At the heart of Santa Fe

This past winter's archaeological excavation at the site of the new gazebo on the Plaza unearthed thousands of artifacts, some dating to the 1690s, and renewed our interest in the historic significance of our town plaza and the events that took place there.

The earliest Plaza photos date to 1861, so for information on the area before that we rely on official documents and memoirs for descriptions, but documents before 1680 were destroyed in the Pueblo Revolt.

Despite debate, Santa Fe's founding date as the seat of the Spanish colonial province of New Mexico remains 1610, which coincides with the arrival of the second provincial governor, Pedro de Peralta.

Spain's requirements for provincial communities included proximity to a good water source with fertile land, at least 5 leagues -- 2.6 miles -- from other settlements. Spain's Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand decreed that overseas colonial towns, such as Santa Fe, must be laid out on a grid with streets extending at right angles from a central plaza, which provided open space for military exercises and served as a community center. They recognized the dangers inherent in the cramped, haphazard layouts of medieval towns in Spain such as when residents were trying to escape a fire.

Peralta and his settlers found their site near the Santa Fe River, today a mere trickle -- if that -- along Alameda Street. Each settler was given a town plot on the Plaza and a farming plot south of the river.

The original Plaza extended east as far as the parish church, La Parroquia. Destroyed in the Pueblo Revolt, this church was rebuilt in the early 1700s. It resembled a Moorish castle with crenelated towers as late as 1866, just before Archbishop Jean-Baptiste Lamy had the Romanesque St. Francis Cathedral built over it.

The early Plaza was surrounded by small adobe homes, except for the north side, where the Casas Reales (Royal Houses) contained government and military headquarters, corrals and a chapel. Our Palace of the Governors, the oldest continuously occupied public building in the United States, is the remnant of that vast compound.

During the Pueblo Revolt many buildings surrounding the Plaza were burned when the Spanish fled. The Casas Reales became a multi-storied pueblo, and the Plaza was divided in two parts. After Don Diego de Vargas completed the reconquest in 1693, the eastern half gradually filled in with buildings and the western half became today’s Plaza. Historian Marc Simmons notes that stocks and a gibbet — an L-shaped gallows — were in use on the Plaza until the 1830s.

A map of 1766 shows that Santa Fe had become a decentralized settlement. People had moved out of town to protect their farmlands. Governor Don Juan Bautista de Anza wanted to raze the capital in 1778 and build a compact, defensible town south of the river. Angry citizens appealed to the Spanish commandant in Mexico; otherwise we would not be sitting on this Plaza today.

Minutes of town council meetings during the Mexican period of 1821-1846 describe a city of dusty streets full of garbage, rocks, and holes. Writer Matt Field visited Santa Fe in 1839 and described it as “an assemblage of mole hills.”

In her 1989 essay When Santa Fe Was a Mexican Town, Janet Lecompte comments on the independence of Santa Fe women who could own property and businesses and, after church on Sundays, sold food, whiskey, and dealt cards on the Plaza.

In the 1820s, an eight-foot rock sundial stood in the center of the Plaza, but by 1844 a bull ring was drawing crowds there.

The opening of the Santa Fe Trail in 1821 brought American and immigrant traders to the Plaza. Simmons considers this to be the most important 19th-century event in determining the future of Santa Fe. Opening of trade also brought new ideas, languages and cultures to the city. A granite plaque on the Plaza’s southeast corner honors this historic trail.

The first arrivals sold their goods on the Plaza, but by the 1840s local and foreign merchant families were opening stores. The stories of leading merchant families who made their fortunes on the Plaza are told in the exhibit “Jewish Pioneers of New Mexico” at the Palace of the Governors. Huge wagon trains unloaded on the Plaza until the railroad reached New Mexico in 1879.

Soon after Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny led his army into Santa Fe on Aug. 18, 1846, the American flag was flying on the Plaza, and English-speaking

soldiers were a daily presence. New Mexico became a United States Territory in 1850.

In the 1850s, W. H. Davis, U.S. attorney for New Mexico, described the farmers’ market under the Palace portal where “Pueblo Indians daily offer fine venison, wild turkeys, and now and then the carcass of a large bear.”

An 1866 photo shows a central gazebo just before it was moved to the Plaza’s north side to make room for the Soldiers’ Memorial. By its completion in 1868, a white picket fence surrounded the Plaza and radiating paths separated beds of alfalfa.

The Soldiers’ Memorial honors the heroes of the Federal Army who “fought with rebels,” and fell “in battles with savage Indians.” Repeated protests against these words have led to the installation of a plaque explaining that “the monument texts reflect the character of the times in which they are written. On one side of the monument, the word “savage” has been chipped out — an unauthorized revision done in the 1970s.

No matter how “politically incorrect” the memorial becomes, a 19th-century land survey made it the central reference point from which all city property titles are measured.

Anthropologist Clyde Kluckhohn’s 1927 memoir, To the End of the Rainbow, gives a romantic description of his first night on the Plaza with “Spanish people promenading; beautiful maidens wrapped in mantillas and attended by watchful duennas … everyone speaks Spanish.”

