Scottish Rite Temple (Santa Fe, New Mexico)

The Scottish Rite Temple, also known as Scottish Rite Cathedral or Santa Fe Lodge of Perfection, in Santa Fe, New Mexico was begun in 1911 and completed in 1912. It was a filming location for the 2016 Tina Fey film Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.[2]

Scottish Rite Cathedral
Scottish Rite Temple (Santa Fe, New Mexico) is located in New Mexico
Scottish Rite Temple (Santa Fe, New Mexico)
Scottish Rite Temple (Santa Fe, New Mexico) is located in the United States
Scottish Rite Temple (Santa Fe, New Mexico)
Location463 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Coordinates35°41′30″N 105°56′9″W / 35.69167°N 105.93583°W / 35.69167; -105.93583
Area2 acres (0.81 ha)
Built1911 (1911)
ArchitectHunt and Burns, C. H. Martindale
Architectural styleMoorish Revival
NRHP reference No.87000424[1]
NMSRCP No.924
Significant dates
Added to NRHPMarch 13, 1987
Designated NMSRCPJuly 8, 1983

In 1909 Santa Fe's paper, The Daily New Mexican, announced that local (he lived and had offices in both New Mexico and Colorado) architect Isaac H. Rapp had been awarded the commission to design a new Scottish Rite Cathedral. A few months later, in July of the same year, it printed a perspective by Rapp showing a grand Neo-classical styled design for the Temple. Only a week later the same paper printed that Rapp's plans had been considered to be "not satisfactory".[3]

Shortly afterwards it was announced that the Los Angeles architectural firm of Hunt and Burns had been employed instead. They produced a Moorish Revival style structure based loosely on one of the gatehouses to the Court of the Lions at the Alhambra in Spain. Sumner P. Hunt and Silas Reese Burns were well known for their designs in the California Spanish Mission Revival architecture style, but decided instead to base their design on a connection between the Spanish building tradition of New Mexico and that of the Moors in southern Spain.[4] There are also obvious similarities with the Southwest Museum, in Los Angeles, which was being designed by Hunt and Burns around the same time, including the tower, without the Islamic entry.

Still somewhat shocking today is that the building was, and still is (as of 2014) clad in pink colored stucco.

That Isaac Rapp did not get the commission was not a huge loss to him as he was to build his design in 1913 as the Las Animas County Court House, in Trinidad, Colorado.[5] Also, that he did not design the building that was ultimately built was apparently missed by some, as he has been erroneously listed as the architect of the building.[6]

It was used historically as a clubhouse. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.[1]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. ^ Film credits of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: "Filmed on location in Albuquerque, New Mexico / Santa Fe City and County, New Mexico / The Pueblo of Laguna, New Mexico / By Special Permission of the Pueblo of Laguna / Santa Fe Scottish Rite Temple / New Mexico Corrections Department / Atlas Mountains, Morocco"
  3. ^ Sheppard, Carl D., Creator of the Santa Fe Style: Isaac Hamilton Rapp, Architect, University of New Mexico Press, 1988. pp. 60–62.
  4. ^ Wilson, Chris, The Myth of Santa Fe: Creating a Modern Regional Tradition, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1997. pp. 115–116.
  5. ^ Sheppard, Carl D., Creator of the Santa Fe Style: Isaac Hamilton Rapp, Architect, University of New Mexico Press, 1988. pp. 66–68.
  6. ^ Harris, Richard, National Trust Guide: Santa Fe, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1997. p. 92.

External links edit

  Media related to Scottish Rite Temple (Santa Fe, New Mexico) at Wikimedia Commons