Palace of the Governors

Every government that ever claimed New Mexico ran it from this building. Spanish colonial administrators, Mexican governors, U.S. territorial officials — the Palace of the Governors absorbed them all, starting in 1610, making it the oldest public building in continuous use constructed by European settlers in the continental United States. Territorial Governor Lew Wallace finished *Ben-Hur* here in the late 1870s, writing at night while the Lincoln County War burned outside. The building is still open, still adobe, still on the Plaza.