Santa Fe’s new cathedral grew around an adobe church
Stone walls rose around the old adobe church, leaving its low Marian chapel in place. Artisans beneath the Palace of the Governors demonstrate their craft to peers before selling. An eighteen-mile branch connected Santa Fe to the main railroad, while neighbours clear an irrigation ditch before water reaches their gardens.
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The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi · Editorial illustration, not a historical photo
From a wall junction to an irrigation ditch
A church inside a church, peer-tested craft, a railroad branch and shared ditch work
Four complete stories and their public sources are shown here; the rest of the collection is in the app.
01 · The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi
A New Church Around an Old One
Once the stone walls stood, the old church came out.
When construction of the stone cathedral began in 1869, the old adobe church was still on the site. Workers built new walls around it, then dismantled it once the new structure had taken shape and carried the materials out through the front door. The old church’s northern Marian chapel remained. That is why a low adobe room still adjoins the tall stone walls.
Artisans must show their craft to peers before selling here.
Applicants to the Native American artisan program at the Palace of the Governors demonstrate their craft to peers before receiving permission to sell that kind of work. Adding another craft requires another demonstration. Only work made by the vendor or family members may be sold. Behind the silver jewelry, pottery and weaving sit the makers themselves, or their families.
A railroad bearing the city’s name needed a branch line.
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway originally planned to enter Santa Fe, but construction shifted to the easier terrain at Lamy. A branch of about eighteen miles then connected the city. The station in front of you dates to 1909.
Neighbors make room for the season’s water by hand.
Along Acequia Madre, the cleanup crew may arrive before the water does. In spring 2026, residents removed leaves, branches and rubbish during the annual ditch cleaning. An acequia is a communal irrigation channel, maintained by landowners with water rights who elect a manager to coordinate distribution.
