Closed Doors for New Deal Art

In July, the Old Santa Fe Trail Building, a public works building constructed during the Great Depression, celebrated its 75th anniversary.

Around the same time, the National Park Service halted open public hours, causing concerns among a local preservation group. In a recent letter to SFR, Kathy Flynn, the executive director of the National New Deal Preservation Association's New Mexico chapter, feared the developments would be "the beginning of the end" for the building.

The building still acts as a regional office for the National Park Service. James Doyle, a spokesman for NPS intermountain regional office in Denver, says 70 employees work at the Santa Fe office to help support 82 public parks across the southwest.

But that isn't curbing Flynn's concern about the building's future.

"There is quite a fine collection of New Deal public art present," she writes. "All of this now closed to the public."

In October, Santa Fe City Council passed a resolution calling on Congress to designate the building, which was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration in 1939, as a national monument.

"Until recent limitations on public access exhibits and interpretive programs, public activities in the building have become an important living part of Santa Fe's community life and development," reads part of the resolution, which was sponsored by Councilors Patti Bushee, Signe Lindell and Peter Ives.

Doyle, however, is adamant that the building won't be out of business anytime soon.

Technically, the building isn't completely closed to the public. People who are interested in seeing it can call the National Park Service in advance to schedule a tour. Doyle says the main reason for the change is that  the security company that formerly oversaw the building recently breached its contract with NPS. Specifically, the company didn't do background checks on its employees and couldn't meet the hours it was required to employ.

NPS is seeking bids for a new security contractor, Doyle says, which would allow the building to be open during the weekdays again.

"We're currently looking at options for keeping the building open," he says.

As for its preservation, the building is currently listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Doyle says NPS has no plans to shut down the building's daily operations.

"We love to share that building," he says. "It's and absolutely unique service to the people of that community."

Santa Fe Reporter