Architecture and Art Collide on the Doors in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Updated: May 28, 2023
Santa Fe is the capital of the US state of New Mexico. This city is widely considered one of the world’s great art cities, due to its many art galleries and installations, and it is recognized by UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network. Being an artist myself, Santa Fe was high on my list of places to visit!
What’s in a Name?
Before European colonization of the Americas, the area Santa Fe occupied was known to the Tewa peoples as Oghá P'o'oge ('white shell water place') and by the Navajo people as Yootó ('bead' + 'water place'). The Spanish phrase Santa Fe is translated as 'holy faith' in English. Although more commonly known as Santa Fe, the city's full, legal name remains to this day as La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís.
The City Different
In the 1920s, Santa Fe officials ordered that all buildings in the city be built with adobe in the Pueblo Indian style. Inspiration from traditional Pueblo architecture is also seen in the doors around Santa Fe. The city also retains beautiful examples of Victorian, Italian, and Spanish architecture. It is this combination of cultures that helped give Santa Fe its most popular and most recent nickname, “The City Different.”
Front Doors
Santa Fe has doors like no doors anywhere else....they are all very unique. Most of the walking tours mention the doors numerous times. It's not anything I can describe, you have to see it to believe it.
In 2013, Old House Online published an article titled, “Pueblo Revival Houses in Santa Fe.” In the article, they say, “Entrance doors in adobe surrounds are a core Santa Fe Style tradition.” An entrance door is a wooden door connected to an adobe wall that opens up to the property and home.
Santa Fe Door Elements
Not all Santa Fe doors are the same, but in regards to the Santa Fe style, doors generally follow some or most of the following guidelines:
Heavy wooden doors are used and are usually left in their natural form.
They have geometric shapes or other carvings.
If painted, they are mainly are either a teal or blue color.
They are windowless.
Some have iron hardware attached.
Some have vertical planks.
My favourite door was at 304 Canyon Road....so I had to eventually paint it!
I took some artistic license on cleaning up the foliage next to the door so that the focus would be on the door itself.
Many of the doors in Santa Fe and in New Mexico in general, lead to the garden and is not the front door to the house itself.
Some other doors I found on Canyon Road and beyond in Santa Fe.....
Santa Fe has much more to offer than doors of course, so be sure to check out all that Santa Fe has to offer!
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