1954 - Old and New

For all the emphasis on history and tradition, the City is always ready to try something new.

Take the Plaza in 1954, for example. That year the Kiwanis Club asked the City to build a bandstand, reviewing stand and a public comfort station on the plaza. It would cost about $12,000 and the Kiwanis offered to pitch in on the funds. As well, the Club asked for a better display space for the ship's bell from the USS New Mexico with some informative bronze plaques. At the time, the ship's bell was installed on the northwest quadrant of the Plaza, mounted on a concrete platform perfect for sitting and people watching. While the City Councilors were interested in the ideas, nothing ultimately came of them.

The City had already begun to beautify the Plaza by installing an iron fence and gates around the Soldier's Monument. That was Henry Dendahl's idea. He got the fence from the old Manderfield estate and the gates from the Staab house, plus donations of labor and materials from Plaza merchants. Dendahl planned an annual painting of the fence with a free lunch at the Canton Cafe for all the volunteers.

The big news on the Plaza was the work on the ancient Palace of the Governors. Workmen put up scaffolding right on Palace Avenue and, to howls of protest from Santa Feans, began removing the ends of the vigas which protruded from the portal. Turns out the vigas had rotted at the ends and were leaking rain water under the roof. New dummy viga ends would be installed so the Palace would look the same. Around the corner on the Lincoln Avenue side, the old adobe bricks over the gate – the one with the blue door – to the patio were giving way so they were replaced – with pumice block. Fake vigas and pumice block . . . I don't think I'll ever look at the Palace of the Governors the same way again.

1954 is the year that the First National Bank – originally located on the east side of the Plaza, picked up and moved to the west side of the Plaza, taking over the space that used to be – well, pretty much everything – the New Mexican printing plant, a movie theater, a Buick dealership and, coming full circle, the original site of the First National Bank when it first opened in 1871 – right on the corner of Lincoln and Palace where it stands today. That was quite an undertaking but the Plaza was only roped off for one day – the day the money and safe deposit boxes were moved. Levine's moved into the Bank's old space – a beautiful example of Greek Revival archictecture first built in 1912. In 1957, under the guidance of John Gaw Meem, Levines remodeled the building to conform to the prevailing Santa Fe style, trading gothic colums for classic wooden posts.

Around the corner from the Plaza, in Cathedral Park, the Archbishop's old house was torn down, condemned as a firetrap. It was an elegant old territorial structure with a full portal and balcony running the length of the house facing Cathedral Park. At one time, it served as the City's first St. Vincent Hospital, beginning in 1865, and later as an old folks home.

In 1954, La Fonda removed thefountain and pool in the patio, replacing it with flagstone to accommodate the Indian dances it featured every summer. Santa Feans were sad to see that fountain go. Across the street, the Camera Shop installed a drinking fountain, but it just wasn't the same.

Still on San Francisco Street, Evan Wilson opened a new cafeteria and soda fountain, called El Refresco, on the northeast corner of Burro Alley. It was right across the alley from Wilson's old popcorn stand in the Lensic Theater Building. That's where he got the nickname, Popcorn Wilson. Oddly, the new place served only ice cream and malts – no popcorn.

And 1954 is the year the St. Francis Cathedral rectory was remodeled. Old timers remember the old peaked roof and huge concrete steps leading up to the high front door. The remodeling removed the roof, created a new lower street side entrance and made the building more Santa Fe style. It was used, in 1954, as office space for the Archbishop and pastor and included a vault where parish valuables were kept.

Up Washington Avenue, a row of 7 large elm trees in front of the Scottish Rite Temple was removed leaving the street pretty bare. Those trees had been planted in 1912 but elm disease was killing them and they'd been breaking up the sidewalks for years. The Temple reported plans to replant using blue spruces. Around this same time, Washington Street was closed off for several days in the summer of 1954 so the phone company could lay underground cables.

The biggest building project in 1954 was the city's first municipal swimming pool. Most of the city's civic organizations, chiefly the Optimists, organized a drive for the pool, raising enough money to buy a large piece of the Penitentiary land – part of the old dairy farm -- which they promptly donated to the City which planned to build the pool facility with a cigarette tax revenues. While the formal name of the pool facility was the Santa Fe Municipal Swimming pool, Santa Fe kids invariably called it the “munici-pool.” These days the pool bears a new name in honor of legendary coach Salvador Perez.

Another piece of Santa Fe history disappeared in 1954. The Gross Kelly Company – a Santa Fe institution since 1879 – was sold to a Texas company. Dan Kelly, Jr., in his first year as president and chairman of the board – just like his father and grandfather were – confirmed the sale. The business continued the distribution of New Mexico products as before with most of the Gross Kelly staff still in place, but the name --- Gross Kelly & Company – was retired.

In 1954, the second oldest Spanish fort in the nation was discovered in Santa Fe. Or better said, re-discovered. Old timers in the city still remembered the fortification known as La Garita – Spanish for bastion or jail – located on a small rise north of Santa Fe, more or less midway between Fort Marcy Hill and the Scottish Rite Temple.

Historians say that it once was used by the Spaniards to hold political prisoners, a few of which were executed by firing squad against a nearby wall. But it had fallen into disuse by the time the Yankees arrived and, over time, began to deteriorate. By 1900, it had lost its roof. Kids played on it, treasure hunters dug around in it and, in the early 50's, it was actually used as a dump site. There exists an old faded photo, taken in 1912, which still shows one wall standing, perhaps the very wall used for executions.

But in 1954, Bruce Ellis, an archaeologist who lived just 50 feet from the site on Washington Avenue, became interested in the site and, with funding from the NM Historical Society, began to poke explore the ruins.

By the end of the summer, Ellis and his crew had uncovered the foundations, revealing the ancient floor plan. It was roughly in the shape of a diamond with 2 bastion towers at the long ends, with a center hall and rooms and jail cells on either side, all enclosed within 3 foot thick adobe walls. La Garita, Ellis said was probably built shortly after completion of the Palace of the Governors and that was built sometime before 1680.

That's typical Santa Fe, history right in your own back yard.