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HISTORIC SANTA FE FOUNDATION REGISTER APPLICATION FORM

El Delirio, 660 Garcia Street, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Please fill out this form and return it to the Historic Santa Fe Foundation, 545 Canyon Road, Suite 2, Santa Fe, NM 87501 or to [email protected] if you are interested in having a historic resource placed on the Register and marked with a plaque. Please call our office at (505) 983-2567 with questions.

Name: Nancy Owen Lewis, Ph.D.

Address: 4331 Calleja Shannon, Santa Fe, NM 87507

Phone: 505-471-5657; 505-629-3773 (cell)

E-mail: [email protected]

Your relationship to the resource in question: o owner o tenant o neighbor o architect o real estate agent [X]other Scholar in Residence and former director of scholar programs at the School for Advanced Research

Name: Jean Schaumberg

Address: 1063 Willow Way, Santa Fe, NM 87507

Phone: 505-795-1590

E-mail: [email protected]

Your relationship to the resource in question: o owner o tenant o neighbor o architect o real estate agent [X] other Current member and docent and former membership associate at the School for Advanced Research

If you are not the owner, please include a letter from the owner(s) giving his, her or their permission to place the resource on the Historic Santa Fe Foundation’s Register. The letter must include the signatures of all the owners.

Address of building/resource: This historic site is located on the campus of the School for Advanced Research at 660 Garcia Street, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505. The campus also includes two historic buildings located across the street at 679 and 679 ½ Garcia Street.

Does the building or resource have an "historic" name? El Delirio, also known as the estate of Amelia Elizabeth and Martha White

Designation: The city of Santa Fe has adopted an ordinance to protect its historic buildings. If the building is in the City of Santa Fe, please call 955-6490 to determine your building’s designation and indicate what that designation is (significant, contributing or non-contributing). The School for Advanced Research is currently listed as “non-contributing to the Downtown and Eastside Historic District,” per Lisa Roach, historic preservation division manager, City of Santa Fe. “I am surprised that this is the case,” she writes. She expressed an interest in re-examining the case and requested a copy of the HSFF Register nomination when available.

State and National Registers. If the applicant’s resource is listed separately on the state or national registers, please attach a copy of the original nomination to this application. Information required in this application need not be repeated if it appears in the original nomination. Property is not listed on the state or national registers.

A. Briefly describe the resource’s historic significance including how the property meets the primary criteria for either a building or resource. All buildings chosen for this recognition must not have been altered in a way that no longer conveys the historic associations for which they are significant. Character-defining features may include exterior, interior, and contextual elements such as gardens and open spaces.

SAR’s campus is located on the White sisters’ estate, which dates back to 1923, when Amelia Elizabeth and Martha Root White, two sisters from New York City, purchased a small adobe house on a 1.5 acre lot from Benito Garcia. Located on Garcia Street, then on the southeastern edge of Santa Fe, the city line bisected their property. Obtaining additional land, their property soon expanded to eight acres.

1. Original house purchased in 1923 by Martha (l) and Elizabeth White (r)

To design their home, they hired artist and architect William Penhallow Henderson, who in 1925 had partnered with son-in-law John Evans and Edwin Brooks to form the Pueblo- Spanish Building Company. Constructed of adobe, their home was modeled after the mission church at Laguna Pueblo. When completed, their living room resembled a chapel, complete with a choir loft where musicians could perform. During the years that followed the White sisters transformed their dusty property into “a wonderland of terraces, archways, and gardens,” complete with a swimming pool and tennis courts—the first of their kind in Santa Fe.

2. The Whites sisters’ home, built in 1927 by William Penhallow Henderson

They erected other buildings in the Spanish-Pueblo Revival style, including guest houses and lodging for staff. They would later add a horse stable, dog kennel, and billiard house. The 1913 renovation of the Palace of the Governors offered a “major kick-start” to the city’s newly christened Spanish-Pueblo Revival architecture, notes Paul Weideman (2019: 18) —a style, he explains, cemented the following decade with the construction of significant residences such as the home of Martha and Amelia Elizabeth White.

