by Amanda Allen
Olive Rush (1873–1966) was an artist, muralist, teacher, and great advocate for Native artists. A Quaker from Indiana, she moved permanently to Santa Fe in 1920 and was instrumental in opening the Museum of Fine Arts (where Maddie has her own first art show). It was meant to give a venue to local artists, especially Native Americans, and she herself painted numerous murals that can still be seen all around the country. Her house on Canyon Road was left to the Quakers and is still there in its mostly original condition.
Frank Springer (1848–1927) was an attorney, rancher, railroad millionaire, and artist and archaeologist, as well as a quintessential Western character! The town of Springer is named for him, and his wife was known as one of the most famous hostesses in Santa Fe.
Alice Corbin Henderson (1881–1949) was a poet who met her husband, the painter William Penhallow Henderson (1877–1943) at the Institute of Fine Arts in Chicago. They came to Santa Fe in 1916 when she contracted tuberculosis and stayed on, becoming leaders of artistic life in the city and another great support for Native arts.
The poet Witter Bynner (1881–1968) spent most of his early life traveling Europe and Asia until he moved to Santa Fe with his companion, Walter Johnson, in 1922 and became another leader of local society, hosting people such as D. H. Lawrence, Georgia O’Keefe, Willa Cather, Igor Stravinsky (who led a concert in the cathedral), Robert Frost, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Martha Graham. His beautiful house is now the Inn of the Turquoise Bear.
La Fonda Hotel is still a gorgeous centerpiece of downtown Santa Fe! It’s said that an inn of some sort has stood on the spot for over four hundred years, but the place Maddie would have recognized was quite new, redesigned by Mary Colter and meant as a luxury accommodation. The open central courtyard is now an elegant dining room and the bar newly remodeled, but the margaritas are as good as ever, and they say the ghost bride still rides the elevator! Just outside is the plaza, where there are musical concerts in the summer and magical lights at Christmas and where young people still meet and flirt and tourists buy jewelry from the merchants under the old portal of the 1600s Palace of the Governors. The tunnels under the main plaza were real, and a few remnants can be seen in shop basements.
I still do some of my grocery shopping at Kaune’s Grocery, though it’s moved a few blocks away since it opened in 1896! It’s said to have been the first place in town to sell Coca-Cola and to deliver for free. (Sadly, Mrs. Nussbaum’s tearoom, said to serve delicious cinnamon toast, is long gone!)
Sunmount Sanatorium was considered the height of luxury and excellent health care when one of New Mexico’s greatest industries was caring for TB patients. The fresh mountain air, abundant sunshine, and good food of the hospital (a central, Spanish-style main hospital and cottages with sun porches) brought in many artists who made the town their home after they were cured. Gerald and Ida Cassidy, Sheldon Parsons, and John Gaw Meem, were just a few. Nothing of it remains now, but the old St. Vincent’s Hospital still stands beside the gorgeous nineteenth-century French Gothic cathedral built by the famous Archbishop Lamy. The hospital is now partially a hotel, but watch out for the basement’s ghosts! The school of the Loretto Sisters, first opened in 1852, is no longer standing, except for their famous chapel with the spiral staircase. The school was closed in 1968 after educating countless young women, and their chapel is now used for concerts and weddings.
San Ildefonso Pueblo, first built around the year 1300, is north of Santa Fe, near Los Alamos, and can still be visited at certain times. (Don’t miss the January 23 feast dance day, when the public is invited!) If you love the beautiful pottery of Maria Martinez and her family, a visit to her home is a must.
Maddie’s own house on Canyon Road is based on El Zaguan, originally built in the 1850s and enlarged over the years. Today, it houses the Historical Santa Fe Foundation and is not open to the public, but the garden is always there for everyone to see. The portal and shady walkways are the perfect place to take a break from gallery hopping.
Many thanks to the art tours at La Fonda, the walking tours of Ghost Walks Santa Fe, and the librarians at the Archives at the History Museum for the great information and time spent answering all my questions. (The Archives keeps an online register of thousands of photos at palaceofthegovernors.org/library.) I highly recommend a visit to any of these when you come to town!
A few books I found useful include the following:
Taos and Santa Fe: The Artist’s Environment, 1882–1942 and Artists of Twentieth Century New Mexico, Van Deren Coke (1963)
Frank Springer and New Mexico: From the Colfax County War to the Emergence of Modern Santa Fe, David F. Caffey (2006)
Turn Left at the Sleeping Dog: Scripting the Santa Fe Legend, 1920–1955 (2006)
The Inn of History: An Account of La Fonda Since 1610, La Fonda Hotel (1977)
La Fonda: Then and Now (2016)
Olive Rush: Finding Her Place in the Santa Fe Art Colony, Jann Haynes Gilmore (2016)
Chasing the Cure in New Mexico: Tuberculosis and the Quest for Health, Nancy Owen Lewis (2016)
Literary Pilgrims: The Santa Fe and Taos Writers’ Colonies, 1917–1950 (2007)
Loretto: The Sisters and Their Santa Fe Chapel, Mary J. Straw Cook (2002)
Lamy of Santa Fe, Paul Horgan (2012)
Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather (1927)
Taos Artists and Their Patrons, 1898–1950, Dean A. Porter (1999)
Light, Landscape, and the Creative Quest: Early Artists of Santa Fe, Stacia Lewandowski (2011)
The Santa Fe and Taos Art Colonies: Age of the Muses, 1900–1942 (1983)