Each side of the Plaza changed many times over the years. Buildings on the east side were homes and government offices through the Mexican Period. They were still only one story tall in 1866 photos.

The second-story windows of the large “Catron Block,” built on the northeast corner in 1891, recall its original Victorian style. Next door, the First National Bank building of 1912 made an imposing statement. Its Neoclassic façade with monumental white Grecian columns is completely hidden today.

After 1850, a Territorial architectural style emerged. Influenced by the eastern Greek Revival style, details included wood casings around windows and doors topped with pediments, square post porches, and brick parapets to stabilize the adobe construction.

Photos of 1866 show one- and two-story Territorial buildings stretched along the Plaza’s west side. They housed businesses, private homes and an early post office.

During the Spanish colonial period of 1598-1821, the military chapel La Castrense was the centerpiece of the Plaza’s south side. By the mid-1800s it was in ruins, and Archbishop Lamy sold the property to raise money for the cathedral. Its carved stone altarpiece can be seen today at Cristo Rey Church on Canyon Road.

By the 1890s, telephone poles lined San Francisco Street and store fronts had diverse architectural styles.

There has been a hotel on the Plaza’s southeast corner for decades. Today, La Fonda stands on the site of the 19th-century Exchange Hotel. Begun in 1919, La Fonda was greatly expanded in 1927 by architect John Gaw Meem, who influenced the look of the buildings surrounding the Plaza into the 1960s.

When the railroad reached the Territory of New Mexico, a mixture of styles evolved employing new building materials, such as stone, sheet tin and kiln-fired brick. Santa Fe was acquiring an eclectic look by the early 1900s, which concerned an influential group of archaeologists, artists, architects and businessmen who were against any building styles they did not consider Southwestern.

Over the years, the Palace of the Governors had undergone many restorations, none more startling than the addition of an ornate balustrade and a porch of square posts, which superimposed a Victorian style on the old “Adobe Palace,” as it was dubbed by the U.S. military in the mid 19th-century.

In 1909, archaeologist Edgar Hewett, newly appointed director of the Museum of New Mexico, asked Jesse L. Nusbaum to supervise the restoration of the Palace as a museum. By 1913, all Victorian traces were gone and the portal was rebuilt in the style visible today.

The renovation of the Palace and the cons truction of the Museum of Fine Arts on the northwest corner of the Plaza in 1917 were the first examples of a regional architectural movement known as Spanish-Pueblo Revival style, which has dominated Santa Fe ever since.

At the time of statehood in 1912, many historic buildings were crumbling. City officials, influenced by a national “City Beautiful” movement, promoted Santa Fe as the “City Different,” and encouraged restorations in Territorial or Spanish-Pueblo Revival styles.

To enforce the “Santa Fe” style, the Historic Zoning Ordinance was passed in 1957, requiring Territorial or Spanish-Pueblo Revival architecture in the historic district. The Historic Design Review Board evaluates any construction or changes to this day.

By the 1960s, the facades of all Plaza buildings had a Territorial or Spanish-Pueblo Revival look. There are Santa Feans who still miss the distinctive features of facades now hidden behind the stucco portals we walk under today.

The last gazebo was moved from the Plaza after 1915. In recent years, performers and speakers have stood on a makeshift platform. This past year, a private group raised money for a permanent gazebo on the north side of the Plaza. Architect Beverley Spears has designed it as a nonintrusive structure of contemporary design with motifs appropriate to its historic site.

The Plaza has been a center of official and social events through the centuries. Residents in their finery have promenaded there. Music has captivated audiences from various bandstands. Indian Market and Spanish Market had their origins on the Plaza. Fiesta events have been held there for years. During World War II, men were inducted into the armed forces in front of the Palace and are honored there on Veterans’ Day. Heads of state have been welcomed here; rallies and protests have begun here.

Today, mountain men, rodeo riders, visitors, locals and pets parade around and lounge on the Plaza as it continues to serve the purposes for which it was designed in 1610.

Quick glance

The Plaza has been a center of official and social events through the centuries. Residents in their finery have promenaded there. Punishments were meted out there. Music has captivated audiences from various bandstands. Indian Market and Spanish Market had their origins on the Plaza. Fiesta events are held there. During World War II, men were inducted into the armed forces in front of the Palace of the Governors and are honored there on Veterans Day. Heads of state have been welcomed here; rallies and protests have begun here.

A new gazebo for the Plaza will be dedicated in July. The last one was removed in 1915.

Suggested reading

Hunner, Jon. Santa Fe, A Historical Walking Tour. Arcadia Publishing, 2000.

Noble, David Grant. Santa Fe, History of an Ancient City. SAR Press, 1989.

Nusbaum, Rosemary. The City Different and The Palace. The Sunstone Press, 1978.

Russell, Marian. Land of Enchantment. Branding Iron Press, 1954.

Sherman, John. Santa Fe, A Pictorial History. Donning Company, 1983, revised 1996.

Simmons, Marc. Yesterday in Santa Fe. Sunstone Press, 1989.