Looking a lot like a State Capitol, the Chaves County courthouse is located just off the main strip in downtown Roswell. Chaves County was named for Colonel Jose Francisco Chaves (1833-1904), a military leader here during the Civil War and later in Navajo campaigns. The county was created by the New Mexico Territorial Legislature on February 25, 1889, out of land from Lincoln County. The courthouse was built in 1911 after Roswell's citizens learned that New Mexico would become a state the next year. It is a Beaux-Arts styled building with a cupola atop the courthouse that utilizes green tiles. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 15, 1989. Unfortunately, the building was secured on a weeknight at 6pm when I stopped by, but that did not stop me from admiring the outside and the perfectly mowed grass on the exterior. There is a very nicely done Chaves County Veterans War Memorial in the front next to a granite engraved Ten Commandments. [Review 17447 overall - 60 in New Mexico - 965 of 2022.] read more

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