Santa Fe, New Mexico, is one of the most historic capital cities in America, founded around the same time the English first arrived in the Chesapeake Bay. While a tiny frontier outpost resided in the region as early as 1607, Santa Fe was not formally founded for another three years. The Spanish conquistador, Don Pedro de Peralta, had traveled north to the settlement and decided to transform it into an actual town. Peralta was the acting governor of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, which functioned as the colonial administrative region for the Spanish lands that resided between the provinces of Texas and California. He subsequently called the new town “La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asis,” and declared it the capital of Nuevo México. Several new administrative buildings then emerged around a quaint central plaza, such as the Palacio de los Gobernadores (Palace of the Governors). The community continued to represent the authority of the Spanish Crown in Nuevo México for the next several decades, until an uprising by the local Pueblo people drove out the settlers in 1681. Poor treatment and scant political representation in the colonial administration had caused the revolt to occur, which successfully forced all the Spanish and Mexican settlers to flee as far south as El Paso. Don Diego de Vargas eventually recaptured all of Nuevo México nearly ten years later, leading to the repopulation of La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asis. Subsequent generations of colonial governors—as well as the population as a whole—adopted a policy that sought better cultural relations between the two societies, ushering forth a period of relative peace that lasted for more than a century.

La Villa Real de la Santa Fé continued to operate as the main administrative capital for Nuevo México right up until the Mexican War for Independence erupted in 1810. After more than 11 years of hard fighting, Mexico seceded from the Spanish Empire to form its own nation. Santa Fe remained the capital of the region, even as it became a province of the newly independent Mexico. The town had grown into something of a city by this point, with several thousand settlers living within its boundaries. Its emerging commercial opportunities soon attracted traders from the United States, who started traveling to the area in large numbers. Their migration south became all the more easy when William Becknell constructed the 1,000-mile-long pathway known as the “Santa Fe Trail.” Americans quickly established makeshift shops all along the historic central plaza, making it a major economic center in Mexico’s frontier. The United States eventually seized the city—along with the rest of Nuevo México—following its victory in the Mexican-American War. Nuevo México was reborn as the “Territory of New Mexico” with Santa Fe serving as its capital. The new American administration had also taken to referring to the city simply as “Santa Fe,” although its original name remained unchanged. The town only kept growing, though, as its size expanded exponentially. Some of the city’s most recognizable landmarks appeared during this time, such as the great Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. Then, in the 1880s, Santa Fe was connected to the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, which caused an economic renaissance to transpire throughout the entire city. Yet, political corruption also spread across Santa Fe, with even some of the era’s greatest outlaws—like Billy the Kid—frequenting the area regularly.

Fortunately—thanks in large part to the efforts of Governor Lew Wallace—federal administrators were eventually able to clean up the town. (Wallace was a Union war hero and author of Ben-Hur). Despite its brief time spent as a hive for criminal activity, people still continued to relocate to Santa Fe. Its importance to New Mexico’s political landscape remained intact, too, serving as its capital when it finally became a state in 1912. Yet, some of the new arrivals were attracted to the city not only for its economic prospects, but its dry, warm climate. People suffering from tuberculosis particularly found the area’s environment intriguing, as it helped them combat the effects of their debilitating illness. Not long thereafter, regular Americans began heading south to the city upon hearing stories of its beautiful weather. As such, a vibrant tourism industry appeared to serve the influx of new travelers. Artists even began relocating to Santa Fe, inspired by the region’s desert landscape. Among the artists who spent time in the city in the mid-20th century was the iconic Georgia O’Keefe, who created many wonderful paintings of New Mexico’s geography. Those intellectuals developed a thriving community of art galleries and studios that has lasted well into the present. In fact, UNESCO has even recently included Santa Fe within its Creative Cities Network. Today, much of Santa Fe’s historic downtown is recognized collectively as a U.S. National Historic Landmark. Some of the specific buildings themselves are identified as individually National Historic Landmarks, too, including the prolific Palace of the Governors. Around since 1610, it is the single oldest municipal building in the entire United States!

