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Real Estate & Homes in Santa Fe - Santa Fe Information
Santa Fe
 Santa Fe is a unique blend of history and romance, of art and innovation. It is the meeting place of three distinctly powerful cultural groups: Anglo, Hispanic, and Native American. It is also an oasis of big money and big ambitions in the midst of a state that is not, overall, given to an excess of either. It is an old city, full of Old World charm and aware of its long history but, unlike many long-settled places, it is not worn down or burdened by the length of its years. While suffused with memory, the ancient city is governed principally by the life that occupies it now.
The Land
At an elevation of seven thousand feet on a plateau at the feet of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains (for the red glow of sunlight on their snow-covered peaks which reminded Spanish friars of Christ’s blood), Santa Fe is a High Desert community, which means that water is a precious resource and, even in summer, after sundown the temperatures drop. The sky is an intoxicatingly intense shade of blue almost every day and the sunlight through the clear air casts a glow of gold that turns to shades of peach and pink on the red-brown soil and stucco at sunset. At night, because the lights are less intense than those of many similar-sized cities, the stars are especially pronounced pinpoints of light and the darkness is especially inky. Low, pinon pines prevail in the natural areas. In the city, generations of residents have worked to cultivate the shady trees of the downtown and South Capitol areas. Most years, late frost nips back the buds and the many apricot trees provide shade but little fruit. Once every three or four years, the frost spares the blossoms and by August the apricots are dropping onto the sidewalks faster than anyone, including the squirrels, knows what to do with them. Then, in September, in the last glow of summer, the wild asters bloom and the land turns purple with great shrubs of the tiny starry flowers. There are times when the New Mexico State motto “The Land of Enchantment” seems like an understatement.
History
- 1300 Pueblo culture is well established in Northern New Mexico. Some pueblos from that era remain in use this day.
- 1598 A Spanish colonial expedition into Nuevo Mexico travels along the Rio Grande, settling twenty-five miles north of Santa Fe.
- 1610 Governor Don Pedro de Peralta moves the capital of Nuevo Mexico to Santa Fe, making the city arguably the oldest capital in the United States.
- 1680 Local Native Americans rebel against the often-oppressive methods of religious conversion and their harsh, servile living.
- 1692-3 Governor-General Don Diego de Vargas brings Santa Fe, once again, under Spanish rule, but with an understanding that the spiritual observances of the Pueblos will be tolerated. Northern New Mexico remains relatively isolated for more than a hundred years, allowing the development of distinctive styles in everything from handicrafts to religious observance. The Spanish spoken among the old families, those whose land titles originated as Spanish Land Grants, often strikes native speakers of modern Spanish as either the antiquated speech of their own far distant ancestors or, by turns, as the shockingly profane language of the drovers and rough characters among the 17th century colonists.
- 1821 When Mexico wins its independence from Spain the ban on foreign trade comes to an end. William Becknell establishes trade with Missouri over the Santa Fe Trail.
- 1846 The United States declares war on Mexico and, in a victory negotiated in the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, wins a vast territory including all of modern New Mexico. General Stephen Kearny, the first American territorial governor, makes no effort to change the established ways of the local residents, so the various local cultures are transmitted unchanged for at least another century.
- 1879 The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad arrives in Santa Fe.
- 1912 New Mexico statehood.
- 1920 With the arrival of Los Cinco Pintores (The Five Painters), the already active arts community of Santa Fe begins to gain national prominence.
- 1926 A tradition unique to Santa Fe is born as the idea of artist Will Shuster: Zozobra, still the central feature of Las Fiestas de Santa Fe. Each September, on the final night of Fiesta, the enormous ghostlike puppet which symbolizes all the past year’s frustrations and gloom is burned in a dramatic ceremony featuring the red-costumed Fire Dancers and rockets and other fireworks that shoot from the Zozobra’s flaming head and animated, burning arms and eyes. Thousands of people attend the event on Fort Marcy Field north of the Plaza. The nation’s oldest community celebration, Las Fiestas de Santa Fe have been celebrated every year since 1712 – originally in commemoration of de Vargas’ victory that allowed Spanish re-settlement of Santa Fe.
- 1957 Santa Fe’s Historical Zoning Ordinance enacted, requiring that most structures in the preservation areas be no more than three stories tall, an adobe-like stucco brown color, and have flat roofs.
- 1960s Santa Fe’s popularity as a tourist destination and an arts center begins to grow and has never stopped since.
