OLD SANTA FE TODAY - THE NEW EDITION UPDATE

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Covers above: 1991 fourth edition, 1972 third edition, 1966 first edition, and 1982 third edition.

Old Santa Fe Today New Edition Update
HSFF Executive Director Pete Warzel

As most of you know, the Historic Santa Fe Foundation began a project in 2019 to completely revise our iconic publication, Old Santa Fe Today, in a fifth edition. The fourth edition was printed in 1991 with much needed to be addressed in that lapsed time.

The new edition will have the complete inventory of properties on the HSFF Historic Register of Properties Worthy of Preservation, now at a total of 98, and one or two more addition likely before we go to press (currently being researched for nomination by our Mac Watson Fellow Katie Dix). New research and writing for each entry is being done by Audra Bellmore, PhD., Associate Professor in the Center for Southwest Research and the Curator of the John Gaw Meem Archives of Southwestern Architecture, on a volunteer basis. It is an incredible commitment to this foundation by Dr. Bellmore, and the staff and Board of Directors are extremely grateful. New color photography is contracted with Simone Frances, an architectural photographer based in New Mexico.

The Museum of New Mexico Press will design, produce, market and distribute the new book, and as you most likely know, has been printing elegant books focused on art, archeology and history of the state and region since 1951. (Órale! Lowrider, The Santa Fe Scottish Rite Temple, Painted Reflections, Los Luceros, etc.) The quality of these books and others in the MNMP catalogue is exceptional.

I had occasion to pick up a copy of a now, 24-year-old book, The National Trust Guide to Santa Fe. Interesting and mostly well done. But, it is a guidebook. There is very good, well-researched background in the introductory chapters, but essentially it is a walking tour by street address in various sections of the city. (It is good to see an entry for the Rios wood lot in the Canyon Road tour section, and the drawing of the proposed towers for the Cathedral from 1885 is incredibly disturbing – it would be interesting to see what the Historic Districts Review Board would do with that if proposed today). OSFT is not that, but could be utilized in such a way. The photographs of the properties will be stunning, with interior shots of many of the properties that are never seen. The narrative on each will be much more extensive than allowed in a guidebook format. Yet, with the detailed map insert, and the proposed mobile phone app, the book certainly will be conducive to using for a walk, or drive tour.

OSFT is a standard of research, used, in its past editions, by writers and academics exploring the history and architectural significance of Santa Fe. Indeed, Richard Harris, the author of the National Trust guide referred to above, cites the 4th edition of OSFT as a source. Paul Weideman, who launched his wonderful book at our sala in December 2019, Architecture Santa Fe: A Guidebook, likewise used Old Santa Fe Today as reference. That is telling.

We have a budget of $40,000 to meet our subvention with the Museum of New Mexico Press, as well as the contracted photography, map-making and app production. To date we have received $12,300 from very generous individuals and an additional $20,000 from businesses that housed in the Register properties, or simply committed and concerned about the architectural and cultural history of the Santa Fe area: Victory Contemporary (gallery – in the Delgado House), Inn of the Five Graces (Barrio de Analco and the Tudesqui House), Bishop’s Lodge (Lamy Chapel), Santa Fe Properties (José Alarid House), The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum (Bergere House), La Fonda on the Plaza, Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust (the Brooks House), and Wolf Corporation (Marybeth and John Wolf – the Hinojos House). New Mexico Bank and Trust, Avalon Trust, Sunwest Construction, and Dave Feldt, Realtor, have also generously donated funds to help complete this project, although not housed in one of our Register buildings. Through this exceptional help from businesses and individuals we have reached 81% of our funding and budget goal. The finish line is near.

A revision of Old Santa Fe Today has been a goal of this Foundation since I came here six years ago. It is brought up in conversations with preservation organizations, writers, and members of HSFF, continuously, in the hope that we would redo with a new edition. The 4th edition, from 1991, is outdated, not only regarding the number of properties on our Register, but as to information regarding many of the properties included. Thirty years is long enough to wait for a new version.

So, we are here, and moving rapidly, and all – Board of Directors, staff, associates, partners, publisher, writer, and photographer – are so looking forward to this elegant presentation of our history. We hope you can help us with this project, and also that you thoroughly enjoy the final product, due to be available in 2021. It will be a wonderful addition to the living library of Santa Fe’s architectural and cultural history.

