Edgar Lee Hewett

Hewett would often travel to California, South America, Europe, and even to the Middle East, but he always returned to Santa Fe, as this was the place that he felt was home. In 1907, the School of American Archeology was born. Since a lot of American archaeology at that time centered in New Mexico, Santa Fe seemed to be the logical place for the school to be located. Eventually, in 1909, they took over the old Palace of the Governors, which was in disrepair, with murmurings of taking it down, and restored it to become the School of American Archaeology. At this time the Museum of New Mexico was also conceived, and housed in the Palace. Hewett  became the director of both the School and the Museum, a position he would hold until his death in 1946. This provided him with a platform for his often controversial research activities.

One of the city’s stipulations in giving over the Palace, was to restore it back to how it may have looked during the Spanish Era. Hewett then teamed up with some notable people, many having arrived in Santa Fe because of tuberculosis. These included artist Carlos Vierra, builder Jesse Nusbaum, architect Issac Rapp, attorney and philanthropist Frank Springer, and - a little further down the road - architect John Gaw Meem. Through their research and time spent photographing the old mission churches of northern New Mexico, they came up with the “New-Old” look for their building, effectively inventing the Pueblo-Spanish Revival Style. This style proved to be very successful, and today Santa Fe is internationally known for this iconic look. And the city’s wholesale adoption of Pueblo-Spanish Revival styles, along with the complementary Territorial Revival, accelerated the movement to make Santa Fe into a tourist destination.

Hewett was an archaeologist, but he was also quite a Renaissance Man, and when he got to Santa Fe he discovered that there were many artists in the city. He realized that a vibrant art colony would be another attraction for tourists, and he supported this vision by opening parts of the Palace as an art gallery, and even providing studio space for newly-arrived artists. This generous approach encouraged artists to such an extent that Santa Fe is now the third largest art market in the United States.

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Edgar Lee Hewett