Elizabeth and Martha called their estate El Delirio, “the madness,” after a bar in Seville, Spain, which had been next to a hotel where they had once stayed. While sightseeing, explained Elizabeth, we kept getting lost. “When we found El Delirio, we knew we were home.” In 1927, artist Gustave Baumann, close friend and colleague, made a humorous map documenting life at El Delirio, which by this time consisted of five buildings, a swimming pool, tennis courts, and mirador, an open structure offering a view of the compound. “We used to call it “the boathouse,” recalled estate manager, Jack Lambert. “We visualized boats coming up and down the arroyo, which sometimes ran two feet deep.”

3. Gustave Baumann’s 1927 map of El Delirio

Elizabeth and Martha White quickly became part of a vibrant community of artists, writers, and other intellectuals fleeing industrialized America. Many wanted the more authentic life that Santa Fe seemed to offer, only to find it threatened by the forces they sought to escape. Elizabeth and Martha joined efforts to protect Pueblo land, preserve Indian art, and promote native health. They also hosted fabulous parties.

Then in 1937 Martha died of cancer. After a period of mourning, life finally resumed at El Delirio. In 1947, Sylvanus Morley, newly appointed director of the School of American Research (SAR), invited his long-time friend, Elizabeth White, to serve on its Board of Managers. Elizabeth agreed, and upon her death in 1972, she left El Delirio to SAR, now the School for Advanced Research. The School, then headed by Douglas W. Schwartz, moved into the facility in 1973. In the years that followed, SAR remodeled existing buildings and added new ones to accommodate the needs of an anthropological research institution.

El Delirio, now the campus of SAR, meets the three criteria listed below for inclusion in the HSFF Register of Historic Properties. As described in the sections that follow, this historic site:

1) Embodies the architecture identified with the history of Santa Fe: Spanish- Pueblo Revival Architecture.

2) Was the setting for significant events that took place historically

3) Is associated with the lives of by two people prominent in Santa Fe history— namely Amelia Elizabeth and Martha Root White. 4

B) Briefly describe how the property meets one or more of the additional criteria listed above.

1) Embodies the architecture identified with the history of Santa Fe: Pueblo- Revival Architecture.

The White sisters constructed their buildings to embody Spanish-Pueblo Revival architecture. This style, notes architect Barbara Felix (2018: 31), is typified by an exterior with battered adobe walls, an undulating stepped parapeted roof line, rounded corners, earth-colored exterior stuccos, exposed wood beams over windows or doors, and a flat-roof supported by exposed or faux vigas. Windows and doors on the interior and exterior are often wood with glazing, and courtyards are common. Interiors frequently have corner fireplaces, carved wooden details, corbels and wood beams or vigas for ceilings.

Although the buildings erected by the White sisters remain, they have been repurposed by SAR to meet the needs of a growing research institution. Elizabeth and Martha’s home is now the School’s administration building. Lectures and meetings are hosted in their former living room, once the site of lavish costume balls and theatrical entertainments. The smaller guest and staff houses have become resident scholar apartments. Their greenhouse has been converted into resident scholar offices. The estate manager’s home is now a seminar house, while the dog kennel currently houses SAR Press. The billiard house, complete with original billiard table, still remains as do the tennis courts.

Contributing Buildings

SAR’s campus currently include eleven buildings that comprised the original El Delirio estate. Although all of these buildings retain elements of their former use, Historic Cultural Properties Inventories conducted in 2011 by Catherine Colby Consulting reveal that the most intact buildings historically are the Administration Building and the Billiard House (Post 2011: 91-92). These two buildings, as described below, appear to meet the criteria for “contributing to the city’s downtown and eastside historic districts.”