Read more about the reprint on the Old Santa Fe Today page on our website.

Donate here in any amount to HSFF selected programs including Old Santa Fe Today

BOOK REVIEW — In a Modern Rendering

Cover of In a Modern Rendering, the Color Woodcuts of Gustave Baumann: A Catalogue Raisonné

In a Modern Rendering, the Color Woodcuts of Gustave Baumann: A Catalogue Raisonné by Gala Chamberlain

A Book Review by Alan “Mac” Watson

With the appearance of Gala Chamberlain’s monumental In a Modern Rendering, the Color Woodcuts of Gustave Baumann: A Catalogue Raisonné (Rizzoli Electra, 2019), Santa Fe’s beloved Gustave Baumann becomes established as an artist of international stature.  This is a wonderful work of scholarship, presenting not only an authoritative catalogue of the 190 known editions of Baumann artistic color woodcuts but also an additional 200 pieces of “ephemera and undated color woodcuts,” plus an additional 35 pieces described by Chamberlain as “problematic pieces”—linear blocks, each of which expresses the entire image of an existing color woodcut.

The Catalogue is prefaced by a formidable essay of critical biography by Nancy Green of Cornell University, the carefully documented facts of Baumann’s life—his lifelong development from a meticulous craftsman to an artist of brilliant vision and technique.

Master printer, Baumann afficionado, and Director of the Press at the Palace of the Governors Tom Leech has contributed an essay of fascinating insights into Baumann’s printing methods, his materials of wood, inks and paper, and his tools for carving blocks and making successive impressions where each color requires a separately carved block.

And Chamberlain herself has contributed a further essay on Baumann’s “Studio Practices,” presenting an account of the varieties of paper he used over the decades, his “chops” (seals, signatures and symbols  that he used in signing his work), and the problems of dating the discreet editions he issued of the colored woodblock prints.

The Catalogue was initiated by Ann Baumann, daughter of Gustave and Jane, who inherited the Baumann estate which includes extensive archival material—personal letters, manuscripts, scrapbooks, and records of Gustave’s paintings, records of sales, catalogues, consignments and exhibitions—all of which Chamberlain draws upon to compile the Catalogue.  Chamberlain’s meticulous scholarship over the past three decades is apparent on every page of this impressive book.

Weighing in at roughly eight pounds (629 pages), this is not a book to curl up with on a winter’s evening! The publication was undertaken with the highest standards of bookmaking in mind, designed in the tradition of fine Baumann craftsmanship by Leslie Fitch and David Skolkin and published by Rizzoli, known internationally for its surpassing works of pictorial art.

Many of the full-page illustrations in the Catalogue have been photographed by the Museum of New Mexico’s excellent Blair Clark. Nonetheless, they must fall short of the actual woodcuts printed by the artist himself. As Tom Leech’s essay so gracefully observes: “I encourage you, when looking at a Baumann woodcut, also to look into it, to discern one layer from another…you will find different degrees of impression and thickness of ink. Keep in mind that, even though the reproductions in this book are of the highest quality, they are essentially two-dimensional representations of a three-dimensional art.”

By Gala Chamberlain
With essays by Nancy E. Green, Thomas Leech
Foreword by Martin F. Krause
Rizzoli Electa
Hardcover, 648 pages
$175.00

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Gala Chamberlain is the trustee of the Ann Baumann Trust and director of the Annex Galleries, Santa Rosa, California.

Nancy E. Green is the Gale and Ira Drukier Curator of European and American Art, Prints, and Drawings, 1800-1945 at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University.

Thomas Leech is director of the press at the Palace of the Governors and a curator at the New Mexico History Museum, Santa Fe.

BOOK REVIEW — Stanley Crawford's The Garlic Papers: A Small Garlic Farm in the Age of Global Vampires

Cover of The Garlic Papers

Stanley Crawford’s The Garlic Papers
A Book Review by HSFF’s Executive Director Pete Warzel.

