New Mexico New Deal Sites June 2019 - Photo #227 - Santa Fe: Former Public Welfare Building

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Santa Fe, New Mexico: 23 June 2019: The former New Mexico Public Welfare Building, also known as the Federal Emergency Recovery Administration Building or FERA building, 408 Galisteo Street; architect: John Gaw Meem. Built in 1934, this building served as headquarters for FERA and other relief agencies working in New Mexico during the Depression[1]. Now called the Villagra Building, housing the New Mexico Department of Veterans Services and New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.
References
  1. New Mexico Public Welfare Building - Santa Fe, Living New Deal website, accessed 15 July 2019.
  2. Chris Wilson, The Myth of Santa Fe, UNM Press (1996), ch.8.: "In 1934 Meem reached the mature formulation of the Territorial Revival in the Federal Emergency Recovery Administration (FERA) Building ... The placement of the FERA Building, facing the entrance to sthe state capitol, and the use of this new regional classical style symbolically asserted the advent of New Deal bureaucracy. Not surprisingly Meem and [his associate Gordon] Street employed the Territorial Revival for several other New Deal civic buildings in Santa Fe: a municipal building (Meem, 1936), the New Mexico Supreme Court (Street 1936)...
  3. Kathryn A. Flynn, Public Art and Architecture in New Mexico 1933-1943: A guide to the New Deal Legacy, Sunstone Press (2012), p.129: "This building designed by John Gaw Meem housed the WPA and CCC offices as well as the Welfare Department. Now it has the New Mexico Parks and Recreation program in it.
  4. Buildings Designed by John Gaw Meem, National Register of Historic Places, accessed 15 July 2019.