Selected from out of 40 sites around the country, St. John’s College in Santa Fe is the southwestern campus of St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, established in 1696 as the King William’s School. The St. John’s curriculum is devoted to the Great Books Program, an influential movement begun in the 1920s. Prominent architect John Gaw Meem and his wife Faith donated 226 acres of land on the southeast side of Santa Fe to the St. John’s College administration for the campus. Meem’s former partners, Edward O. Holien and William R. Buckley, designed the new campus in the mid-1960s, with contributions from Meem, who formally retired in 1959. Its architectural significance is derived from the campus’s mid-century version of Territorial Style design set against an impressive mountain and desert landscape. St. John’s College is the only college in New Mexico that retains sufficient historic integrity to be listed as a national historic district.
From Old Santa Fe Today, 5th edition by Audra Bellmore with photographs by Simone Frances.
