Grade School at Loretto Academy, Don Gaspar Avenue & East Water Street, Santa Fe, Santa Fe County, NM

Significance: The Loretto Academy was completed in 1881 as the second major structure at the teaching center of the Sisters of Loretto in Santa Fe. The building's original configuration included a third story (as reconstructed here), which was removed in 1948 due to increasing signs of structural failure. The third story was provided by a mansard roofing system. Since it was not possible to measure, nor were any records (statistically accurate) of the mansard system found, it was reconstructed from photographs and drawings of the period 1890-1910 (these discovered in the files of the Museum of New Mexico, in Santa Fe). Dimensions such as overall lengths and height, window and door placement, etc. for stories one and two, were obtained by actual measurement of the structures as of 26 November 1989 (recorded in drawing series entitled "Grade School at the Loretto Academy, Santa Fe, New Mexico").
Survey number: HABS NM-134
Building/structure dates: 1881 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1948 Subsequent Work