An open letter to Las Cruces Mayor Eric Enriquez and the city:
It is with dismay and frustration that many of us have been made aware of the pending demolition of three architecturally and culturally significant buildings on University Avenue. Despite the best efforts of the Las Cruces Historic Preservation Commission, the loss of our city’s irreplaceable historic fabric appears to be accelerating.
From my perspective as an architectural historian listed with the New Mexico Historic Preservation Division for nearly 30 years, recent attempts by the city to identify and document potentially significant properties seem half-hearted at best. The city’s February 2024 request for proposals focused primarily on the historic Mesquite District. The project funding did not match the scope of work. The proposed schedule was impossibly tight. No cultural resource specialist could accomplish the task given the payment and scheduling constraints.
I am respectfully requesting a collaboration between the city and New Mexico State University to work with the city’s preservation specialist, NMSU faculty, historic preservation professionals and graduate students to survey and inventory every permanent pre-1974 structure within the city’s limits. The 2007 student survey mentored by preservationist Marsha Weisiger and architect Steve Newby serves as a good model for such an undertaking. The report’s Appendix V is available online via this link.
The result would be the city-wide identification of buildings potentially eligible for state and national registers. The research would safeguard important buildings from heedless demolition — which appears to be the fate of the three University Avenue buildings currently slated.
The city’s historically significant properties (particularly those situated outside designated historic districts) continue to disappear at an alarming rate. Requests for proposals that are team-oriented, properly funded and realistically scoped will be more likely to attract responses from qualified experts eager to assist.
Jean Fulton
Mesilla
