Santa Fe is the capital of the state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of Santa Fe County. Santa Fe (literally ‘holy faith’ in Spanish) has a population of 72,000. San Miguel Chapel in Santa Fe is said to be the oldest standing church structure in the US. The adobe walls were constructed around 1610 when the city of Santa Fe was founded. Foundations of the first church remain observable under the sanctuary of the present structure. Archaeological investigations beneath these foundations reveal evidence of Native American occupation of the site as early and 1300.The San Miguel Mission Chapel, often known as the oldest church in the country, is the key site to the Barrio de Analco. Santa Fe is a Beautiful Place For Vacations.This National Landmark barrio was founded by a group of Mexican Indians from Tlaxcala. The adobe church was constructed under the direction Franciscan friars to serve a small congregation of soldiers, laborers and Indians who lived in the Analco Barrio. It was partially destroyed during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. By the early 18th century San Miguel had become one of the principal ecclesiastical buildings in the provincial capital. The present building dates from 1710, although it has undergone significant structural changes
Santa Fe and the United States
In 1841, a small military and trading expedition set out from Austin, Texas, with the aim of gaining control over the Santa Fe Trail. Known as the Santa Fe Expedition the force was poorly prepared and was easily repelled by the Mexican army. In 1846, the United States declared war on Mexico, and General Kearny led a troop of US Cavalry into the city to claim it and the whole New Mexico Territory for the United States. By 1848 it officially gained New Mexico through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.Colonel Alexander William Doniphan under the command of Kearny recovered ammunition from Santa Fe labeled “Spain 1776” showing both the quality of communication and military support New Mexico received under Mexican rule, or that it was a peaceful city until Anglo Americans arrived.
In 1851, Jean Baptiste Lamy arrived in Santa Fe and began construction of Saint Francis Cathedral. For a few days in March 1863, the Confederate flag of General Henry Sibley flew over Santa Fe, until he was defeated by Union troops.Santa Fe was originally envisioned as an important stop on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. But as the tracks progressed into New Mexico, the civil engineers decided that it was more practical to go through Lamy, a town in Santa Fe County to the south of Santa Fe. The result was a gradual economic decline. This was reversed in part through the creation of a number of resources for the arts and archaeology, notably the School of American Research, created in 1907 under the leadership of the prominent archaeologist Edgar Lee Hewett. The first airplane to fly over Santa Fe was piloted by Rose Dugan, carrying Vera von Blumenthal as passenger. Together they started the development of the Pueblo Indian pottery industry, a major contribution to the founding of the annual Santa Fe Indian Market.In 1912, New Mexico became the country’s 47th state, with Santa Fe as its capital.
Santa Fe – “The City Different”
The Spanish laid out the city according to the “Laws of the Indies”, town planning rules and ordinances which had been established in 1573 by King Phillip II. The fundamental principle was that the town be laid out around a central plaza. On its north side was the Palace of the Governors, while on the East was the church that later became the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi.An important style implemented in planning the city was the radiating grid of streets centering from the central Plaza. Many were narrow and included small alley-ways, but each gradually merged into the more casual byways of the agricultural perimeter areas. As the city grew throughout the 19th century, the building styles evolved, too, so that by Statehood in 1912, the eclectic nature of the buildings caused it to look like “Anywhere USA”. The city government realized that the economic decline, which had started more than twenty years before with the railway moving west and the Federal government closing down Fort Marcy, might be reversed by the promotion of tourism.
After 1912 this style became official: all buildings were to be built using these elements. By 1930 there was a broadening to include the ?Territorial?, a style of the pre-statehood period which included the addition of portals and white-painted window and door pediments. The City had become ‘Different’. However, in the rush to pueblo-fy Santa Fe, the city lost a great deal of its architectural history and eclecticism. Among the architects most closely associated with this new style is John Gaw Meem vacation planning. By an ordinance passed in 1958, new and rebuilt buildings, especially those in designated historic districts, must exhibit a Spanish Territorial or Pueblo style of architecture, with flat roofs and other features suggestive of the area’s traditional adobe construction. However, many contemporary houses in the city are built from lumber, concrete blocks, and other common building materials, but with stucco surfaces (sometimes referred to as “faux-dobe”, pronounced as one word: “foe-dough-bee”) reflecting the historic style.In 2005/2006, a consultant group from Portland, Oregon prepared a “Santa Fe Downtown Vision Plan” to examine the long-range needs for the downtown area, roughly bounded by the Paseo de Peralta on the north, south and east sides and by Guadalupe Street on the west. In consultation with members of community groups, who were encouraged to provide feedback, the consultants made a wide range of recommendations in the plan now published for public and City review.