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Journal North: Home | Sports | Opinion | Obits | Entertainment
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Architectural Redemption
By Jessica Dyer
Journal Staff Writer
It will take a lot of hands to properly maintain San Miguel Chapel in downtown Santa Fe, but mudding the building is something that can wait a few months.
Right now the nonprofit organization charged with a large-scale effort to preserve the adobe chapel is looking for a different kind of help.
Cornerstones Community Partnerships has received a “Save America's Treasures” grant of $200,000 for the church project. However, the money from the SAT matching grant program, sponsored by the Department of Interior and National Park Service, doesn't become available until the grantee has come up with an equal amount of nonfederal money.
That means Cornerstones is looking for $200,000 worth of financial and in-kind contributions.
“It puts a big challenge in front of us, but we're very lucky we have a really supportive community not only around Cornerstones but certainly around San Miguel,” said Robin Jones, Cornerstones' executive director. “Now's the time for the friends of San Miguel to come to the aid” of the property.
St. Michael's Corp., which owns the chapel, partnered with Cornerstones for the preservation of San Miguel — one of the nation's oldest churches.
San Miguel dates back hundreds of years, though the original building was razed in 1640 and its replacement was partially destroyed during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.
The current chapel building on Old Santa Fe Trail dates from 1710, although it has seen significant structural changes in the centuries since.
San Miguel, which still offers a Latin Mass and New Mass every Sunday, wears some of its wear and tear for the world to see, but it's an underlying problem that most threatens the structure.
Inadequate drainage has caused the adobe foundation to absorb water and become less stable. That will be the first issue addressed with grant money, as new drain pipes will be installed, Jones said.
“There's also a lot of damage, a lot of cracks in the walls — interior and exterior. Part of the deal is that we can't assess the damage until we go in and peel away some of the old plastering, but we can't safely do that until we know the foundations are nice and stable,” she said. “We don't know yet what the breadth of the damage will be because everything is one step at a time here.”
Jones said while in-kind donations count toward the $200,000 fundraising goal, cash is most in demand and is needed to get any work started. Once money is raised and spent, Cornerstones gets repaid from the SAT grant.
Because that will mean the total amount of money available is actually $400,000, Jones said Cornerstones hopes to pay for several more projects after the drainage problems are fixed.
Any work done will conform to the “Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Preservation” and utilize techniques outlined in the Cornerstones' guide “Adobe Conservation: A Preservation Handbook.”
There was a big push in 2004 to restore the entire Barrio de Analco historic area, which includes San Miguel and “the oldest house,” but that project, called Save San Miguel, fizzled a short time later.
Jones said Cornerstones was peripherally involved back then and that this effort is separate, although Cornerstones has been able to use many of the assessments done back then.
She said she thinks the project will generate plenty of community support. “It's the Save America's Treasures (grant), but this is one of Santa Fe's treasures, and we want to make sure it stays put,” she said.
Those interested in contributing to the San Miguel restoration effort can contact Cornerstones at 982-9521.
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