National Register Listing

National Park Service Southwest Regional Office

a.k.a. National Park Service Region III Headquarters

Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, NM

This building is believed to be the largest all-adobe office building in the United States. Including the central patio, which is ninety-five feet long and seventy feet wide, the building covers more than an acre of land/ and follows generally the designs of 17th century Spanish Colonial missions. The two-story portion corresponds to the configuration of the mission chapels, while the patio offices correspond to the old conventos. It is an excellent example of the revival phase of historical architecture in New Mexico, and was important in helping to reawaken interest in early New Mexican history and design. When the building opened in 1939 it stood as a tribute to the group of New Mexico youths of Spanish-American ancestry and tradition who were largely responsible for its completion. Working as a company of the Civilian Conservation Corps, the boys, with no previous experience in building construction, took active parts in every phase of the work. They helped prepare the site, and then from the excavated soil they moulded approximately 280,000 adobe bricks for the walls. The handmade furniture and tin lighting fixtures were fashioned by local craftsmen. The painting on the lobby wall of Stephen T. Mather, first director of the Park Service, was done by a local artist who, like the others who worked on the building and its fixtures, was paid from emergency relief funds during the depression years.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1970.