Mesilla, New Mexico · Founded 1934 · Building: circa 1854–1858; sources conflict
A Fountain-family Mesilla Plaza bar with a reported 1934 start inside an adobe building shaped by a long, contested 1850s history.
El Patio Cantina is an active bar on Mesilla Plaza whose Fountain-family history is generally dated to 1934. It occupies one of Mesilla's older adobe buildings, variously dated circa 1854 or 1858, that sources say has housed Butterfield Overland Mail offices, the Mesilla Times, Sam Bean's Saloon, a blacksmith forge, Albert Fountain's mercantile, and a U.S. post office. The building's long history is real, but its exact construction date and the precise opening year of El Patio remain unresolved.
New Mexico Tourism and New Mexico Magazine date the El Patio adobe building to about 1854, although other local tourism sources date its Butterfield-era history to 1858. The original construction record has not been reviewed.
Source: New Mexico Tourism, "Magic in Mesilla," September 3, 2025; New Mexico Magazine, "23 Must-Visit Saloons and Roadhouses in New Mexico," October 16, 2024
Local tourism histories say the building housed offices associated with the Butterfield Overland Mail beginning in 1858. The exact relationship to the stage route, whether office, station, or depot, remains to be verified through official trail and property records.
Source: Visit Las Cruces, "El Patio Cantina Bar in Old Mesilla"; KLAQ, "Step Back In Time At The Oldest Bar In Las Cruces," November 14, 2023
Later accounts say the building held the Mesilla Times newspaper, Sam Bean's Saloon, a blacksmith forge, and Albert Fountain's mercantile at different times. Exact dates and order of those uses remain unresolved.
Source: New Mexico Tourism, September 3, 2025; New Mexico Magazine, October 16, 2024; Visit Las Cruces, "El Patio Cantina Bar in Old Mesilla"
Local tourism history says the building housed a U.S. post office before El Patio's reported 1930s bar opening.
Source: Visit Las Cruces, "El Patio Cantina Bar in Old Mesilla"; KLAQ, November 14, 2023
New Mexico Tourism, New Mexico Magazine, and Visit Las Cruces date El Patio Cantina's Fountain-family bar operation to 1934. National Park Service material gives 1936, leaving the exact opening year unresolved.
Source: New Mexico Tourism, September 3, 2025; New Mexico Magazine, October 16, 2024; Visit Las Cruces, "El Patio Cantina Bar in Old Mesilla"; National Park Service, "Mesilla Plaza and Mesilla Historic District," July 2, 2020
El Patio Cantina continues to be presented as an active Mesilla Plaza bar operated by Fountain family descendants, with current social accounts and visitor listings advertising drinks, music, and bar service.
Source: New Mexico Tourism, September 3, 2025; Texas State University, "Poet Carrie Fountain Brings Generations of Southwestern ...," January 16, 2026; El Patio Cantina official social accounts, accessed September 1, 2026
Every claim gets rated. A business's own website can never earn "documented."
New Mexico Tourism, New Mexico Magazine, Visit Las Cruces, and a 2026 Fountain-family profile consistently say the bar has been owned or run by Fountain descendants since 1934. That is strong current historical reporting, but county deed, corporate, tax, and liquor-license records were not reviewed to establish the exact legal owners, management chain, or whether there were any brief operating interruptions.
Multiple tourism sources identify El Patio as one of Mesilla's oldest adobe buildings and associate it with Butterfield Overland Mail offices or a stage-route stop. The precise construction year conflicts between circa 1854 and 1858, and this review did not locate an official Butterfield survey, deed, architectural inventory, or historic-district nomination proving the exact use or date.
New Mexico Tourism and a 2026 Texas State University profile identify El Patio as a Fountain-family bar and describe Colonel Albert Jennings Fountain as the ancestral figure linking the family to Mesilla history. The claim concerns descendant-family stewardship, not a claim that the colonel himself owned or founded the 1930s bar.
The reviewed sources say the bar has been run by descendants of Colonel Albert Jennings Fountain since 1934, but they do not identify Albert J. Fountain Jr. as its founder. The candidate's named-founder detail has no support in the reviewed record.
