Jesse Nusbaum

If you’re wandering through downtown Santa Fe and feel like the buildings are quietly telling you stories, you’re not imagining it. One of the key people responsible for preserving those stories is Jesse L. Nusbaum, a name you probably won’t see on a street sign—but whose influence is everywhere once you know where to look.

Nusbaum (1887–1975) was an archaeologist, anthropologist, photographer, and one of the early visionaries of the National Park Service in the American Southwest. At a time when historic preservation wasn’t yet a popular idea, he recognized that the Native American and Spanish Colonial architecture of New Mexico wasn’t just old—it was irreplaceable. And worth fighting for.

His fingerprints are all over Santa Fe, especially at one of the city’s most iconic landmarks: the Palace of the Governors. Sitting along the Santa Fe Plaza, the Palace is often described as the oldest continuously occupied public building in the United States. By the early 20th century, though, it was in rough shape and at risk of being “modernized” out of its original character. Nusbaum stepped in with a radical idea for the time: restore the building using traditional materials and techniques, and respect its layered history rather than erasing it.

Nusbaum oversaw careful restoration work that stabilized the Palace and honored its Pueblo and Spanish Colonial roots. He didn’t just preserve adobe walls—he helped preserve a sense of place. Thanks to that work, today’s visitors can still experience the Palace as a living record of centuries of governance, trade, and cultural exchange.

Nusbaum also documented the Southwest extensively through photography, capturing pueblos, missions, and everyday life at a moment when much of it was rapidly changing. His work helped shape how Americans understood the region—not as a romantic fantasy, but as a complex, living cultural landscape.

If you’re planning a trip to Santa Fe, this makes for a perfect downtown history walk. Start at the Plaza, linger under the Palace portal where Native artisans sell jewelry, then wander nearby streets where adobe buildings echo the same preservation ethic Nusbaum championed. You don’t need a guidebook to enjoy it—just curiosity and comfortable shoes.

Santa Fe rewards slow exploration. And thanks to Jesse Logan Nusbaum, it still looks and feels like itself while doing so.