White Sisters’ Home (Administration Building)—The 5,600 square-foot stucco- covered adobe structure, completed in 1927, now serves as SAR’s administration building. Meetings and lectures are hosted in the White sisters’ former living room, now the Eric E. Dobkin Board Room. Distinctive features include hand-carved Mission style doors and exposed carved beams and corbel ends. The room, with its 16-to 22-foot ceiling, sports vigas and aspen latillas, painted red, white, and black, and set herringbone style in alternating sets of four to five. The choir loft remains as does the 19th-century tin chandelier likely made in Mexico. Much of the furniture in the room—including benches, chests, wardrobes, and tables, many said to be of Spanish-colonial design—were purchased by or given to the White sisters as gifts (Kingman 1991). Some of the artwork displayed on the walls is also from their estate, including three murals by San Ildefonso artists Awa Tsireh (Alfonso Roybal) and Oqwa Pi (Abel Sanchez) and an elk hide depicting a buffalo hunt by Shoshoni artist Katsidkodi.

4. Living room at El Delirio, now the board room at SAR

The White sisters’ dining room now houses the office of SAR’s president. The door is framed by a tropical motif of pineapples and birds, traditional Victorian symbols of hospitality. Elizabeth purchased the filigree wrought iron gates during a trip to Spain. The floor tiles were copied from the Prado in Madrid. A wood ceiling carved by William Penhallow Henderson is painted in red and blue. On the far end is a reredos or altar screen given to the White sisters by archaeologist Sylvanus Morley, who purchased it from a church in Guatemala destroyed by an earthquake. At Elizabeth White’s request, Gustave Baumann replaced its crucifixion scene with angels and lutes— considered more appropriate for a dining room.

5. Party in dining room at El Delirio, 1949, with altar screen in background

Considered the least compromised, the original part of the building also includes the rooms located down the hall from the president’s quarter. Once the bedrooms of Martha, Elizabeth, and companion Catherine Rayne, they have been remodeled into staff offices.

The front hallway, once open to the garden, was later enclosed by Elizabeth. It now serves as the main entrance. El Delirio’s kitchen, which connects to the old dining room, is still in use. The old wine cellar is now used for storage and an outdoor eating area continues to be enjoyed by staff. A staff breakroom was added in 1984 and a business office in 1991 by architect John Midyette.

Billiard House. Around 1942, a billiard house was added to the mirador built by Henderson in 1926 as an observation deck. Eager to help the war effort, Elizabeth White reportedly built a billiard house to provide entertainment for local servicemen. When she offered it to Navy recruiters, they complained that “it was cold,” and when she barred them from bringing girls, they didn’t return, explained Catherine Rayne, Elizabeth’s companion (Stark and Rayne 1998: 125). Constructed in the Spanish-Pueblo Revival style, the billiard house features a fireplace framed by carved columns and a lintel of unknown origin. Other distinctive features include wood beams, carved corbels, a split cedar ceiling, and a stone bench on the east portal. The original stone steps remain. The room still sports the original Brunswick pool table, which has been refurbished several times. A full-length portrait of Martha White as Queen Penthesilea, an Amazon queen in Greek mythology, hangs on one wall. The other walls are filled with portraits of former resident scholars. The room is currently used as a gathering space and retreat for both scholars and staff.

6. Billiard House built in the early 1940s

Character-Defining Features

Because of the extent of the alterations, including door and window replacements, the other nine historic buildings are not considered “contributing structures,” as defined by the City of Santa Fe. However, all reflect the original Spanish-Pueblo Revival style of their construction, including vigas, corner fireplaces, and other historic features. They also clearly reveal the original layout of El Delirio. Many other historic features remain as well, including the terraces and walkways built by Henderson and the clay tennis courts. Although the dog cemetery still exists, the original crosses marking the final resting place for 48 dogs have been replaced. The walled garden by the White sisters’ home—known today as the President’s Garden—is still there as is the pineapple-shaped fountain they installed. Traces of other features remain as well, including the breezeway

7 connecting the guest houses with the main house. Remodeled by Elizabeth White into a greenhouse, SAR later converted the space into resident scholar offices. Although the old swimming pool is gone, its changing rooms and pump house have been incorporated into the reception center built by SAR in 1999.

