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| Political Statistics | |||||
| Founded | 1607 | ||||
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| Incorporated | |||||
| CountyBoroughParish | Santa Fe County | ||||
| Mayor | Larry A. Delgado | ||||
| Geographic Statistics | |||||
| Area - Total - Land - Water | 96.9 km² (37.4 mi²) 0.2 km² (0.1 mi²) 0.21% | ||||
| Population - City (2000) - Density - Metropolitan | 62,203 643.4/km² | ||||
| Time zone | Mountain (UTC –7) | ||||
| Coordinates WGS-84 (GPS) | 35.6872° N 105.9439° W | ||||
| Website: www.santafenm.gov | |||||
Santa Fe (Spanish, "Holy Faith") (full form: La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asís, English: Royal City of the Holy Faith of St. Francis of Assisi) is the capital of New Mexico, a state of the United States of America.
It has a population of around 62,203 (2000) and is the county seat of Santa Fe County. The elevation of Santa Fe is 7,000 feet (2,132 meters) above sea level compared with approximately 5,352 ft for Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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Santa Fe was the capital of Nuevo México, a province of New Spain explored by Coronado and established in 1598. The city was founded by Don Pedro de Peralta, New Mexico's third governor. Peralta gave the city its full name, "La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís", or "The Royal City of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis of Assisi".
A settlement on the site that would become Santa Fe was first established by Juan Martinez de Montoya in 1607. The town was formally founded and made a capital in 1610, making it the oldest capital city and the second oldest surviving city founded by the European colonists in what land was later to become part of the United States, behind St. Augustine, Florida (1565). (Jamestown, Virginia was also settled in 1607).
Except for the years 1680-1692, when the native Pueblo people drove the Spaniards out of the area known as New Mexico, later to be "reconquered" by Don Diego de Vargas, Santa Fe remained Spain's provincial seat until 1810 at the outbreak of the Mexican War of Independence. In 1824 the city's status as the capital of the Mexican territory of Santa Fe de Nuevo México was formalized in the 1824 Constitution.
In 1841 a small military and trading expedition set out from Austin, Texas with the aim of gaining control over the Santa Fe Trail. Known as the Santa Fe Expedition the force was poorly prepared and was easily repelled by the Mexican army. In 1846, the United States declared war on Mexico, and General Kearny led a troop of US Cavalry into the city to claim it and the whole New Mexico Territory for the United States. By 1848 it officially gained New Mexico through The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
In 1851, Jean Baptiste Lamy, arrived in Santa Fe when he began construction of the Saint Francis Cathedral. For a few days in March 1863, the Confederate flag of General Henry Sibley flew over Santa Fe, until he was defeated by Union troops. Via a spur, Santa Fe was connected with the main line of the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe Railroad in 1880. With the railway and the invention of the telegraph , Santa Fe and New Mexico underwent an economic revolution.
Santa Fe was originally envisioned as an important stop on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, from Atchison, Kansas, to Santa Fe, and then to points west. However, as this railroad progressed into New Mexico, the civil engineers in charge realized that building the line through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains surrounding Santa Fe was impractical. Hence, they built the line through Lamy, a town in Santa Fe County to the south of Santa Fe. However, the net result was the gradual economic decline of Santa Fe as the railroad moved further West through Albuquerque.
In 1912 New Mexico became the country's 47th state, with Santa Fe as its capital.
Santa Fe is located at 35°40'2" North, 105°57'52" West (35.667231, -105.964575)GR1.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 96.9 km² (37.4 mi²). 96.7 km² (37.3 mi²) of it is land and 0.2 km² (0.1 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 0.21% water.
The average temperate in Santa Fe ranges from a low of 20F (-7C) to a high of 40F (4C) in winter, low of 55F (13C) to a high of 90F (27C) in summer. Santa Fe receives 1-2 inches (25-50 mm) of rain per month in summer and about 5 inches (12 cm) of snow per month in winter.
The Spanish laid out the city according the “Laws of the Indies”, town planning rules and ordinances which had been established in 1573 by King Phillip II. The fundamental principal was that the town be laid out around a central plaza. On its north side the Palace of the Governors was located while, on the East, was the church which later became the Cathedral of St Francis.
One other principals of style of city planning was the grid of streets radiating out from the central Plaza. Many were narrow and included alley-ways, and they gradually merged into the more casual byways of agricultural areas around the town’s perimeter. As the city grew throughout the 19th Century, it increasingly reflected the many varied styles of the times, so that by Statehood in 1912, the eclectic nature of its building styles which had evolved caused it took like “Anywhere USA” (as Hammett notes). The city government realized that the economic decline, which had started more than twenty years before with the railway moving West and the Federal government closing down Fort Marcy, might be reversed by the promotion of tourism.
To achieve that goal, the city created the idea of imposing a unified building style – the Spanish Pueblo Revival look, which was based on work done of restoring the Palace of the Governors. The sources for this style came from the many defining features of local architecture: vigas and canales from many old adobe homes, churches build many years before and found in the Pueblos, and the earth-toned, adobe-colored look of the exteriors.
In 1912??? this style was to become official: all buildings were to be built using these elements. By 1930 there was a broadening to include the “Territorial”, a style of the pre-statehood period which included the addition of portals and white-painted window and door pediments. The City had become “Different”. However, as Hammett notes, “in the rush to pueblofy” Santa Fe, the city lost a great deal of its architectural history and eclecticism”. Among the architects most closely associated with this “new” style is John Gaw Meem.
