Placitas NM 15 June 2019: San Antonio Catholic Mission Community Center.
Originally the
Placitas Elementary School, built by the WPA[1,2],
date unknown. The statues, ramp, and new entryway are new.
References
- San Antonio de Las Huertas
Land Grant website: sadlhlg.org, accessed 12 July 2019: "[The] first
library [in the Placitas area] was housed in the large hallway of the
school, located in what is now the San Antonio Catholic mission community
center. The building consisted of two rooms with bathrooms (including flush
toilets) in back. It was a WPA project and very well built."
- Kathryn A. Flynn, Public Art and Architecture in New Mexico
1933-1943: A guide to the New Deal Legacy, Sunstone Press (2012), p.101.
- Tey Diana Rebolledo, Women's Tales from the New Mexico WPA, Arte
Publico Press (2000), pp.106-110: As part of the Works Progress
Administration during the Depression, two women interviewers, Lou Sage
Batchen and Annette Hesch Thorp, gathered womens stories or cuentos
from many native ancianas to glean vivid details of a way of life now
long disappeared. Nothing specific about the WPA school in Placitas, but it
has a section on Placitas that includes this: "In the spring of 1933 eight
boys from the village were called to the CCC Camp in the [Las Huertas]
forest reserve in the Sandía mountains. Into the homes of these boys came a
regular income. In October of 1933 thirteen heads of families were placed
on the CCC rolls. Since then [this is from an interview conducted in 1938]
successive government projects have been carried out in Placitas. The money
which has come into Placitas so regularly has worked a subtle change in the
lives of the people. Their standard of living has been raised probably
beyound their dreams, and almost without exception the people have improved
their old homes or built new ones ... There is a new public school in the
plaza."