Palace of the Governors
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- See also: Oldest buildings in America
| Palace of the Governors | |
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| (U.S. National Historic Landmark) | |
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| Location: | Santa Fe, New Mexico |
| Coordinates: | Coordinates: |
| Built/Founded: | 1610 |
| Architect: | Unknown |
| Architectural style(s): | Colonial, Other |
| Designated as NHL: | October 9, 1960 |
| Added to NRHP: | October 15, 1966 |
| NRHP Reference#: | 66000489 [1] |
| Governing body: | State |
The Palace of the Governors is an adobe structure on the Plaza of Santa Fe, New Mexico which served as the seat of government in New Mexico for centuries. The Palace of the Governors is the oldest continuously occupied public building in the United States.
In 1610, Pedro de Peralta, the newly appointed governor of the Spanish territory covering most of the American Southwest, began construction on the Palace of the Governors. In the following years, the Palace changed hands as the territory of New Mexico did, seeing the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, the Spanish reconquest from 1693 to 1694, Mexican independence in 1821, and finally American possession in 1846.
The Palace originally served as the seat of government of the Spanish colony of Nuevo Mexico, which at one time comprised the present-day states of Texas, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, California, and New Mexico. After the Mexican War of Independence, the Mexican Province of New Mexico was administered from the Palace of the Governors. When New Mexico was annexed as a U.S. territory, the Palace became New Mexico's first territorial capitol. During the American Civil War, the building also briefly served as the Confederate Army's regional headquarters.
Lew Wallace wrote the final parts of his book Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ in this building while serving as territorial governor in the late 1870's. He remembered later in life that it was at night, during a severe thunderstorm in the spring of 1879, after returning from a tense meeting with Billy the Kid in Lincoln County, when he wrote the climactic Crucifixion scenes of the novel. Wallace worked by the light of a shaded lamp in the shuttered governor's study, fearing a bullet from outside over the tensions surrounding the Lincoln County War.
Since 1909, when the New Mexico state legislature established the Museum of New Mexico, the Palace of the Governors has served as the site of the state history museum. Currently, the Palace is one of eight museums overseen by the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.
In 2007, following an extensive archaeological excavation on the land immediately north of the Palace, construction of the New Mexico History Museum began adjacent to the Palace building. The new history museum, when opened in 2009, will include interpretive exhibitions on New Mexico's colonial past housed within the Palace of the Governors building.
[edit] References
- ^ National Register Information System. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2007-01-23).
[edit] External links
- Palace of the Governors Museum housed in the Palace of the Governors building
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