Given the fact that El Deliro’s original eleven buildings still remain, together with other “character-defining” features of the estate, we recommend that SAR’s campus be considered a historic site, similar to the campus at St. John’s College currently on the HSFF register. The fact that so many buildings and other features of this sizeable estate have survived in Santa Fe makes this a unique historic property.

7. Dog Cemetery located near the sisters’ grave

8. Walled garden with pineapple fountain

Non-Contributing Historic Buildings on SAR’s Campus

The other nine historic buildings, though considered “non-contributing,” do in fact contribute to its proposed designation as a historic site. Listed chronologically by the date of construction, each is described below. The six buildings built by SAR—Indian Arts Research Center, Dubin Studio, Catherine McElvain Library, Reception Center, King Artist Residence, and Work Plaza—are not included as they are of recent construction.

9. Campus map of the School for Advanced Research

1920s Construction

Garage/estate managers house/guest house (Schwartz Seminar House) – This one- story Spanish-Pueblo Revival style building was originally built in 1926 by William Penhallow Henderson for use as a garage and storage facility. In 1930 it was converted into a home for Jack Lambert, hired in 1929 as estate manager. He would subsequently move to a house across the street, where he would later live with his wife, Marjorie Ferguson, who he married in 1950. A former student of Edgar Lee Hewett, Marge Lambert had become a prominent southwest archaeologist. Elizabeth White later converted the building into guest accommodations. Foreshadowing the seminar program, in 1963, Elizabeth invited SAR to host a conference there on lithic typology in the Americas. Upon inheriting the estate, SAR added a bedroom, suite, and cottage to meet the needs of its seminar program. It later expanded the meeting room and more recently enlarged the kitchen. Despite this extensive remodel, the original bedrooms and dining room retain much of their original character, including a corner fireplace and vigas. The Board of Managers renamed the building the Schwartz Seminar House in honor of its long-time president, Douglas Schwartz upon his retirement in 2001.

10. Schwartz Seminar House

Guest houses (Resident Scholar Apartments) The small house purchased by the White sisters in 1923 has been remodeled into the Bandelier apartment. Two additional guest houses, today known as Hewett and Kidder, a two-story apartment, were built around 1925 in the Spanish Pueblo Revival style. Utilizing mud plaster on the exterior, both had stone foundations, exposed vigas, flush wood windows, and doors in trimmed openings. All three currently serve as apartments for SAR’s resident scholars.

1930s Construction

Horse Stables (Marge Lambert Apartment)—located at 679 ½ Garcia Street. In 1930, estate manager Jack Lambert built a stables across the street to accommodate the White sisters’ horses and mules. Although Elizabeth enjoyed riding, Martha White was the equestrian and frequently competed in horse shows. During the 1930s she became part owner of a thoroughbred horse ranch in Arizona. Maintaining its Spanish-Pueblo architecture, the building was subsequently remodeled by SAR for use as a resident scholar apartment. The corral and two pens, however, remain, and according to archaeologist Steve Post (2011: 45), exhibit few changes apart from minor deterioration. In a 2011 study, he refers to them “as an iconic symbol of the early 20th century when Santa Fe’s new residents thought to create a setting that embodied many of the romantic and traditional aspects of the Southwest.” Not included in Elizabeth White’s legacy to SAR, the School later purchased the property, which was remodeled into a resident scholar apartment.

Dog Kennel (now SAR Press) – In 1930 the White sisters, fulfilling a long-time dream, bought a breeding pair of Irish wolfhounds. Calling their kennel Rathmullan, they asked estate manager Jack Lambert to build them a state-of-the art kennel. “They left, and I built it that winter” he explained, hoping it would be completed by the time the first set of puppies arrived. It was, but just barely. On March 1, 1931, he sent a Western Union telegram to Martha White, who was in New York City at the time. “Heating plant installed and operating,” he wrote. “Eight healthy pups arrived this evening.” he continued. Although constructed in the Spanish-Pueblo Revival style, complete with vigas, he used hollow pentile bricks manufactured by penitentiary inmates using locally

10 quarried clay. The kennel building consisted of five individual rooms, each large enough to accommodate two wolfhounds. A puppy room, trophy room, and small kitchen completed the interior. In 1932 the White sisters hired a kennel master, Alex Scot, who resided in a second-story apartment also built by Jack Lambert. Elizabeth White would later raise Afghans as well.

