The History of a Town in a Building

The former chamber of the Estancia Board of Trustees was empty — not just devoid of people but also of tables, chairs, pictures, and even the carpet that covered the floor. Trustee Morrow Hall explained that the carpet was the source of one of the problems with the Estancia Town Hall. "The glue they used," Hall said, "had asbestos."

Inside the chamber, Hall pointed out the cornerstone of the town hall. Once the exterior wall of the town hall, the north wall of the chamber used by the trustees bore a granite block. Hall pointed out the mayor's name on the cornerstone, J.J. Hall. “I replaced him as mayor,” Hall said, explaining that J.J. Hall was his grandfather. ”This is a very tight community, you might say.” Hall walked through the side door of the chamber and into an empty storage room with hand-hewn vigas running along the ceiling. Trustee Hall explained that the grandfather of Estancia’s current mayor, Nathan Dial, had harvested logs for the building. Hall continued, pointing out the marks left by draw planes and carpenter adzes. Through another door, Hall passed into the main lobby and then traveled up a darkened set of stairs to the second floor of the building. Gesturing to the stairwell, Hall said, “This upstairs is unusable because of [the stairs], and so what we’re asking for is money for an elevator.” Implicit in Hall’s comment was the fact that the stairs made the second floor of the town hall inaccessible under the federal regulations that interpret the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). A secondary concern was the crumbling wall above a window that faced the stairs. The building needed structural repairs.

“At the time that [the town hall] was built, or somewhere between then and the early fifties, when I became aware of it, the federal government had eight offices in here,” Hall said. Hall described the operations of the US Department of Agriculture in the building. He said that the town hall had also been integral to non-government matters. At the back of the town hall, massive logs held up the roof over the gym that Estancia High School used between the 1930s and 1960s. The gym had a dusty parquet floor and art deco wrought iron gates protecting the glass inserts on its doors. The same art deco wrought iron that worked as decorative gates also served as railings on the second story of the gym and in the gym’s audience.

“So when they built the other gym, it was like the sixties - I guess the early sixties. What I remember is wrestling matches. You know, they, they had this promoter out of Albuquerque who would bring his supply of wrestlers, and it was pretty fun to watch them.” Hall said children had also roller skated in the gym over the years. Hall explained that the stage at the far end of the gym covered floorboards that warped after rain damage.

In an annex to the town hall next to the gym, Estancia Police Chief Tom Carter adjusted his gun belt amidst dumbbells and weight benches. Carter said the Estancia Police were using the annex for physical training. Hall explained that funding for adding an elevator to the town hall and for structural repairs was something Estancia was fighting for because the building served a wide variety of purposes for the community. Hall talked about how the gym had served as a shelter during one fierce snowstorm, although he could not remember when. The town hall was central to Estancia. “This will allow us to - not only to - spruce up one of the major buildings in town…. You know, it’s kind of the town plaza - or the closest thing we have to one - yeah, very true. But in addition to that, it allows for the government to grow because there’s room for it right there [in the unused second-floor rooms of the town hall]. And then, it allows for a lot of inter-community activities. The gym can be converted into a convention floor [or reception hall],” Trustee Hall said.

Hall recalled from his childhood that the space used as the Estancia Board of Trustees’ chamber was once an open portico with the same rough-hewn lumber used as vigas used as pillars. When autumn winds blew, Hall recalled, his grandfather would task him with sweeping up the dust and leaves that gathered in the corner of the portico, near where Hall tended to community matters as a Trustee.