaca bullring, blood stains said to still be visible on the inside lining of the cape — still stands in the bank today. During the Civil War, the Amador was the main social center for Las Cruces and the surrounding area; cavalry officers from nearby Fort Selden and Fort Fillmore crowded the lobby Saturday nights for the stately dances held there. In 1885, Don Martin built a stage at the north end of the lobby to accommodate theatrical performances — for decades, the only entertainment center between El Paso and the gold towns farther west. Don Martin served much of his life as a probate magistrate and was often the only law across a vast area; the hotel at one point functioned as both court and jail, and once held Billy the Kid.

After World War II, the Amador's reputation spread internationally, and guests known to register for a night would end up staying for years. During the 1950s and early 1960s, it became a haven for artists and writers, much of whose work — created in the hotel lobby — remains behind today. When Citizens Bank of Las Cruces took occupancy, the directors preserved two rooms flanking the entrance as a museum housing many of the building's irreplaceable relics. The second-floor rooms still carry the family names Corina Amador assigned in the 1930s, replacing numbers with the names of family members and friends. While other landmarks of the past continue to fall to progress, the Amador — with each new identity it assumes — has served as a sign of that progress.

CONDITION

Good with no remarkable damage. Colors remain bright and the paper is clean overall. Unframed.

DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS

• Overall Sheet: 11.5" × 20"
• Visible Image: 10.5" × 14"
• Artist: Frederick Carter
• Title: The Old Amador Hotel circa 1873
• Signature: Signed in the plate, lower right
• Issued: Commemorative print, Citizens Bank of Las Cruces opening, April 5, 1970
• Format: Unframed print on cream paper stock