“After planting and harvesting crops for over forty years, you would think a being might finally comprehend the ephemeral nature of all things. Not, alas, this one.” — Stanley Crawford, The Garlic Papers: A Small Garlic Farm in the Age of Global Vampires

The classic A Garlic Testament: Seasons on a Small New Mexico Farm was first published in 1998 and has been in print ever since. It is an elegant and eloquent rumination on life through the annual cycle of a small farm in Northern New Mexico. It is a quiet testament.

2019 brings a continuation, not quite a sequel – The Garlic Papers: A Small Garlic Farm in the Age of Global Vampires. If Stan had ever previously intended to write a follow-up on his classic, he most likely would not have predicted the chain of events that are delineated in this one.

Circumstances distill to this: In 2014 Ted Hume, an international trade attorney, asked Stan and Rosemary Crawford to act as an affected party, a garlic grower, to request a review of Harmoni International Spice regarding their import/pricing policies. Harmoni is a major importer of garlic in the U.S. and is owned by the Chinese company, Zhengzhou Harmoni Spice. The “dumping” in the anti-dumping laws is the import of foreign goods, in this case garlic, at a price that undercuts American growers (dumps on the market). The review by the U.S. Department of Commerce went smoothly until Harmoni decided that millions of potential fines would enfeeble their position in gaming the trade system in the U.S. market, and decided to play hardball. Some seven legal jurisdictions, four sets of attorneys (plus Chinese law firms) opposing, seven legal firms (representing Stan and associates), plus advising firms, are all locked into the mess. Ted Hume and Stan are not budging in what has become a real time David and Goliath story, and a look at best, into the inefficient, incompetent bureaucracy of U.S. governed international trade, at worst, the corrupt nature of the system.

The beautifully clear, Crawford writing style re-emerges in this work, as does a very lucid reporting of circumstances around the Harmoni-Spice international intrigue and legal imbroglio. Stan has multiple lives – farmer, novelist, writer of clear and beautiful non-fiction, man who cares deeply about the world. This book is truly a hybrid, and well done. He tells the economic/political story, yet combines it with elegant ruminations on the work of farming, and then, as in the chapter “Apocalypse Shortly”, let’s rip with a hilarious recap of a dinner among fellow Dixonistas, “…discussing our favorite topic, the End of the World.”

Was all, is all, this worth it? And by all I mean not simply the complex legal harassment of a small, Northern New Mexico owner/farmer by a powerhouse of an international exporter of garlic, but his hard, forty years of farming also. To the farming question: “Above all, it is quiet on the farm. I take the quiet for granted. After a day in the city, I crave the quiet.” And, to the legal trade question: ‘I have been asked a number of times whether I regret becoming involved in this labyrinth. No, because it has been a fascinating peephole into how the world works….”

Stan gave a reading and book signing at the Historic Santa Fe Foundation several weeks ago, and his demeanor is calming, his patience in responding to the facts of the Harmoni-Spice scrum inspiring. He looks the same, at 82 years of age, as in the photographs of him when A Garlic Testament was published almost 22 years ago. He is fit, wiry, intellectually curious, and still a fine, fine writer. In an interview from 2008 with PowellsBooks.Blog, the iconic bookstore in Portland, Oregon, Stan said, “Writing is what I do to make sense of life.”

I will tell you a story from many years ago when I called Stan for advice from my Denver home. A late spring snowstorm had split an apple tree in my courtyard and somehow over the next months I saved the good half. However, a year later the good, living half, was leaning into the house. What to do? I asked the guy who would know. On the phone he said, “Well, do you want the Santa Fe answer or the real one?” I bit. Ok, give me the Santa Fe answer. He paused, and said, “Move the house.” I took the real answer.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
STANLEY CRAWFORD is co-owner with his wife, RoseMary Crawford, of El Bosque Garlic Farm in Dixon, New Mexico, where they have lived since 1969. Crawford was born in 1937 and was educated at the University of Chicago and at the Sorbonne. He is the author of nine novels, including Village, Log of the S.S. The Mrs. Unguentine, Travel Notes, GASCOYNE, and Some Instructions, a classic satire on all the sanctimonious marriage manuals ever produced. He is also the author of two memoirs: A Garlic Testament: Seasons on a Small Farm in New Mexico, and Mayordomo: Chronicle of an Acequia in Northern New Mexico. He has written numerous articles in various publications such as the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Double Take, and Country Living. For more information, please visit stanleycrawford.net.

