First Ward School

Constructed in 1906, the First Ward School functioned as one of the first public schools in Santa Fe. The school was designed by the prominent architectural firm of I.H. Rapp and W.M. Rapp and built by Carlo Digneo, a master mason who came to Santa Fe to complete work on the St. Francis Cathedral. Parochial education overtook public school attendance in Santa Fe, and the school was decommissioned in 1928 and sold to Dr. Frank C. Mera, owner of the successful tuberculosis clinic Sunmount Sanitorium. The stately red brick building remains Santa Fe’s best example of a typical turn-of-the-century American public school building.

From Old Santa Fe Today, 5th edition by Audra Bellmore with photographs by Simone Frances.