11. Kennel master, Alex Scott, with Afghans

By 1960, Elizabeth dog raising venture had ended. In 1962 she and her sister Abby White Howells transferred the facility to SAR, in desperate need of space for its archaeology program. Architect John Gaw Meem renovated the building in 1962 to accommodate an archaeology laboratory and darkroom. In 1984 John Midyette modified the space for use by SAR Press, which currently occupies the building.

New York Room (Resident Scholar Apartment). During the 1930s, the White sisters built an apartment in the Territorial Revival style. The Wagner apartment, as it’s called today, included a “New York Room” reminiscent of their living room in New York City, complete with a crystal chandelier In keeping with the other buildings, windows, doors, and parapets were later altered to conform to the Spanish Pueblo Revival style.

Jack Lambert Residence (Jack Lambert Apartment), 679 Garcia Street. Constructed in 1938 in the Spanish-Pueblo Revival style house, Jack Lambert resided there together with his wife, Marjorie Ferguson, who he married in 1950. The couple lived there until 1984. Not included in Elizabeth White’s legacy to SAR, the School later purchased the property, which was remodeled into a resident scholar apartment.

1940s Construction

Gazebo. Elizabeth White hired architect John Gaw Meem to build a summer house, complete with windows and doors, to house Martha’s ashes. Completed in 1949, it encompassed a previously installed fountain and bust of Martha, posing as Athena. Initially created by sculptor Francois Tonetti to be installed above the entrance to the New York Public Library, Elizabeth had the sculpture recast for Martha’s memorial.

Windows and doors were later removed from the structure, now known as the gazebo. After Elizabeth died in 1972, both sisters were interred in a grave outside the building.

12. Gazebo designed by John Gaw Meem in 1949

2) The Setting for Significant Events that Took Place Historically

The White sisters hosted some of Santa Fe’s most iconic parties, which often got rave reviews in the Santa Fe New Mexican. Guests included prominent artists such as Will Shuster, John Sloan, Randall Davey Gustave Baumann; architects John Gaw Meem and William Penhallow Henderson; poet Alice Corbin Henderson; as well as politicians and other prominent officials, including Governor Hagermann. “Her parties were occasions of state,” explained Nancy Meem Wirth (Stark and Rayne, 133).

13. Swimming pool dedication, 1926

Among their first parties was a ceremony to dedicate their new swimming pool in July 1926. Witter Bynner wrote the script for the “Ceremonial Sacrifice at the Sacred Well,” a Mayan-inspired ceremony in which King Chac dedicated the ceremonial pool to the Great Feathered Serpent. The White sisters played the part of the two sacrificial virgins, Flower of Day and Flower of Night. A modified version of the ceremony was re-enacted in September 2009 by the Historic Santa Fe Foundation to dedicate a restored fountain.

In 1928, the community flocked to see the performance of El Baile de la Rifa, a play written by Martha White and performed in their living room. Set in Andalusia, Spain, the cast included Witter Bynner, William Penhallow Henderson, Will Shuster, John Gaw Meem, and of course the White sisters.

On Aug 30, 1935, several hundred guests attended a Fiesta party at El Delirio. Calling it “the most original party of the Fiesta season,” the Santa Fe New Mexican went on to describe: Will Shuster’s “professional flea act,” artist John Sloan’s uproarious pantomime of riding in a bus on Fifth Avenue in New York, and Jane Bauman’s rendition of “She’s only a Bird in a Gilded Cage.” The event concluded with guests singing “Rolling Home.” In 1949, Elizabeth hosted an elaborate costume ball in honor of the 18th century Italian painter, Pietro Longhi. Gustave Baumann and his daughter Anne were among the many notable guests. Over the years, other guests at El Delirio included Agatha Christie and her archaeologist husband, Max Mallowan, and Joy Adamson, author of Born Free.

