Center For Memories
Center for Memories
A BRIEF HISTORY
Land holds place of memory and the Midtown site in no exception. It has a long history of public purposes ranging from education, health and recovery, to arts and culture uses. Acknowledging and sharing that rich history through the voices of people, researching site soils and water characteristics, assessing the reuse of existing buildings for community purposes enhanced the meaning of the Midtown District as the new center of Santa Fe.
Dating back to the mid-1800s, the Midtown Site (Site) has been used for educational purposes, and briefly served as a military hospital during World War II. After the war, the Christian Brothers acquired the previous hospital campus facilities to establish a college campus, which operated until 2009. The City, with a commitment to preserve the civic purpose educational use, purchased the Site and leased it to a private, for-profit university. However, by June of 2018, the university ceased operations and full control of the Site reverted to the City on July 1, 2018.
The Site’s long history of civic use continues with the City’s commitment to creating a new city center in what has become the geographic center of Santa Fe. By August of 2018, the City had held public engagement events, called the Midtown Campus Project, to provide open opportunities for the public to create a vision and concept for the future of the Site. The redevelopment of the Site, and this Project, was informed by other research conducted over the previous several years, including the Re:MIKE (re-design the St. Michaels corridor); Culture Connects; 2017 National Citizens Survey and Pollinating Prosperity Report.
The Midtown Campus Project culminated in the publication of the Midtown Planning Guidelines in August 2018, which continue to guide the vision, goals, and ongoing public engagement efforts to inform and regulate the development of the Site. Public engagement will continue to inform the future of the Midtown District to ensure the richness of its history is part of the vision and experience of the District’s future.
Land Acknowledgement
The City and communities of Santa Fe hereby… acknowledge the breath of those that came before us and all of the living animals, on the ground and above it. This place now called “Santa Fe” is still recognized as Oga Po’geh (White Shell Water Place). Thousands of years ago, it was a center place for the communities of Northern and Southern Tewa (often identified as Tanos). The living memory and stories told by the people of Taytsúgeh Oweengeh (Tesuque Pueblo) hold profound meaning to this day, revealing that the ancestral site, Oga Po’geh is Taytsúgeh and Taytsúgeh is Oga Po’geh still.
