This newly revised, 2014 edition will be your time machine, zipping you back to Santa Fe in the post-World War II era to walk the streets of downtown and Canyon Road. The walking tour takes you backward in time and shows you what was there before... on the streets of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Block by block, it preserves the memories of the local landmarks, buildings, shops, and schools that everyone knew. You'll see the Plaza lined with shops where locals bought their pajamas and gasoline, milkshakes and haircuts. You'll see Canyon Road when it was a winding dirt road with family farms and neighborhood grocers. You'll see children ice skating on the frozen Santa Fe River in January and artist Will Shuster, inventor of Zozobra, sketching at George King's Bar on Galisteo Street. Prior to the mid-1970s, Santa Fe was a town of bohemians and shopkeepers. There were artists but no galleries. For three decades after World War II, no one thought it quaint to shop downtown, and until 1960 there were no street signs. By the early 1980s, however, the chain store invasion had begun and downtown had become a tourist mecca. Today, the memories of Santa Fe's oldest residents reach back no earlier than the 1940s, and soon those memories will be gone. This book seeks to preserve their colorful and classic recollections.
Author: Josh Gonze Publisher: Gonze Publishing Company Published: 09/05/2014 Pages: 152 Binding Type: Paperback Weight: 0.47lbs Size: 9.02h x 5.98w x 0.33d ISBN: 9780984781829
About the Author Josh Gonze (rhymes with Bronze), an East Coast native with a BA in economics and an MBA in finance, moved from New York City to Santa Fe in 1999. Soon after arriving he noticed how quickly the city was changing...how chain stores were invading and how old-timers' memories of Santa Fe in the old days were disappearing. Interviews with those would could recall the 1940s and '50s in Santa Fe encouraged him to read books on local history and keep notes on how the streetscape had changed. Today he still resides in Santa Fe with his family and still watches how the streets are changing. He hopes to publish a second edition of The Streets of Santa Fe, and invites readers to contact him at www.streetsofsantafe.com with suggestions, corrections, and old photographs of how Santa Fe looked in the old days.