14. Gustave Baumann dances with daughter Ann at the Pietro Longhi party in 1949.

During the 1940s, Elizabeth entertained a group of Los Alamos atomic scientists, including Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi. When the American Anthropological Association had its annual meeting in Albuquerque in 1948, she invited the entire group for lunch at El Delirio. Elizabeth, who played the piano, hosted concerts in “the chapel” and sponsored performances at El Delirio by dancer Jacques Cartier. She also hosted gala events for composer Igor Stravinsky and guitarist Andres Segovia.

When the United States entered WWII, Elizabeth became regional director for Dogs for Defense, a national program that encouraged citizens to donate their dogs to the war effort. She provided the use of her kennel and the services of her kennel master. As the result of her efforts, several hundred New Mexicans donated their dogs, who arrived at El Delirio for an initial assessment before going to their respective army training centers.

15. Elizabeth White and Dogs for Defense, August 1942

3) Associated with the lives of people prominent in Santa Fe history Amelia Elizabeth White, 1878-1972, and Martha Root White, 1881-1937

Elizabeth and Martha White grew up in New York City in a world of culture and privilege on Manhattan’s upper eastside. Their father, journalist Horace White, instilled in them a strong sense of social justice, which was reinforced by their education at Bryn Mawr College. Graduating in 1901 and 1903, respectively, they also acquired a love of dramatics and a taste for pageantry. Volunteering for the Red Cross, both served overseas as nursing assistants during World War I.

Shifting their attention to New Mexico, they joined national and local efforts to protect Pueblo land and helped defeat the Bursum bill in 1923. The following year, Elizabeth, deeply concerned about Indian health, did a study of trachoma on the Navajo Reservation. During the depression, she anonymously funded nurses to provide health care in native communities.

Both sisters took an active interest in Indian art and become founding members of the Indian Arts Fund (IAF), established in 1925 to preserve and promote Indian art by collecting outstanding examples and making them available for study and inspiration. A heavy contributor to the collection, Elizabeth served as a trustee since its inception. In 1964, IAF donated the collection, then numbering 4,500 pieces, to SAR, which, in 1978 SAR built the Indian Arts Research Center to house that collection. Now numbering over 12,000 pieces, an annex was added in 1985.

16. Indian Arts Fund trustees, 1964 (From left, Andrew Dasburg, Elizabeth White, Kenneth Chapman, and Jesse Nusbaum)

Concerned about the survival of native peoples, Elizabeth worked diligently to create a market for Indian art and became a collector herself. Hoping to interest New Yorkers in utilizing Indian arts and crafts as home furnishings, in 1922 she opened Ishauu, an Indian arts and crafts shop on Madison Avenue. Although not terribly successful, she incorporated some of its furnishings into her own home. Elizabeth’s legacy to SAR includes Indian pots transformed into lamps and a drum serving as a side table, currently on display in its board room and president’s office.

Elizabeth came to view Indian art as imbued with a spirit not found in contemporary modern art. She sought to have it recognized as fine art rather than ethnographic specimens of scientific curiosity. To achieve that goal, she hosted the 1931 Exposition of Indian Tribal Arts at the Grand Central Galleries in New York City and invited Pueblo artists to attend. She continued to collect Indian art, herself, and by the time of Martha’s death in 1937, she had amassed a sizeable collection. Having no suitable place to house it, she donated 1,350 pieces to museums and schools across the country.

The White sisters were also deeply interest in traditional Hispanic culture. In 1925, they hired Jesse Nusbaum to design 26 pieces of furniture for their new home. As a former staff member at the Museum of New Mexico, Nusbaum had played a major role in the renovation of the Palace of the Governors. Recently named superintendent at Mesa Verde National Park, he agreed to design Mission-style furniture, as he called it, on the condition that Sam Huddleson, who had a shop in Santa Fe, build it. Their friends loved the results, which were the subject of an article titled “Notable Spanish-Colonial House Furnishing in the Home of the Misses White, Santa Fe New Mexico,” published in the February 1925 issue of Good Furniture.

