Witter Bynner House - Historic Santa Fe Foundation

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streets. The house remains in much the same configuration as when designed. Gladding liked the design well enough to reproduce it in Albuquerque; that home was placed on the State Register of Cultural Properties. There are approximately 44 structures in the Don Gaspar neighborhood considered historically significant and 231historically contributing structures. Of particular note, however, are the Witter Bynner home at the corner of Old Pecos Trail and Buena Vista, and the Carlos Vierra House located at Coronado Street and Old Pecos Trail. The Vierra House,built about 1920, exemplifies the Revival style, the style most zealously promoted by Sylvanus Morley, Jesse Nusbaum and Carlos Vierra, himself. John Gaw Meem acquired some of his knowledge of this style through his early commissions, with Vierra as collaborator. In addition to historic buildings, there are several interesting acequias and old irrigation ditches in the neighborhood. The Acequia Madre runs through the lower portions of the district and is used by some residents to irrigate family garden plots. Another ditch now abandoned runs through the neighborhood from Old Pecos Trail near Arroyo Tenorio and disappears after it passes under Don Gaspar at a 1928 concrete 18 bridge. The Judge Chavez house is built over the river rock-filled irrigation channel created to carry water to the vegetable gardens of the old State Penitentiary, which was located roughly at the site of the Joe Montoya State Office Building on Cordova Road. The ditch can still be seen as it is contained within rivers tone walls at 711 and 715 Don Gaspar. It appears that the water must have defied gravity as the ditch found its way to the Pen site through what is now the curving streets of Houghton and San Isabel. The neighborhood association was formed in 1980by residents concerned with the speed of traffic and congestion plus the intrusion of commercial zoning into the district, which was named the primary concern in an Association newsletter. The neighborhood plan submitted to the City of Santa Fe, but never approved, cites the intention to support new construction and remodeling that embodies the original architectural character of the residential streetscapes. The original neighborhood group was instrumental in forming the first city-wide neighborhood coalition that the city formally recognized.
SETON VILlAGE-lANDMARK AT RISK Mary Ann Anders Ernest artist, Thompson author, scientist, Seton, and naturalist of world renown, settled at the age of 70 about six miles southeast of Santa Fe. There, on a 2,500-acre tract of land Seton established his summer center for the American Woodcraft League and constructed three houses. The last, called the "Castle," was the most ambitious, becoming home, museum library, art gallery and institute for creative people in every discipline. The community, known as Seton Village, that grew up around the Castle was composed of like-minded individuals. Here, in this creative environment, Seton lived, created and taught until his death in 1946. The National Park Service designated Seton Castle and portions of Seton Village a National Historic Landmark in 1965 for its association with Ernest Seton, "... a conservationist active in the Boy Scout movement. "1 After the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, the property was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. Buildings identified on the nomination for the National Register as part of the Landmark are Lagunita, Seton's 19 second house, the Pullman Car house, the adobe house, the red barn, the print shop, the craft shop, the submarine, Zoo Lodge, Foothill Lodge, and an assortment of other small houses constructed either of adobe or built around other structures such as a trailer, the Castle or two structures that represent a Pueblo kiva and a Navajo hogan.2 U.S. Department of Interior staff inspected the buildings within the boundaries of the landmark in 1981 and reported that "All of the features described in the original nomination are still standing and are in relatively good condition. The hogan and kiva are correct in dimension and configuration, and they include outstanding murals painted by a Kiowa artist. Both of these structures are in need of rehabilitation work on the roofs and some stabilization around the foundations."3 In 1985-86the National Park Service prepared a. condition assessment report for the Castle, kiva and hogan. All three structures were given the Park Service Priority 1 Endangered status because all three structures have suffered loss of architectural and artistic features and historic materials from lack of maintenance or repair and from vandalism. J
Page 1 and 2: BULLETIN OF THE IIISTORIC SANTA FE
Page 3 and 4: I THE WITTER BYNNER HOUSE Corinne P
Page 5 and 6: • Witter Bynner's garden, no date
Page 7 and 8: Mabel Dodge Luhan of Taos to spend
Page 9 and 10: Bynner's passion for collecting led
Page 11 and 12: "' Nobody else will ever like it as
Page 13 and 14: "0. Henry story."36 Within a short
Page 15 and 16: I tions, books, and furniture.49 Th
Page 17 and 18: ~ I I [ I 35.WB to Robert Hunt. Nov
Page 19: THE OLD DON GASPAR NEIGHBORHOOD ASS
Page 23 and 24: OUR VALUABLE VOLUNTEERS 1 STEPHANIE
Page 25 and 26: 1 "GANG MEMBERS" AS TOUR GUIDES Dwi
Page 27: ••••••• ~. ,------0--

Witter Bynner House - Historic Santa Fe Foundation

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