Top 10 Things To See and Do in Santa Fe - Points of Interest

Santa Fe is a magical land where the air is clean and crisp, the skies spectacular, and sunsets so amazing they make you gasp. A positive, spiritual atmosphere exists that touches the soul. It is a special feeling that I have experienced since I was a young girl and one that you will notice when walking through the historic Downtown Plaza area.

In addition to useful travel information and preferred Santa Fe lodging, I hope that everyone who visits my website enjoys the fun and unique facts that only a fifth generation Santa Fe native can share.

REFLECTIONS OF SANTA FE

I have experienced first hand how The Plaza, one of Santa Fe's main attractions, has evolved from being the city's only clothing and shopping area to a plethora of wonderful galleries, unique clothing boutiques, fantastic restaurants, and museums, including the famous Georgia O'Keefe Museum. (There are several wonderful museums to visit: www.santafenm.info/museums.htm). Santa Fe's downtown drugstore (now a gallery), had a great soda fountain counter and was located on the corner across from the famous La Fonda Hotel. My mother was a boarding student as a young girl at Loretto Academy, now the Inn at Loretto. She was often encouraged by other Loretto Academy boarding students to sneak out to buy candy at the nearby drugstore. Being of small stature she could easily get through spaces in the wall but more often than not she was caught by the Loretto Nuns upon her return, arms and pockets loaded with goodies, and as punishment had to polish the famous Loretto Chapel's Miraculous Spiral Staircase by hand with cotton balls!

Loretto Chapel Home to the famous "miraculous" spiral staircase made entirely of wood with no metal nails and no center beam. The story is that the Loretto Nuns prayed for a way to get to the upper level without having to climb a ladder. A carpenter came to them and offered his services. Once the spiral staircase was complete, the carpenter disappeared, never asking for payment. No one knows where the carpenter came from or where he went. Special features have appeared on TV about this staircase.

My knowledge of downtown Santa Fe goes back many decades. My mother was born in an adobe home on Canyon Road (home to numerous galleries and walking distance to Santa Fe's Downtown Plaza Santa Fe Galleries), and my father was born in an adobe home two blocks from the Plaza. My grandmother and aunt (my fathers mother and only sister), lived on San Francisco Street which leads directly to Santa Fe's downtown Plaza many years before I was born and through my adulthood. Whenever I would visit them (which was often and usually over night), we would often walk to The Plaza, passing the famous Lensic Theater. Originally a stage theater, the Lensic was built in 1931 by businessman Nathan Salmon (who's son-in-law was E. John Greer), The theater was the finest in the Southwest. The Trapp Family Singers, Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo, Rita Hayworth, Roy Rogers, Judy Garland, and many many more famous artists performed on stage at the Lensic. Unfortunately it closed its doors in 1999 but in 2001 it was restored once again to a stage theater. It was the one building in Santa Fe that I am happy to see was not turned into a gallery, boutique or restaurant. Today from the exterior it looks a lot like it always has. As a girl I loved to go to the movies at the Lensic to admire its beautiful architectural detail which includes box seats on either side of the stage. Just before the movie would begin the ceiling lights were turned off and small up-lights were turned on at the base of large pots in alcoves of the midnight blue walls creating an ambiance of being in another world. The heavy velvet curtains up on the stage would open, one to the left, the other to the right, and the movie would begin. It was wonderful! (Originally there were two theaters in Downtown Santa Fe, the Lensic Theater and the El Paseo Theater.)