At 10 a.m. Tuesday, Santo Domingo Pueblo in New Mexico will hold a long-awaited groundbreaking ceremony to restore the historic Santo Domingo Trading Post, heavily damaged in a fire more than a decade ago.
According to a news release from the tribe:
“We have looked forward to this day for several years,” says Gov. Sisto Quintana. “We want people to remember it the way it was — a vibrant place of commerce and culture, a place for buying, trading and socializing. It was a thriving community associated with the railroad, roads, historic trails and mining.”
The Trading Post has a fascinating history. In the late 1800s, it witnessed to the growth of the State during the heyday of the railroads, followed by the Depression and then, the revival of travel in the 1920s with the opening of Route 66, “America’s Highway.” The Trading Post was featured in Life and Look magazines and even played host to such dignitaries as President John F. Kennedy.
“A $1 million award from the US Economic Development Agency provides the foundation for rebuilding the Trading Post,” says tribal planner Kenneth Pin. A capital campaign will also be kicked off at the ceremony.
“$1 million does not go as far as it used to,” says Pin. “Construction costs have increased and we need $500,000 more for construction and $500,000 for the store and café fixtures, equipment and operation.”
“We are re-creating the California Mission Style architecture of the original Trading Post,” says Pat Taylor, Avanyu Construction. “It is the double wall adobe brick construction that saved the building from being completely destroyed.”
Pin said in an email that the reconstruction work would take six to eight months. He acknowledged, however, it was a “guesstimate.”
The trading post, located about halfway between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, suffered a terrible fire in 2001. Santo Domingo Trading Post was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
The trading post also received a $17,000 cost-share grant in 2007 from the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program to form a stabilization plan for the fire-damaged structure. It also received a lot of volunteer work to help shore up the structure, as this video shows:
Those attending the ceremony are asked to use the nearby Rail Runner train station parking lot. And here are directions to the trading post:
- From Interstate 25, take Exit 259 (New Mexico Highway 22).
- Head west for about four miles.
- Make a right at the Mateo overpass, following the loop to the stop sign.
- Turn left at the stop sign and go about one mile.
- The Kewa Rail Runner Station parking lot on the right. The Trading Post is on the left.
(Image courtesy of 66Postcards.com; hat tip to David Willman and New Mexico Business Weekly)
Great to hear they are getting under way. We were there just 2 weeks ago. Our timing was awful. We just missed the big Corn Festival in the pueblo the day before. There are stacks of mud brick waiting to be used covered next to the buildings.
You can get there from I-25 exit 259. Take 22 north about 1.9 miles. Turn right onto an asphalt road for 1.5 miles. It deadends at the trading post. That asphalt road follows the 1926 alignment of 66.
I visited with a couple of workers there recently. Its good to see this place being saved, and I am happy that photos I took of the building in 1983, including the interior and upstairs, will be useful in this effort (they were requested by Kaisa Barthuli of the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program).