When Abraham Staab constructed his brilliant mansion in 1882, he chose the French-inspired Second Empire-style architecture to influence its final appearance. Also known simply as “mansard style,” Second Empire architecture first emerged in Paris at the height of the reign of Emperor Napoléon III. Born Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, he was the nephew of the legendary Napoléon Bonaparte of the French Revolution. He rose to power by serving as France’s president before making himself its monarch by the middle of the 1800s. Nevertheless, his reign saw a brief restoration in French national pride that was accompanied by a cultural renaissance that affected everything from the arts to the sciences. One the areas that saw this development was architecture. Napoléon III had taken a particular interest with architectural projects at the time, going as far as to commission the complete redesign of Paris’ central cityscape. He subsequently appointed engineer Georges-Eugène Haussmann for the project, instructing the latter to create a new generation of buildings that could accommodate the city’s swelling population. Largely borrowing design elements from the French Renaissance of the 16th century, Haussmann essentially created a brand new architectural form that soon defined the appearance of Paris. While the project itself only lasted from 1853 to 1870, its impact was felt throughout the world for many years thereafter. Haussmann’s new form quickly appeared across France, as well as many other countries throughout Europe, including Belgium, Austria, and England. Furthermore, the architecture quickly emerged in North America, finding a popular audience in both the United States and Canada. Many hoteliers like Frank Jones saw the fabulous design aesthetics of Second Empire architecture, and copied it for their own structures throughout the remainder of the 19th century.

Second Empire architecture was specifically meant for larger structures that could easily showcase its ornate features and grandiose materials. Architects, business owners and other professionals who embraced the form believed that it represented the best of modernity and human progress. This idea especially found an audience in the America, where society was largely perceived to be on an upward path of collective mobility. (In fact, the architecture had become so enmeshed in American society that some took to calling it “General Grant” style.) The form looked similar to the equally popular Italianate-style, in which it embraced an asymmetrical floor plan that was rooted to either a “U” or “L” shaped foundation. The buildings usually stood two to three stories, although some commercial structures—like hotels—exceeded that threshold. Large ornate windows proliferated across the facade, while a brilliant warp-around porch occasionally functioned as the main entry point. The porches would also have several outstanding columns, designed to appear smooth in appearance. Every window and doorway featured decorative brackets that typically sat underneath lavish cornices and overhanging eaves. Gorgeous towers known and cupolas typically resided toward the top of the building, too. Yet, Second Empire architecture broke from Italianate in one major way—the appearance of the roof. Architects always incorporated a mansard-style roof onto the building, which consisted of a four-sided, gambrel-style structure that was divided among two different slopes. Set at a much longer, steeper angle than the first, the second slope often contained many beautiful dormer windows. The mansard roof became a central component to Second Empire architect after Georges-Eugène Haussmann and his fellow French architects starting using it for their own designs. They had specifically sought to copy the mansard roof of The Louvre, which the renowned François Mansart had created back at the height of the French Renaissance.

Yet, the current iteration of the structure reflects the aesthetics of Spanish Colonial Revival-style architecture. This metamorphosis specifically occurred when Harold and Eulalia Nason transformed the Staab Mansion into a brilliant hotel in 1936. Subsequent renovations undertaken by successive owners have follows the Nason’s example. Also known as “Spanish Eclectic,” this architectural form is a representation of themes typically seen in early Spanish colonial settlements. Original Spanish colonial architecture borrowed its design principles from Moorish, Renaissance, and Byzantine forms, which made it incredibly decorative and ornate. The general layout of those structures called for a central courtyard, as well as thick stucco walls that could endure Latin America’s diverse climate. Among the most recognizable features within those colonial buildings involved heavy carved doors, spiraled columns, and gabled red-tile roofs. Architect Bertram Goodhue was the first to widely popularize Spanish Colonial architecture in the United States, spawning a movement to incorporate the style more broadly in American culture at the beginning of the 20th century. Goodhue received a platform for his designs at the Panama-California Exposition of 1915, in which Spanish Colonial architecture was exposed to a national audience for the first time. His push to preserve the form led to a revivalist movement that saw widespread use of Spanish Colonial architecture throughout the country, specifically in California and Florida. Spanish Colonial Revival-style architecture reached its zenith during the early 1930s, although a few American businesspeople—including the Nasons—continued to embrace the form well into the late 20th century.

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