El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, Old Spanish Trail, Santa Fe Trail: Santa Fe, New Mexico Itinerary

The Santa Fe Plaza has long been the spatial, economic, and social center of New Mexico’s capital city. Accordingly, it is the location of various historic buildings and events throughout New Mexico’s history. Now half its original size, the Plaza is landscaped with flagstone, walks, benches, and trees.

William and Mary Dodson Donoho, who crossed the Santa Fe Trail from Missouri, operated an inn here known as Los Estados Unidos (spanish for United States) House in 1833-37. By 1847 it had become the Santa Fe House. By 1848 it was the U.S. Hotel, offering liquor and gaming. It became the Exchange Hotel in 1851. It is still operated as hotel, La Fonda on the Plaza.

The Spanish Colonial presidio (military garrison) chapel, Nuestra Senora de la Luz (Our Lady of Light), was built here circa 1760, and razed in 1859.

Quebec-born Santa Fe Trail trader Francois Aubry, whose enduring fame came in 1848, after racing on horseback across the Santa Fe Trail from here to Independence, Missouri in record time (five days, 16 hours) to win a $1,000 bet, died here in 1854 after a bar room argument with ex-newspaperman Richard Weightman.

Westport, Missouri merchants Gustavus Elsberg and Jacob Amberg crossed the Santa Fe Trail in 1856, and opened the two-story Ellsberg & Amberg Building here in 1864.

Since 1610, this block-long, one-story adobe building has housed the offices and living quarters of 58 Spanish Colonial Governors, 16 Mexican Governors, four military and three civilian governors during U.S. rule, and 17 Territorial Governors. The building endured the 1680 Pueblo Indian Revolt; the 1692-1693 Spanish reconquest; the 1846 arrival of Brigadier General Kearny; and the 1862 invasion of Texas Confederate Troops.

Overlooking the northeast side of the Plaza is the Italian-style Catron Block, built in 1891. Powerful lawyer, banker, and politician Thomas Catron occupied its second floor offices. It replaced Santa Fe Trail merchant James Johnson’s two-story adobe and wood-frame building, a Santa Fe Trail landmark built in 1847.

In her published memoirs (1954; Land Of Enchantment), Santa Fe Trail traveler Marian Russell recalled her widowed mother, Eliza, operating a $45 a month boarding house here in 1852-54. It is now the home of the New Mexico Museum of Art.

This surviving Fort Marcy officers’ quarters, once the Quartermaster’s home, was remodeled in the Pueblo Revival Style in 1916. Fort Marcy was built in 1846 and was the first in New Mexico Territory. The building became the lifetime home of the Edgar Lee Hewett, the Director of the Museum of New Mexico (in 1909) and School of American Research (1917).

A commercial building since 1980, this restored two-story adobe house, crowned by an Italian Style portico (entry porch) to its second floor front balcony, was built circa 1890 for Santa Fe Trail trader Delgado, who bought the land in 1877. The home stayed in his family until 1970.

Born in Sonora, Mexico, Doña Maria Gertrudes Barcelo operated her lavishly decorated saloon and gambling hall here from 1832-36 until her death. Reputedly the best monte dealer in Santa Fe, the red-haired, cigar-smoking “Doña Tules” soon grew wealthy. Historic Burro Alley is adjacent to the building.

Doña "Tules" Barcelo’s one-story, flat-roofed, courtyard home was just across the street from her saloon and gambling hall. Born around 1800-1811, she died here in 1852. The Pueblo Revival Style court house replaced it in 1940.

One of two surviving Ft. Marcy officers’ quarters built around 1871, it became a 10-day vacation home for former President Ulysses S. Grant and his family in 1880. Bought in 1904 by Bergere, the England-born son of a wealthy Italian shipping magnate, the 7-room home got a full second floor and Pueblo Revival Style makeover in 1926.

Along with an iron hitching rail on Washington Ave., this 1976 bronze plaque honors early Santa Fe Trail drivers.

At 109, 111 & 115 East Palace Avenue, peek into the plazas that date back to the Santa Fe Trail era, located behind the buildings along Palace Avenue - they host shops and restaurants today.

Begun in 1869, this sandstone-block, neo- Romanesque Style church was never finished; its plans called for two 165-foot tall steeples and an 85-foot tall dome. It slowly enveloped La Parroquia (the parish church), a Santa Fe Trail landmark that was dismantled starting in 1884.

Santa Fe Trail bride Susan Magoffin and her husband, trail trader Samuel, lived here in a flat-roofed, four-room adobe home built before 1836, for five weeks in 1846. Here she continued writing in her diary, published in a 1926 book, Down the Santa Fe Trail & Into Mexico.

This Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) placed, 1905 cast bronze plaque marks the route of the Santa Fe Trail.

This Gothic Revival chapel, started in 1873 and completed in 1878, was built by young French architect Projectus Mouly for the Sisters of Loretto. In 1855, Jean Baptiste Lamy moved the Loretto Academy here into a former hotel he bought in 1854, La Casa Americana (the American House).

Here Santa Fe Trail traders once camped and their animals drank and grazed. The 12-acre, tree-shaded park was built in 1935.

This adobe chapel is a Santa Fe Trail landmark, and was in use before 1626,. Partly destroyed in the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, it was rebuilt in 1710. Its bulto (wooden statue) of St. Michael predates 1709; its wooden reredos (altar screen), painted in 1798, sits above the original altar.

Italy-born Santa Fe Trail trader Tudesqui bought this modest adobe home in 1839. When it was built is unknown. Purple wisteria bloom in its tiny courtyard every June.

Built circa 1786 for Lobato, an armorer and soldier of Santa Fe’s Royal Spanish Garrison. Santa Fe Trail trader Don Gaspar Ortiz y Alarid bought the buildint in 1852. The ruins of Santa Fe’s fortress and powder magazine, La Garita (little guardhouse), built in 1807, stood just northeast of the house until 1954. Private residence; photo permissions not granted.

Built in 1776-96, this cruciform adobe church is the oldest extant shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe in the U.S. Its vigas (ceiling beams), corbels (brackets), and choir loft came from the military chapel, La Castrense. It’s at the east end of Agua Fria St., a remnant of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (the Royal Road to the Interior Land), later known as the Chihuahua Trail.

The iconic building located in Santa Fe, New Mexico is a masterpiece of Spanish Pueblo Revival architecture. The building, known as one of the largest secular adobe buildings in the United States, was constructed in the 1936-1939 by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The structure is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmark. The building not currently open to the public.

Owned in 1747 by Gregorio Crespin, the house’s vigas (ceiling beams) date back to 1720. Owner Benito Roibal served in the Santa Fe militia in the mid-1860s and traveled the Santa Fe Trail as a soldier.

Built in 1846, this U. S. fort was the first in New Mexico Territory (and is the only fort left in the United States from the Mexican American War). Built for 280 men, this irregularly shaped star fort was never garrisoned. Located on a hill 50 yards higher in elevation than the Plaza, its 14 cannons could have confronted an approaching Mexican army or suppressed a local uprising.

When Santa Fe Trail trader James Johnson bought this adobe home in 1849, he expanded it to 19 rooms under a single, unifying zaguán (vestibule). Behind his Territorial Style home, Santa Fe Trail merchants kept their horses and oxen in his corrals before their return trip east.