The Garlic Papers: A Small Garlic Farm in the Age of Global Vampires
Stanley Crawford
Leaf Storm Press
$16.95, Paperback
186 Pages

BOOK REVIEW — Paul Weideman's ARCHITECTURE Santa Fe: A Guidebook.

Cover of Architecture Santa Fe, A Guidebook

Paul Weideman's ARCHITECTURE Santa Fe: A Guidebook.
A Book Review by HSFF’s Executive Director Pete Warzel.

Paul Weideman has been attending to this labor of love for the past eight years. Many in Santa Fe know Paul through his writing for the Santa Fe New Mexican – the paper proper, Pasatiempo, and the monthly real estate magazine Home – on architecture, history, and the preservation of the built environment of Santa Fe. At HSFF, we know him for all of that, in addition to his service on the HSFF’s Board of Directors several years ago and his ongoing support of our mission and work.

Architecture Santa Fe: A Guidebook was published in late 2019 and we held a book launch in our sala at 545 Canyon Road on December 17. This book is impeccable. Well written, well-illustrated, extremely well-curated with all styles of architecture in the city, including some very modern designs that are important to include in this guide and to the visual history of the city.

Paul begins with a thorough overview of regional construction from the beginning – prehistoric jacal or puddled adobe in the Santa Fe area, Spanish Pueblo, Territorial, then Pueblo Revival and Territorial Revival styles. Chapter 2 follows with an in-depth review of materials used in construction for Santa Fe architecture, including the primarily unseen but ubiquitous pentile (Santa Fe penitentiary tile – hollow ceramic blocks) that led me to term my home in South Capitol one summer solstice day “the Clay oven.”  

Illustration of Oles/THOMPson Residence, Photo by Paul Weideman from Architecture Santa Fe, A Guidebook

Illustration of Santa Fe Community Center, Photo by Paul Weideman from Architecture Santa Fe, A Guidebook

There is a wonderful section of photographs of a home formerly owned by HSFF, the Garcia House on Alto Street. The selection allows those beyond the Foundation’s membership to see the extensive damage to the building that the Foundation repaired and reconstructed in 2015 and 2016. This was an expensive commitment to preservation and efforts that foster great pride in our staff and board. Likewise, Paul includes in this section a very good overview of the extensive work done at El Zaguán including on the drainage in the front, and the lime plaster finish, conducted in 2014-2015.

The following chapters address the history of preservation of the city’s architectural heritage, and then the unfortunate dispute over the historic designation of the Roque Lobato House (or arguably the Sylvanus Morley House, due to the archeologist’s modifications to the property).

Then to the book proper – the individual listings of properties in the Santa Fe area, presented chronologically, each one photographed, and wonderfully described in efficient, short, clear descriptions. Paul’s succinct descriptions of each property are informative, obviously the result of many years of research on the subjects.

Page featuring HSFF’s El ZaguAn, Photo by Paul Weideman from Architecture Santa Fe, A Guidebook

Page featuring Paolo soleri amphitheater, Photo by Paul Weideman from Architecture Santa Fe, A Guidebook

The usual suspects are here – the venerable old homes and churches that populate the historic districts of Santa Fe. But more modern, some very modern properties, take up just short of 50% of the entries. I was appreciative to see and learn the history of Whitin Hall — the odd, large, four story structure at the corner of Garfield and Guadalupe — that fascinates people looking for any semblance of Santa Fe style. This is not that. But, style aside, Whitin Hall is an importanted historical structure. The building housed the first University of New Mexico (1881) with its construction completed in 1887; then closing quickly, only a year later; and the Albuquerque university site founded in 1889. Paul includes the glorious Mid-century Modern Kruger Professional Building, as well as the Spears Architects’ Academy for the Love of Learning, a LEED certified building and a wonderful, peaceful space.

I commend Paul on including an appendix of architects, masons and master builders, presented chronologically again, putting if not faces, at least names, to the building of these wonderful structures in Santa Fe.

Architecture Santa Fe is a great resource for those interested in the architecture, history, and culture of the region. It covers all the bases extremely well, and now is in the back pocket of my driver’s seat, ready for exploration of the places I do not already know.