Eager to promote what they considered traditional architecture, the White sisters, together with attorney Francis C. Wilson, established the DeVargas Development Corporation.

Founded in 1925, Elizabeth served as president of the company, which eventually purchased some 385 acres of land on Santa Fe’s east side. The corporation sold lots and imposed architectural covenants requiring that houses be constructed in the Spanish- Pueblo Revival style. In 1927 they granted quick claim deeds on Camino del Monte Sol to four of the five Cinco Pintores: Josef G. Bakos, Willard Nash, Will Shuster, and Fremont Ellis.

The company was generous. In 1927 the partners donated land for the construction of the Laboratory of Anthropology. Ten years later land, the firm donated land to Mary Cabot Wheelwright for construction of the Museum of Navajo Ceremonial Art, now the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian. In 1937 the corporation together with the Laboratory of Anthropology conveyed 8.04 acres of land to the National Park Service on what is now the Old Santa Fe Trail. In 1939 the Park Service erected an office building on that site, thought to be the country’s largest adobe building.

This, however, wasn’t their only real estate venture. In 1927, the White sisters, Bronson Cutting, then a newspaper publisher, and Dr. Frank Mera, owner of Sunmount Sanatorium, purchased an old 33-room hacienda, located one block from the historic Santa Fe Plaza, from the heirs of Jose D. Sena. They partnered with attorney Francis C. Wilson to form Sena Plaza Inc. The company hired William Penhallow Henderson to renovate the building. He built another wing and added a second floor onto the existing wing, resulting in a Territorial Revival appearance. Upon completion it would be used for office space, including a restaurant, which the White sisters operated for a few years.

17. Sena Plaza following its 1927 renovation.

A community activist, Elizabeth White was also a member of the Spanish Colonial Arts Society and the Old Santa Fe Association. In 1933 she was elected president of the New Mexico Kennel Club. Under her leadership, the club switched its annual dog shows from Albuquerque to Santa Fe. The White sisters’ dogs continued to excel in both local and national competitions. In 1945 Elizabeth purchased a dilapidated house on Garcia Street from Hilario Garcia and turned it into the Garcia Street Club for Boys and Girls. She served on its board of directors through the 1950s. In 1966 she donated land to the city for a Korean War Memorial. Today known as Amelia E. White Park, it’s located adjacent to SAR on Old Santa Fe Trail.

One of Elizabeth’s major accomplishments, however, was providing Santa Fe with its first animal shelter. She lobbied the City Council to replace the out-of-date dog pound with a modern facility. Elizabeth, together with her younger sister Abby, provided the funds needed to construct the facility, which opened in fall 1939 in memory of Martha. To provide ongoing funding, Elizabeth converted a guest house into the Martha White Memorial Art Gallery, which opened in December 1941. Hosting monthly art shows, she contributed the proceeds to the animal shelter. Artists included such luminaries as John Sloan, Sheldon Parsons, Dorothy Stewart, Randall Davey, Will Shuster, William Penhallow Henderson, Gustave Baumann, and Olive Rush. The gallery, however, was short-lived. It closed November 1, 1942 following a show by Gina Knee.

Elizabeth White died on August 28, 1972, her 94th birthday. As her nephew William W. Howells, a Harvard anthropologist, had advised, she left her estate to the School of American Research (SAR), now the School for Advanced Research. Founded in 1907 as the School of American Archaeology— and originally housed in the Palace of the Governors—SAR relocated in 1959 to Hewett House on Lincoln Avenue. Renamed the School for Advanced Research in 2007, SAR currently describes itself as an “independent institution advancing creative thought and innovative work in social sciences and humanities and fostering the preservation and revitalization of Native American cultural heritage” (www.sarweb.org).

Why are you interested in placing the property on the Historic Santa Fe Foundation’s Register? To ensure that the historical significance of El Delirio, created by Elizabeth and Martha White, and the far reaching impact of their work on local people and institutions is preserved.

