National Register Listing

Superintendent's House, Atlantic & Pacific Railroad

1023 S. 2nd St., Albuquerque, NM

Throughout its 100-year existence the stone dwelling known in Albuquerque, New Mexico as the "Superintendent's House" has been closely associated with the history of the railroad industry in that city. Originally constructed in 1881 as the residence of Frank W. Smith, General Superintendent of the shortlived Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, most of its subsequent occupants have also been railroad families including the present owner Mrs. Carmen F. Garcia whose husband Brijidio was employed by the Santa Fe as a welder for many years prior to his death. An interesting example of Victorian architectural style, its stone construction contrasted sharply with the adobe and frame buildings prevalent in Albuquerque circa 1880 and exemplifies the influx of eastern tastes and ideas into New Mexico which came with the arrival of new residents brought by the railroad.

The year 1880 was the most important one for both the town of Albuquerque and the expanding railway companies whose tracks were rapidly crossing the Territory of New Mexico. On April 22 the main line of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe reached Albuquerque and was greeted by a community celebration that included fireworks, free wine, and a prolonged oratory in both English and Spanish.

Although plans had already been made for the Santa Fe to continue southward and connect with the Southern Pacific at Deming in southern New Mexico, the road's directors also reached an agreement in 1880 with the officers of St. Louis and San Francisco concerning the disposition of the then inactive Atlantic and Pacific line. By its term, the Santa Fe undertook to build 500 miles of track extending along the 35th Parallel from Isleta, just south of Albuquerque, to Needles, California on the west bank of the Colorado River where it would again connect with the Southern Pacific. In 1887 the Atlantic and Pacific were absorbed by the Santa Fe and this division became its main line to the west coast.

Responsibility for the new construction, which involved crossing many miles of formidable terrain inhabited mainly by Navajo Indians whose disposition was uncertain, was entrusted to Frank W. Smith, formerly an executive of the New York City elevated system. Usually known as "General Smith" in the local press, the new superintendent established his residence in Albuquerque and was soon deeply involved in his new undertaking. Fortunately for the track layers, the Navajo were not hostile and the main difficulties during the three-year construction period were spanning a gorge known as Cañon Diablo, between present Winslow and Flagstaff, and bridging Colorado at Needles. Meeting the payroll deadlines of the contractors who actually built the grades and bridges was also a problem for A & P officials since ready cash was always in short supply.

With his headquarters in Albuquerque Smith was soon active in community #8. affairs in his new hometown. In 1881 he and his wife Emily erected an attractive one-and-a-half story stone residence at the corner of Second Street and Pacific Avenue just two blocks down Second Street from the main offices of the A & P. Although frequently out of town on inspection trips to "the Front" as the end of the line was called, or to eastern cities to confer with the road's officers and financial backers, Smith found time to serve on the board of directors of Albuquerque Academy and the newly chartered First National Bank. In August 1883, the customary silver spike was driven at Needles to mark the line's completion and the assembled dignitaries retired to Smith's private car to celebrate with champagne, Havana cigars, and obligatory speeches. Two years later, his job concluded, Smith returned East after a lavish testimonial dinner at the brand new San Felipe Hotel at which he was presented with a gold watch and chain by his associates.

Exactly how the Smiths managed their former residence in the first years after their departure from Albuquerque is unclear but it was not until February 1889 that they sold it for $5,000 to one of New Mexico's leading merchants and ranchers, J. Felipe Chaves of Belén, a small town thirty miles south of Albuquerque. Known as "El Millionario" among the Spanish-speaking people of the Rio Grande Valley, Chaves had accumulated a fortune as the result of shrewd business dealings during the last years of the Santa Fe Trail when wagon trains were New Mexico's means of commercial transportation. In November of the same year (1889) he presented the house and $4,700 in cash as a wedding present to his daughter Manuela when she married Pablo J. Yrisarri, scion of another of New Mexico's leading mercantile families. Regarded as a particularly brilliant match, their wedding was an important social occasion with a guest list that included all the prominent Spanish families of the Albuquerque area.

Unfortunately, however, the Yrisarri marriage was not a happy one and in November 1897 was terminated by divorce, an event which must have scandalized the couple's families and close friends all of whom shared the strict Roman Catholic background which characterized Hispanic New Mexico. In a deposition taken in Denver where the couple had been living, Manuela's friend and confidante, Beatrice Armijo, stated that Yrisarri had squandered much of their considerable assets and Manuela's only remaining resource was the income from the house in Albuquerque which her father had given her. Two years later Manuela, then temporarily residing in El Paso, sold the residence on South Second Street to Mary E. Little, wife of William H. Little, a yard foreman for the Santa Fe which had taken over the Atlantic and Pacific. The Littles maintained their residence there for twenty years until 1919 when the building was again sold, this time to a neighbor, Ignacio Sanchez, who had been living up the street at 1015 South Second Street.

Three years later, following his wife's death, Little, acting as executor of her estate assigned the Sanchez mortgage on the Superintendent's House to Lucia de Aragon for $1076.59, Although his background is unknown, Sanchez must have been beset with severe personal problems for in 1924 he was declared insane and committed to the New Mexico State Mental Hospital at Las Vegas. To satisfy his obligations his equity in the house was sold at a sheriff's auction on April 25, 1925, for $6,005 the high bidder being Lucia de Aragon. After a brief residence in her new property Mrs. de Aragon, who soon became Mrs. Carl Schwartz, moved away from Albuquerque and rented the house to various tenants notably Daniel Padilla, a deputy u. s. Marshall who lived there for twelve years.

In 1938 Mrs. Schwartz died in Denver without leaving a will, a situation which forced her six heirs into lengthy litigation before her estate was settled eight years later. In addition to the Superintendent's House her property, with an estimated value of $20,000, including several valuable pieces of jewelry and an interest in a New Mexico salt mine near Willard sixty miles southeast of Albuquerque. On March 5, 1946, Special Master Robert H. LaFollette sold the house and adjoining lots for $5,000 cash to Brijidio Garcia, a Santa Fe railroad employee then working in the shops across Second Street as a welder. Garcia died in 1960 but his widow Carmen F. Garcia has maintained her residence on the property ever since.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1978.