Architecture Santa Fe: A Guidebook By Paul Weideman
Foreword by Gayla Bechtol, AIA
Running Lizard Press
Paper, 230 pages
$39.95

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Paul Weideman was born in Indianapolis and grew up in Ohio, Michigan, and in Southern Rhodesia, Africa (ages 11-15). He earned bachelor’s degrees in biology (Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo) and editorial journalism (University of Washington, Seattle) and has worked as a journalist since 1984, the last 22 with the Santa Fe New Mexican. In 1996, he married Mary Margaret Vigil, whose parents were members of multigenerational Santa Fe families and who has given him scores of insights about "old Santa Fe" — that is, from the 1950s and 1960s.

Paul's recent awards include a Heritage Preservation Award, presented by the City of Santa Fe in 2011 "for his educational articles on archaeological subjects"; a Cultural Preservation Award, presented by the Old Santa Fe Association in 2015 for his articles "that have consistently emphasized the importance of historical preservation and have educated and enriched the lives of Santa Feans"; and a Service Award presented by the Santa Fe chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 2017 for articles about design and architecture in his "Art of Space" column in Pasatiempo magazine and in the monthly Home/Santa Fe Real Estate Guide.

FIFTEEN YEARS OF EXPLORING ROUTE 66 IN NEW MEXICO: AN INTERVIEW WITH WILLIE LAMBERT

WILLIE LAMBERT AND HIS 500-WORD CROSSWORD PUZZLE, PHOTO BY JIM GAUTIER

Willie Lambert: Route 66 in New Mexico Documentation
An Interview by HSFF Executive Director Pete Warzel

I met Willie Lambert at San Miguel Chapel during the fall festival celebrating the Barrio de Analco this past month. He had two tables at the event of his many years endeavor. After Dave Blackman, of Preserve San Miguel, introduced us, Lambert walked me through the notebooks and photographs displayed for the public event.

Willie is an abidingly polite man. An itinerant worker his whole life he is obsessed with his chosen task now, on his own time — the documentation of every inch of the famed Route 66 in New Mexico.

And the product is nothing short of astonishing. There are multiple notebooks arranged by section of road, with photographs illustrating the road or nearby environment and the hand-drawn maps that take you mile-by-mile along the route. The maps are exquisite, laid out in sections, each section then broken down into detailed subsections with their own hand-created maps that are meticulously labeled with mileage, location, and defining information. This is impeccable documentation as folk art.

Interest in Route 66 is ubiquitous. We think Willie’s work should be more widely known and introduce you here. Willie’s main desire at this time is to publicized the project so he might be able to meet the people who own land that are now fenced so he can complete the research he started so many years ago — for cultural knowledge and the history of the road.

HSFF is so amazed by the scope of this project and Willie’s dedication to his accurate documentation of this historic route. We are assisting Willie in the promotion of the work and helping him achieve the goal of completing the project and to expanding the knowledge of the work. In addition to access to private lands as mentioned in the previous paragraph, Lambert needs the works scanned to preserve the documents in digital form. If you are interested in funding this project, please contact HSFF at melanie@historicsantafe.org.

Pete Warzel: There is a lot to talk about. Let’s start with your prior life – what was your occupation? Retired? Family? 

Willie Lambert: I had an array of what I call survival jobs as I never made a career out of any of them. Worked the railroad, Forest Service, fire fighter, bus driver, poker and blackjack dealer, fly tyer and flea market vendor. That all adds up to Social Security.

PW: So, what led you to this commitment to research? Do you realize how extraordinary this is?

WL: My sister said to me years ago that she would like to take a trip on Route 66 when she turned 66. I thought that was a good idea and I’d look into it. That was 15 years ago and I’m still looking.

Thank you. That’s a very nice and appreciated compliment.

PW: How many notebooks have you compiled? The number of maps you have drawn?

WL: I have 19 binders that include 15 years of photography nearly 500 hand-drawn aligment maps and an odometer reading is to A 1/10 of a mile where needed. So one can located the often hard to find and easy to miss old fragments of the road. I have over 1000 NM Route 66 postcards of which many have a message, stamp and postmark. I recently started a new binder on the roadside wildflowers found along the route. I have been working on creating a crossword puzzle using words associated with NM 66 at the moment it has over 500 clues.

