Santa Fe was not originallyAdobe Central. In fact, until the
1920s you would have been hard pressed to find any adobe in
town. Santa Fe looked a lot like every other wood frame, wood
sided western town. Then came the Russian Revolution. In 1917
Madame Vera von Blumenthal, of the minor Russian nobility, and
her lover, Miss Rose Dugan arrived. They settled in what is now
known as "Duchess Castle" and were originally interested in
promoting Russian handicrafts in the U.S. Rose Dugan was a
flier, wealthy and rather sickly. they summered in Santa Fe,
actually closer to Los Alamos, and wintered in Pasadena. They
soon became interested in the native Indian arts and encouraged
the archeologist Edgar Lee Hewitt and his assistant Kenneth
Chapman to encourage Native American artists and together, they
helped build a market for their works. By the time the 1920s
came around, Santa Fe was on the art world maps and you started
getting the likes of the Zozobra and Georgia O'Keefe. The town
began to adobe-ize and never looke