2002 Most Endangered

Most Endangered Places in New Mexico 2002

• White Sands National Monument Visitor Center, Otero
  
• Carrizozo Woman's Club, Lincoln
  
• D.D. Monroe Civic Building, Union
  
• New Mexico Public Welfare Building (The Villagra Building), Santa Fe
  
• The Whittlesey House, Bernalillo
  
• Edgewood Schoolhouse, Santa Fe
  
• Glorieta Battlefield, Santa Fe
  
• Castaneda Hotel, San Miguel
  
• The Hondo Valley, Lincoln
  
• Las Cruces Downtown Main Street, Dona Ana
  

Las Cruces Downtown Main Street, Dona Ana

Significance: Downtown has historically been the heart of Las Cruces, the town?s commercial and cultural focus. During the 1960s and 70s, as was the fashion of the time, urban renewal led to the creation of a traffic-free "mall" along the town?s main artery, Main Street. Consequently, downtown has become increasingly deserted and neglected. Revitalization plans call for a restoration of the facades of buildings, removal of metal canopies, building on the existing plaza and creating shaded porticoes for the Farmers and Crafts Market, building an amphitheater and bringing people back downtown by opening Main Street to vehicle traffic.

Threat: Without immediate action, the six-block area will continue to dwindle, existing businesses and cultural opportunities will lose what little traffic they now attract and downtown will continue to suffer a slow death.

UPDATE: The Las Cruces Downtown Revitalization Committee is very active in turning around the decades old legacy of urban renewal and getting downtown off of the most endangered list. Numerous sub committees are working on revitalizing the district and have partnered with the mayor and city councilors in choosing downtown revitalization as the number one priority to take up to this year?s state legislature. Additionally, through a grant from the N.M. Historic Preservation Division, graduate students from New Mexico State University?s Public History Program are surveying the remaining historic structures in the downtown district to provide a foundation for future planning.