The White sisters played a major role in fostering the use of Spanish-Pueblo Revival Architecture in private homes. Not only did they employ that style on the houses built at El Delirio, they also imposed architectural covenants on the hundreds of acres of land sold through their DeVargas Development Corporation. Consequently, they played a key role in the spread of that style on Santa Fe’s east side, from Garcia Street through Museum Hill. In addition, the fact that so much of El Delirio still remains—from its eleven buildings to its terraces and tennis courts—makes this one of the most unique historic sites in Santa Fe. The property’s possible inclusion in the fifth edition of Old Santa Fe Today makes this nomination even more compelling. The White sisters played a key role in the history of other buildings scheduled for inclusion in that volume—i.e. Sena Plaza and the director’s house, Laboratory of Anthropology. Adding El Delirio to this volume will enhance understanding of those properties as well.

Sources Cited

Colby, Catherine, “Architectural Evolution of the SAR Campus and Lambert House and Stables,” In “Archaeological and Historical Study of the School for Advanced Research Campus at 660, 666, and 679 Garcia Street, Santa Fe, NM” by Stephen S. Post, Archaeology Notes 442, Office of Archaeological Studies, Museum of New Mexico, 2011, pp. 63-79.

Felix, Barbara, 2018 Campus Master Plan, School for Advanced Research, SAR Report.

Lewis, Nancy Owen and Hagan, Kay, A Peculiar Alchemy: A Centennial History of SAR (Santa Fe, School for Advanced Research Press, 2007).

Jones, Arthur Frederick, “Erin’s Famous Hound at Rathmullan,” The American Kennel Gazette 51, no. 5 (May 1, 1934).

Kingman, Elizabeth Y., “The Furnishings in the Boardroom at the School of American Research,” unpublished report, October 1991.

Lambert, Jack, Martha and Amelia Elizabeth White Papers, AC 18.112, School for Advanced Research (SAR) Archives.

Murphy, Victoria, “Amelia Elizabeth White: Some of Her Contributions to Art in Santa Fe and Elsewhere.” Unpublished manuscript, Martha and Amelia Elizabeth White Papers, AC 18.373, SAR Archives.

Post, Stephen S., “Archaeological and Historical Study of the School for Advanced Research Campus at 660, 666, and 679 Garcia Street, Santa Fe, NM,” Archaeology Notes 442, Office of Archaeological Studies, Museum of New Mexico, 2011.

Stark, Gregor and E. Catherine Rayne, El Delirio: The Santa Fe World of Elizabeth White (Santa Fe, School of American Research Press, 1998)

Taylor, Lonn and Dess Bokides, New Mexican Furniture, 1600-1840: The Origins, Survival, and Revival of Furniture Making in the Hispanic Southwest (Santa Fe, Museum of New Mexico Press, 1987).

Weideman, Paul, Architecture Santa Fe: A Guidebook (Santa Fe, Running Lizard Press, 2019).

Do you have any documentation on the property (deeds, old photos, written histories, etc.) that you can submit?

Upon request, Nancy Owen Lewis will provide copies of A Peculiar Alchemy: A Centennial History of SAR (Lewis and Hagan 2007) and El Delirio: The Santa Fe World of Elizabeth White (Stark and Rayne 1998).

Most of the historic photos included in this document were obtained from SAR’s photo archives at the Catherine McElvain Library. For more information, please contact librarian Katherine Wolf at [email protected] or 505-954-7234. The following is a list of photo credits for the images used in this document: Images 1-5, 8-9, and 11-16, courtesy of the School for Advanced Research; Images 6 & 10, courtesy of Paul A. Lewis; Image 7, courtesy of Jonathan A. Lewis; and Image 17, courtesy of the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives.

Is the resource in danger? Please describe. This resource is not technically in danger. Placing it on the HSFF Register, however, will raise awareness of the importance of this property and help ensure that future renovations will be done so as not to compromise key historic features.

Signature of Applicant

______Signature of Applicant

August 5, 2020______Date