Funeral of Dolores Sandoval de Baca, 1878 Photo Courtesy of Lucy Lucero

8. Blanchard & Co. Building

N corner Plaza & Bridge

ca. l864-1918

Michele DesMerais, a French-Canadian, a resident of Las Vegas in 1852 persuaded his friend Charles Blanchard from St. Mark, Quebec to join him. Charles had read with great interest books about the adventuresome West. In 1864, he, with his ox-team, joined Michel and many other French Canadian trappers and traders who made Las Vegas home, such as St. Vrain, Pendaries, Labadie, Geoffrion, and Bernard. Like many of his fellow countrymen he married a local woman, Estella Romero. He established his territorial style general merchandise store where the Santa Fe Trail entered the Plaza, probably replacing a previous building. Charles became an important freighter on the Trail, enduring the many hardships of the vocation. In 1868, Cheyennes left him and his crew stranded, which lead to a fifty mile walk to Dodge City. In July, 1879 a telephone line between his residence on Chavez St. to his store was the first in the Territory of New Mexico. Judge Blanchard's store was redesigned ca. l 890, being replaced by the present Romero Block in 1919.

Click Here for Tour Main Page