A New York native, Harry Dorman came to Santa Fe to recover from tuberculosis, arriving in 1901, and decided to remain. Dorman opened a successful real estate and insurance business in Santa Fe and became an important social, political, and business figure in the city. He chaired the Santa Fe Planning Board for many years and helped develop the Santa Fe Plan of 1912, based upon national City Beautiful principles. Adherents of the City Beautiful Movement typically designed parks, boulevards, and public buildings in classical Beaux Arts Style. In Santa Fe, Dorman and other members of the Planning Board, including the Museum of New Mexico’s director Dr. Edgar Lee Hewett, opted instead for the Spanish Pueblo Revival Style, emphasizing the distinctiveness of the region and promoting tourism during a time of economic decline. Although a promoter of the Spanish Pueblo Revival Style, Dorman built his 1910 home on this site in the Craftsman Style.
Photographs by Melanie McWhorter