PW: Explain the maps and how they come together in your own words.

WL: It was obvious early that to understand the different alignments would be a huge project. I thought it best to break it down into short sections made up of what I call segment maps. These segments maps are color coded for quick reference as to what alignments were in that area.

PW: How many research trips do you take per year?

WL: That has varied through the years, but it always seems like I’m thinking about the next ride out. The only thing that hasn’t changed on Route 66 is the location of the roadbed itself. So even a ride to Pecos, for example, there might be a roadside change of some sort.

PW: You also have a major collection of Route 66 postcards from over the years. How do you go about collecting these?

WL: Over the years, I’d stop at antique stores anywhere I could. Usually, they would have a box of postcards I could go through now I purchase nearly all of them on Ebay.

PW: What is your purpose for this extensive research?

WL: When I first started researching and driving the route I had quite a few books and notes for the day on the front seat. I needed to organize what I understood and realized that I would need to pay attention to details if I was going to be able to share what I had in order to learn more.

PW: Where is your favorite stretch of road on the route in New Mexico?

WL: After 15 years, I truly have many stretches and spots along the road that could be on top of any list.

PW: Where is the place you would like to know about?

WL: I have a binder that I call Gates and Fences. East of Santa Fe to Texas line the pieces of 66 behind the gates belong to private land owners. West of Santa Fe to the Arizona line those gated pieces are what I’d love to be able to visit and document if only once.

PW: Do you ever conduct guided tours of the Route?

WL: I’ve taken a few friends and family members out for day rides over the years. Recently I took three people that I didn’t know. One of the ladies was very interested and took a lot of photos. I asked if she would give me a few pictures so I could see the trip in her eyes. She presented those pictures to me in a beautiful book.

PW: What would you like people to learn from your work?

WL: That there’s still quite a few pieces of the alignment puzzle that needs to be researched and documented.

PW: What next?

WL: First, I want to say thank you to Pete and Melanie for their help.

PW: Thanks Willie. This work is extraordinary.

A FRESH FACE FOR THE PINO HOUSE

A Recap of Our Summer Trades Intern’s Projects by Mara Saxer

The Pino House, located on the grounds of El Rancho de las Golondrinas living history museum in La Cienega, is the most recent addition to the Historic Santa Fe Foundation’s Register of Properties Worthy of Preservation as of this writing, our 100th property. In the process of putting together the nomination, another collaboration was developed, in which HSFF’s Faith and John Gaw Meem Preservation Trades Intern for 2019, Ramon Dorado, gained hands on adobe construction experience by restoring the Pino House to a mud plaster finish.

Ramon spent the majority of his 10-week internship at Las Golondrinas, first removing the modern cement stucco, then repairing any damage to the adobes beneath it before applying a mud plaster made from local dirt dug near the site, as it would have been at the time of construction. The building is thought to have been plastered in mud or lime originally, or possibly both during different eras. He also repaired the stone foundation, repointing the mortar with a traditional lime material.

The refinishing of the exterior of the building is only the beginning of many changes to come for the Pino House. For many years it has been used as a utilitarian space by the museum, sometimes offices and sometimes storage, and thought of as outside the museum exhibit as its date of construction (1919-20) fell well outside the age range of interpretation (early 1700s). Its exact use remains undecided, but while it will always be different from the majority of the museum, it is being increasingly seen as worthy of preservation and attention in its own right.

Ramon spent some time between phases of the Pino House Project back at the HSFF mothership, El Zaguán, working on the building. He participated in the ongoing work on our entry wall along Canyon Road, as well as some adobe repair and mud touch up work on our workshop building. Another collaborative project was done with La Sala de San José in Galisteo, where we removed and restored a set of historic wood window sash. The caretakers of La Sala have been gradually working through the restoration of their windows, and we plan to continue to partner with them in this endeavor – that includes Ramon himself, who is a recent graduate of the UNM School of Architecture masters program, and intends to continue working in architecture and preservation in New Mexico. HSFF looks forward to more collaborations with Ramon and to seeing what he accomplishes next!