From the Archives

by Caleb Fort

Daily Lobo

It's natural to be curious about UNM's history, said Terry Gugliotta, University archivist.

"I think wandering around the campus and seeing all these buildings named after people, it's normal to be curious about who they were," she said.

Studying primary sources, such as letters from James Zimmerman, former University president, is a good way to help feed that curiosity, she said.

"You can't meet Zimmerman any more, but you can still read his correspondence," she said. "You do get to know the personalities of these people through what they leave behind."

1889-1929

UNM was founded by the territorial government of New Mexico in 1889 under the same bill that established a school of mines and a school of agriculture - now New Mexico Tech and New Mexico State University. The same act established an insane asylum in Las Vegas and gave money for a penitentiary in Santa Fe.

"Everyone loves the insane asylum story," Gugliotta said. "But I think there were probably reasons for it. Everything in that act was a money-maker for wherever it was located."

The act called for UNM to be built on 20 acres of "high and dry land" to avoid flooding from the Rio Grande.

Students had to commute to campus from the area around Old Town because there were no dorms on campus. They were not allowed to park their horses at UNM but could pay 5 cents to ride the Hack, a horse-drawn carriage that shuttled the students between their homes and campus.

"I guess it's always been a commuter campus, and there have always been parking problems," Gugliotta said.

The University served the role of parent for its students, she said.

"The school told you when you got up, when you went to sleep and when you ate," she said.

UNM did not charge tuition for several years after its founding, she said. Instead, students had to pay a library and catalogue fee, she said.

The rest of the money came from state appropriations, she said.

The first building on campus was Hodgin Hall, although it was called the Main Building for several years, Gugliotta said.

It was similar to buildings at other campuses across the country - a three-story red-brick building with a pitched roof and arched windows.

However, William Tight, the University's third president, renovated the building and introduced the pueblo style to UNM, according to Miracle on the Mesa, a history of the University written by former UNM president William Davis.

"We're not your run-of-the-mill Yale or Harvard," Gugliotta said. "We don't need any of the red brick or the ivy."

Before renovating Hodgin Hall, Tight built the pueblo-style Estufa in 1908 at the corner of University Boulevard and Grand Avenue.

"It's really an amazing building because he literally built it," Gugliotta said. "His handprints are in that building."

According to the UNM Web site, no woman has ever been in the building, which was built for the Alpha Alpha Alpha fraternity. The fraternity eventually became Pi Kappa Alpha, which still uses the building for meetings.

Tight also started Arbor Day at UNM when he took students to the foothills, harvested trees and replanted them on campus, Gugliotta said.

Some of those trees are part of Tight Grove near Hodgin Hall, she said.

"He was just a really hands-on leader," she said. "He was a figure that was just so loved by students."

UNM was affected by World War I in the same way as most other universities, Gugliotta said.

In the fall 1917 semester, more than 70 percent of male UNM students were enlisted, according to Miracle. By the end of the war, 395 UNM students had served in the military, and one was killed in action, according to the book.