By an ordinance passed in 1958, new and rebuilt buildings, especially those in designated historic districts, must exhibit a Spanish Territorial or Pueblo style of architecture, with flat roofs and other features suggestive of the area's traditional adobe construction. However, many contemporary houses in the city are built from lumber, concrete blocks, and other common building materials, but with stucco surfaces (known by the locals as "fake adobe", pronounced as one word) reflecting the historic style.
In 2005/2006 a consultant group from Portland, Oregon have been preparing a “Santa Fe Downtown Vision Plan” to examine the long-range needs for the “downtown” area, roughly bounded by the Paseo de Peralta on the north, south and East sides and by Galisteo Street on the West. In consultation with members of the community groups, who are encourage to provide feedback, the consultants will make recommendations on whether to proceed with the present policy of focusing on the Territorial and Pueblo styles.
The city is well-known as a center for many arts and all reflect the multi-cultural character of the city.
There are many outdoor sculptures, including many statues of Saint Francis, and several other saints, such as Kateri Tekakwitha. Given that Saint Francis was known for his love of animals it is not surprising that there are great numbers of representations of crows, bulls, elephants, livestock and other beasts, all over town. The styles run the whole spectrum from Baroque to Post-modern.
Performance artists and authors followed the influx of specialists in the visual arts. Famous writers like Cormac McCarthy, Roger Zelazny, and Jack Schaefer have been long-time residents.
Canyon Road, east of the Plaza, has the highest concentration of art galleries and restaurants in the city, and is a major destination for wealthy tourists and locals. Santa Fe's art market is the third largest in the United States, after New York and Los Angeles, and the Canyon Road galleries showcase a wide array of contemporary Southwestern, indigenous American, and experimental art, in addition to older Russian, Taos Masters, and Native American pieces.
The town and the surrounding areas have a high concentration of artists. They have come over the decades to capture on canvas and in other media the natural beauty of the landscape, the flora and the fauna. One of the most well-known New Mexico-based artists was Georgia O'Keeffe, who lived for a time in Santa Fe but primarily in Abiquiu, a small village 35 miles away. The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe is named after her, and it is devoted to exhibitions of her work and associated artists or related themes. As of March 2006, it will hold about one thousand of her works in all media.
Music and opera are well represented in Santa Fe with the annual Santa Fe Opera productions, which take place between late June and late August each year, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival which is also held at the same time, mostly in the recently-refurbished movie theatre, the Lensic Theatre, now a major performing arts venue.
After State government, tourism is a major aspect of the Santa Fe economy, with visitors attracted year-round by the climate and related outdoor activities (such as skiing in years of adequate snowfall; hiking in other seasons) plus cultural activities of the city and the region.
Most tourist activity takes place in the historic downtown, especially on and around the Plaza, a one-block square adjacent to the Palace of the Governors, the original seat of New Mexico's territorial government since the time of Spanish colonization. Other areas include “Museum Hill”, the site of the major art museums of the city, and the Canyon Road arts area with its galleries.
Some visitors find Santa Fe particularly attractive around the second week of September when the aspens in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains turn yellow and the skies are clear and blue. This is also the time of the annual Fiesta to celebrate the "reconquering" of New Mexico by Don Diego DeVargas, a highlight is when Santa Feans burn Zozobra, a fifty-foot puppet also called "Old Man Gloom".
Within easy striking distance for day-trips is the town of Taos, about 70 miles North and the historic Bandelier National Monument about 30 miles away.
As of the censusGR2 of 2000, there are 62,203 people, 27,569 households, and 14,969 families residing in the city. The population density is 643.4/km² (1,666.1/mi²). There are 30,533 housing units at an average density of 315.8/km² (817.8/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 76.30% White, 0.66% African American, 2.21% Native American, 1.27% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 15.29% from other races, and 4.20% from two or more races. 47.82% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There are 27,569 households out of which 24.1% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.6% are married couples living together, 12.1% have a female householder with no husband present, and 45.7% are non-families. 36.4% of all households are made up of individuals and 10.2% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.20 and the average family size is 2.90. In the city the population is spread out with 20.3% under the age of 18, 8.9% from 18 to 24, 29.0% from 25 to 44, 28.0% from 45 to 64, and 13.9% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 40 years. For every 100 females there are 91.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 89.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $40,392, and the median income for a family is $49,705. Males have a median income of $32,373 versus $27,431 for females. The per capita income for the city is $25,454. 12.3% of the population and 9.5% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 17.2% of those under the age of 18 and 9.2% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.
| Santa Fe Municipal Airport | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| IATA: SAF - ICAO: KSAF | |||
| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Public | ||
| Operator | City of Santa Fe | ||
| Serves | Santa Fe, New Mexico | ||
| Elevation AMSL | 6,348 ft (1934.9 m) | ||
| Coordinates | 35° 37' 1.591" N 106° 5' 21.922" W | ||
| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| ft | m | ||
| 2/20 | 8,342 | 2,543 | Asphalt |
| 15/33 | 6,307 | 1,922 | Asphalt |
| 10/28 | 6,300 | 1,920 | Asphalt |
Santa Fe Municipal Airport (IATA: SAF, ICAO: KSAF) is a public airport located 9 miles southwest of Santa Fe. The airport currently has two daily non-stop flights to Denver on Great Lakes Airlines. The airline will code share these flights with United Airlines and Frontier Airlines to offer seamless connections from Santa Fe to destinations around the United States, and around the world. Due to the very limited air service, most people choose to fly into the Albuquerque International Sunport, about an hour's drive south of Santa Fe.
Hammett, Kingsley, Santa Fe: A Walk Through Time, Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith, 2004 [ISBN 1-58685-102-0]
| Santa Fe, New Mexico | 
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| Suburbs | |
| Agua Fria | La Cienega | Tesuque | |
| Santa Fe County |
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