Arts and Cultural Attractions
The city abounds in museums and is home to more than two hundred fine art galleries. Many of the galleries are clustered around the historic Plaza area and along nearby Canyon Road. The museum offerings include the relatively new Georgia O’Keeffe Museum which specializes in the beloved artist’s work and occasionally features exhibitions of that of one or two of her contemporaries among New Mexico artists; The Palace of the Governors, now a history museum whose portal shelters Native American vendors as they sell handmade jewelry; the Museum of Fine Arts; the Museum of the Institute of American Indian Arts; Museum of Indian Arts and Culture; Museum of International Folk Art; the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian; and several historic churches which are now preserved as museums. Among the more notable of the churches is the Santuario de Guadalupe, the oldest shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe in the United States. Constructed between 1776 and 1795, it houses a small but notable collection of art including a painting of Jesus driving the money changers from the temple by 16th century Venetian Leonardo de Ponte Bassano. The Santa Fe Opera, founded in 1956, is an internationally renowned treasure of the opera world. The facility, itself, is remarkable – the recently renovated, outdoor venue seats more than twenty-one hundred. No matter how artful the stage scenery, it is bound to be overshadowed by the glory of the silhouetted mountains and mesas against the twilight sky. Each summer, the opera mounts five productions, usually one premiere and four more traditional productions. The opening night of the Opera season is a fascinating and uniquely Santa Fe phenomenon for which the city’s ultra-wealthy (and there are enough of them to fill the amphitheatre) dress spectacularly for an evening of tailgate parties in the parking lot before the production. These, however, are no ordinary tailgate parties. It is for this night that the real purpose of the tiny Santa Fe airport becomes apparent, as delicacies are flown in fresh from around the world. Santa Fe Children’s Museum is a place for kids to be busy and happy. The indoor area has a canal with toy boats, a giant bubble maker, an arts station, climbing walls, and a changing array of interactive exhibits and play centers. The outdoor facilities include interconnecting gardens with rabbits and frogs and hummingbirds, a sound garden with a tuned xylophone-like instrument constructed of flywheels and tractor parts, a kite-flying field, a tower from which the entire property is visible, a dirt-digging area, and a solar bunker-like building full of songbirds.
Outdoor Life
The dry climate makes summertime outdoor activity relatively comfortable even on hot days. Visitors and new arrivals should exercise caution as they exercise. Altitude sickness and dehydration can develop quickly, especially in children and older adults. A day or two of easing into the local conditions can make all the difference between misery and enjoyment.
Rivers – Several rafting companies lead excursions on the nearby Rio Grande. The Taos Box run offers some of the most challenging and exciting whitewater anywhere. More sedate, if that term can ever apply to river adventure, rafting and canoe trips are available on other sections of the river.
Skiing – The Santa Fe Ski Basin is a popular ski destination, as is 10,000 Waves, a Japanese-style spa halfway down the mountain road from the ski area to the city. Cross-country skiing is possible just about anywhere, during the winter season.
Hiking and Walking – Santa Fe is a city of and for pedestrians. The pace of life is relaxed and there is a lot to see. So much is packed into a few exciting blocks and parking is so challenging on the narrow streets of the older neighborhoods that it is hardly worth the effort of driving on a nice day. For the more athletic hiker, there are scores of excellent hiking trails of varying levels of difficulty and dozens of fine books about hiking around Santa Fe.
Education and Intellectual Life
Santa Fe is home to two private colleges. The College of Santa Fe is a Christian Brothers school with a traditional college curriculum. The College of Santa Fe is well regarded for its theatre and other performing arts programs. The Santa Fe campus of Saint John’s College is a sister campus to the Saint John’s in Annapolis, Maryland, the third oldest college in the United States. Though, the Santa Fe campus only dates back to the early nineteen sixties, like its sister, it brings centuries of intellectual history to the table through the Great Books Program. There are also an excellent community college and various extension programs of the University of New Mexico and New Mexico Highlands University in Santa Fe. The Human Genome Project’s data analysis is conducted in Santa Fe. The Santa Fe Institute, a complex systems think tank, is based in town. Innovative teaching abounds in Santa Fe, with several excellent public schools, and abundant choices in home schooling, private schools, and charter schools available from elementary school through high school.
Dining 
The food in Santa Fe is phenomenal. In a town with a year-round population of about seventy thousand, it is unusual to have more than five hundred restaurants. Santa Fe, of course, is an unusual place. Many excellent abundantly interpret the local cuisine and a few very fine chefs throughout the region. Other cuisines from around the world are well represented and, because the varying cultures of Santa Fe and its visitors share at least one value – the importance of quality and attention to detail, just about everything is done beautifully.
Christmas in Santa Fe
The week leading up to Christmas is a special time in Santa Fe. In the evenings, the flat roofs, as well as the balconies and sidewalks, of the historic districts are lines with traditional farolitos, votive candles inside small sand-weighted paper bags. The soft glow complements the adobe buildings without being garish. Pinon pine snaps and burns with a distinctly inviting fragrance in fireplaces and in open firepits made of oil-drums – warming fires tended on the streets for the benefit of strangers. Carolers and mariachi bands stroll, their feet squeaking and crunching on new snow, along Canyon Road and around the plaza. Galleries are open well into the night, serving the floury biscochitos, the traditional Christmas cookie and, according to the legislature, the official cookie of the state of New Mexico. If there is a chorale concert in the Cathedral, it is easy to tell even while passing by because on cold nights, the stonewalls hum along in sympathetic harmonics with the voices lifted inside and there is a faint silvery hum from the church bells.
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