Route 66 in the News
Working to Preserve History
2007-10-31 20:38:38
LOS LUNAS, N. Mex. - The Augustin Archuleta Building has been many things since it was built in the 1930s - police station, courthouse, library, even the office for a cable television company.
All that history absorbed by its adobe walls will now be hung from those same walls and displayed throughout as the Village of Los Lunas re-opens the renovated building in January as the Los Lunas Heritage and Arts Center.
Los Lunas Library Director Cynthia Shetter said the process began with a $50,000 appropriation sponsored by Sen. Michael Sanchez, D-Valencia County, for video equipment to document oral histories of the area. The village then ran with the idea of creating a center where the digital videos could be housed and stored.
Shetter said the goal for the center is to present the culture of Los Lunas and for the area to showcase its history.
"We want to collect things from the area residents, preserve the pictures and documents from the area, have the genealogy database access and reference materials for people," she said. "And we would like to see art exhibits, special programs that feature local and regional artists. We're trying to collect pictures of the old churches, old businesses and schools, Isleta Pueblo even. We're trying to preserve the culture and artifacts of the area."
Shetter said the center would be set up as a branch of the Los Lunas Public Library similar to the Special Collections Library in Albuquerque. The Special Collections building, in Albuquerque's original library building just east of Downtown, hosts exhibits, art shows and genealogy research much as the Archuleta Building is expected to.
The renovations, done by TEF Construction of Albuquerque, will include a video room with a 42-inch plasma screen TV that will show videos of oral histories, a large room on the south end of the building which can host meetings as well as performances and exhibits, offices and a genealogy room that will include work space as well as computers that will have access to such genealogy sites as familysearch.org and ancestry.com.
The main room on the north end is set up to house exhibits and features the building's original fireplace, Shetter said.
"Wherever they were doing this, they tried to respect the original building," she said. "They kept all the adobe walls — some of them they had to align the walls. The fireplace, we kept the original. The concrete is the original - it's been stamped. They'll put in gas logs to make a usable asset. It has the original wood floors in the (south) library section. They cleaned them up and polished them."
James Fernandez, who was recently named director of the center, said it would be a versatile place for Los Lunas residents to do research, learn about the culture of the village and the area and enjoy art exhibits and other cultural offerings.
"We have a lot of plans," he said. "One of the things we hope to do is create a virtual tour that people can take, based on the historical buildings in the area. Give a historical background on the buildings, even the churches. There were areas that had vineyards. We'd like to have agricultural displays. And we'll house the oral histories collection as well."
Village Historian Patty Guggino said the oral histories, which she has spearheaded over the past few years, will be an integral part of the center, which is long overdue.
"We're trying to ensure these things last and make sure these things are safe," she said. "I envision us being in the building so we can be available to people and help them find the information they need or want. To be able to gather local artifacts so that we can create displays which reflect the culture of the valley."
Shetter said she, Fernandez and Guggino were already beginning to look for articles for the heritage center.
"We're beginning to look for the artifacts since they completed the building and we know what we can put in there," she said. "We'll be looking at some museums in Santa Fe to get an idea of what kinds of things we can put in there first.
"With the collections, there may be some people who haven't done oral histories. There might be people in the area who have things — one man contacted Patty because he had a telegraph that belonged to his grandfather and he wanted to see about donating or loaning that to the library."
Shetter said the center is looking for items ranging from photos to old wedding dresses to farming equipment.
"We'll be focusing on Los Lunas now, but we'll be collecting things from the whole area, all of Valencia County," Fernandez added. "We don't want to turn everyone away."
"Patty's famous words are 'It gives us a sense of time and place,'" she said. "It gives people of the area an idea of where we came from, and part of the village's motto is 'Respecting the past while moving towards the future.'"
Guggino said she feels the heritage center will be an asset to the village and Valencia County.
"We have Route 66, the Camino Real, all these different things," she said. "There's a lot of stuff in Valencia County. We'd like to convince people they can come south; they don't have to go to Santa Fe to see the real New Mexico.
The building is named for Archuleta, who served as the village's first clerk through the 1960s and '70s, was a third generation Los Lunas resident - both his grandfather and father shared the name Augustin.
The village honored him by naming the building, which sits at the base of the village water tower, for him after he retired from the village in the early 1980s. He currently lives in San Antonio, Texas.
For information or to offer something for the center, call Fernandez or Guggino at 839-3850.
Kenn Rodriguez, Valencia County News-Bulletin
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