Old Mesilla
National Register Historic District Around A Colonial Plaza; The Gadsden Purchase Was Formally Proclaimed Here In 1854 And Billy The Kid Was Tried And Sentenced To Hang In The Building On The Plaza Corner · Mesilla, New Mexico
Mesilla was laid out in 1848 on what was then the Mexican side of the new border, by families who did not want to become American after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Six years later the Gadsden Purchase moved the border again and the flag was raised on this plaza in 1854, which made them Americans anyway without their moving an inch. The square has been the centre of the village ever since: San Albino on the north side, adobe blocks with deep portals on the other three, and a courthouse on the southeast corner where Billy the Kid was tried and sentenced to hang in 1881 - it is a gift shop now, which is very Mesilla. The Butterfield stage came through here and so did the Confederate army, which held the town as the capital of Confederate Arizona for a few months in 1862. It is two miles from Las Cruces and entirely unlike it: a village of about two thousand people with a working parish church, a 1905 cinema still showing films, and some of the best food in southern New Mexico around one small square.
2231 Avenida de Mesilla, Mesilla, Mesilla, New Mexico, 88046, United States
The plaza and the surrounding streets are public and open at all hours, free. The shops and galleries around the square generally open late morning and close in the late afternoon, with longer hours at weekends and several closed on Mondays. San Albino Basilica is a working parish church with daily Mass and closes to sightseers during services. The Mesilla farmers and crafts market runs on the plaza on published days.