The building’s reported history includes multiple earlier functions, such as Butterfield offices, a newspaper, a blacksmith forge, a mercantile, a post office, and a saloon. The current El Patio bar is dated by sources to 1934 or 1936, not 1858. An old building date does not prove the present bar’s continuous operation.
El Patio Cantina was established in 1858 as a saloon.
The building is associated with multiple mid-nineteenth-century uses, including reported Butterfield Overland Mail offices and a later saloon, but El Patio's own bar history is generally dated to 1934; National Park Service material gives 1936. The building's 1850s history is not the same as the current bar's founding date.
Source: New Mexico Tourism, September 3, 2025; National Park Service, "Mesilla Plaza and Mesilla Historic District," July 2, 2020; Visit Las Cruces, "El Patio Cantina Bar in Old Mesilla"
Albert J. Fountain Jr. founded El Patio Cantina in 1934.
The reviewed sources identify the bar as a Fountain-descendant family operation dating to 1934 but do not name Albert J. Fountain Jr. as founder. The family connection is to Colonel Albert Jennings Fountain, who disappeared in 1896 and therefore could not have founded the 1930s bar.
Source: New Mexico Tourism, September 3, 2025; New Mexico Magazine, October 16, 2024; Texas State University, January 16, 2026
El Patio's building was built specifically as a Butterfield stage station.
The building is widely associated with Butterfield Overland Mail offices or a stage-route stop, but local histories also list a newspaper, saloon, blacksmith forge, mercantile, and post office among its uses. The reviewed evidence does not establish Butterfield service as the original or exclusive building purpose.
Source: New Mexico Tourism, September 3, 2025; New Mexico Magazine, October 16, 2024; Visit Las Cruces, "El Patio Cantina Bar in Old Mesilla"
El Patio survived because the Mesilla Plaza building repeatedly found a new public purpose. Long before it became a family bar, it reportedly served mail-route, newspaper, commercial, postal, and saloon functions that tied it to the life of Old Mesilla. The Fountain descendants turned that accumulated history into a working neighborhood cantina in the 1930s, maintaining local social traditions while adding music, patio service, and late-night bar life. Its strength is not an invented 1858 saloon origin but a layered building story joined to nearly a century of family bar stewardship.
El Patio Cantina's bar history on Mesilla Plaza is generally dated to 1934, when Fountain family descendants began operating the establishment. It occupies a mid-nineteenth-century adobe building with a reported history that includes Butterfield Overland Mail offices, the Mesilla Times, Sam Bean's Saloon, a blacksmith forge, Albert Fountain's mercantile, and a U.S. post office. National Park Service material gives 1936 rather than 1934 for El Patio's start, so the exact bar-opening year remains unresolved.
El Patio Cantina is one of Mesilla's best-known historic bars and has a widely reported Fountain-family bar lineage dating to 1934. This review does not establish it as Mesilla's oldest bar, New Mexico's oldest bar, or the oldest continuously operating family bar on the Plaza because it does not compare all rival businesses or inspect complete liquor-license and operating records. Its building is older than the bar, but building age is not the same as bar continuity.
El Patio's building is widely associated with Butterfield Overland Mail offices or a stage-route stop in the 1850s. The available sources disagree on whether the building dates to circa 1854 or 1858 and do not clarify whether it was a formal station, depot, or local office. The Butterfield connection is credible local history, but its exact operational role needs confirmation from official trail and property records.
Most Mesilla tourism sources date El Patio Cantina's bar history to 1934, while National Park Service material says El Patio Bar has operated at the site since 1936. The best current answer is that the Fountain-family bar began in the mid-1930s, with 1934 the more commonly repeated date. The historic adobe building itself is decades older.
Yes. El Patio Cantina is run by descendants of Colonel Albert Jennings Fountain, a prominent Mesilla lawyer, politician, newspaper editor, and Billy the Kid defense attorney. New Mexico Tourism says Fountain family descendants have operated the bar since 1934. The colonel was not the 1930s founder; he disappeared with his young son in 1896.
2171 Calle de Parian, Mesilla, NM 88046
(575) 526-9943
El Patio is on Mesilla Plaza and current listings describe a full bar with music and late hours. Confirm the day's hours, music schedule, and any holiday closures directly before visiting.