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Silver City, New Mexico's Historic Homes
Last updated on Thursday, July 17, 2003
Historic Home in Silver City, New Mexico 
What do a real estate agent, nurse, graphic designer, importer, building designer, retired flight attendant, and two artists have in common? They all say they found joy in renovating historic buildings in Silver City, New Mexico for commercial and residential uses.
"I think there's a stronger than ever appreciation for Silver City's original buildings now," says Smith Real Estate broker, Becky Smith, who lists the town's "last two-story brick Victorian fixer-upper" and recently restored and moved her company into a 5,000 square-foot Victorian with mission-style updates located in the downtown historic district.
Silver City's much-touted uniqueness must in large part be credited to its abundant collection of historic structures dating from 1870. The town boasts five historic districts, four of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, comprised primarily of brick victorians, territorial adobes and bungalows. "Silver started out as a town built from brick and adobe rather than sticks, like other towns," Smith explains. "It was settled by people from the East, and they brought with them the architecture they knew - brick Victorian." Such earth-based building materials served another purpose: Many western towns using wood construction around the turn of the century met with fiery demise. Silver was built to last.
Over the years, Silver City's economy and, consequently, its housing market, has vacillated in step with local mining companies' ups and downs. In recent years a growth surge, spurred by diversification of base industries, copper's standing in the global marketplace, and aggressive outreach efforts by the Chamber of Commerce and economic development organizations, had been driving prices up at a rate that worried many townspeople. But that incline seems to be leveling. "The market for existing homes has been really healthy over the last ten years," Smith said. "It only began to plateau this year as new home construction increased supply slightly ahead of demand."
Silver attracts three kinds of buyers, Smith explains: Those who want new homes, those who want existing homes that don't need much work, and those who want to revitalize old homes. With a half-dozen new subdivisions spanning all price ranges in progress, the town now offers something for everyone, she said
Among Silver's historic home buyers, the majority stay and put down roots rather than buy, sell, and split, said city planning director, Jenny Brekhus. That's because a certain kind of person is attracted to Silver City's small, old neighborhoods, and that person enters into a labor of love with her project.
"It is so astonishingly singular here," said Ky Taylor, a Tucson resident and retired Pan American Airlines flight attendant who purchased three hundred-year-old shacks on Pinos Altos Rd, in the Chihuahua Hill district and is painstakingly restoring them into short term rentals. She knew for years she would one day undertake such a project, and after scouring the world, she decided Silver City was the place to do it.
"Silver City is a tapestry for the eyes," she said, warning the town "needs to guard itself 'tooth and nail,' because all of Santa Fe looked like this in the late 40's and early 50's."
"You'd have to be dead in the water not to catch the flavor of this town," she continued. "You have old, muddy trucks piled with hay driven by cowboys with big, black handlebar moustaches; you see kids rising early and staying up late because they're having so much fun; you see laundry flapping on clotheslines and neighbors sitting on front porches, hollering back and forth. This is the real thing, not something 'staged' like in northern New Mexico. The "world's greatest adventure - the American West - is still functioning here."
Silver City, New Mexico 
Taylor thinks Silver's down home appeal will endure as long as solid industries like mining and "honest-to-God agriculture" remain a way of life. "These fabulous, big working mines producing an international commodity bring highly skilled, substantial people here from around the world. We have a fascinating, varied cultural mix. As long as there are people here who need to work and are able to find decent work, I don't think Silver will go the way of Santa Fe and become a rich kids' playground. Santa Fe had no industries."
Historic home buyers like Taylor know what they want: quality of life, Silver's biggest marketing magnet. And it's true. Silver's proximity to forests, lakes, desert and mountains, its robust downtown, architectural variety, friendly people, incredible climate, university, strong arts community, good roads to nearby cities, and unhurried small town atmosphere are big draws. "How can you beat such a place?" Taylor asks. Yet, she also points out, not everyone appreciates this semi-hip, semi-cow town. "But that's fine," she said. "Those unadventurous people get sifted out to places like Las Vegas by Route 66 and I-10."
For Taylor, the search was methodical. Connie Long, a nurse and student working on her masters degree, was swayed by chance and practicality. On a relocation scouting trip through New Mexico from Arizona, she considered, then discounted, Santa Fe, thinking, "I'll never be able to own anything here." Then, happening upon Silver City, she realized, "This is where I can get out of the fast lane." She found a 1886 Victorian farmhouse style fixer-upper, enrolled in Western New Mexico University, and busied herself with school and renovations for three years. Now, with a move to Colorado planned her home is listed for $139,900, and although she assumes she'll do well in the sale, she says she didn't take on the project as an investment. "I just loved the house and wanted to give it some T.L.C. And I needed a place to live. You can't measure everything in dollars and cents. There's value in having said you've done it."
Graphics designer Laura Howell and her husband, Anthony, who sells his paintings and drawings domestically and abroad, wanted to live and work in a downtown commercial building in a small town. In 1992, the two purchased their dream house, a 1936 Spanish Revival storefront on Market Street and have since been transforming it into a reception office, studios, upstairs apartment, and lovely courtyard with fountain. "People told us we were crazy to raise a family downtown," said Laura. "But having lived in New York, we knew it was not a big deal; we weren't scared. The space fit our needs. Remodeling has been expensive but worth it. It's sort of like recycling."
Another artist/professor, Zoe Wolfe, and her husband, Steve Shelendich, a custom home designer, were looking for "a place they could afford in a growing community where they could use their skills and make a difference." In 1994, they pictured the potential in a 1941 Pueblo Deco "dump" on Cooper, once a meat locker and freezer plant, that had been on the market five years. They renovated the complex into two office spaces, an artist studio and gallery with center courtyard and curved surrounding wall. Shelendich's Silver Design Service occupies one of the offices. The couple lived in the complex until last year when they completed construction on a new home north of town. "With sweat equity, we've tripled or quadrupled the value of our property," said Wolfe, "and we've created a working space and income."
One of Silver City's pivotal renovations took place from 1990-1992 when the shoddy-yet-sturdy, adobe-construction Clark Motel on Hwy. 180 was transformed into the now-picturesque, 13-unit Pueblo style Piñon Plaza.
Pinon Plaza in Silver City, New Mexico 
"I thought a cute southwestern style shopping center would be real eye-catching for tourists," said Sandra Massengill, a former El Paso importer who developed the property with her mother, Betty Cecil , three years before the town's renovation trend had fully mushroomed.
"Like a domino effect, other eyesores around us started getting facelifts almost immediately," she said, adding, "It's been a wonderful experience. We've had 100% occupancy since we opened."
Another prominent project Massengill undertook with her husband, Jim, the College Street Plaza, won the Main Street Building of the Year Award for 1996. The Mediterranean/Mexican style, 18-unit office/store front complex with courtyard and parking lot rose from a 1950's office building and a 1930's apartment house covering one square block. As with Piñon Plaza, Massengill's payoff has been 100% occupancy.
Although fresh facades are popping up nearly everywhere in Silver City, not all of its sleeping beauties have been reawakened. "I think my mission of wiping out every ugly building in Silver City would be close to complete if someone would take on the old hospital," Massengill said.
"There are still projects to be had," said broker Becky Smith. "I think the old buildings are a good investment because there is a limited supply product with a consistent demand. But there are no more bargain basement prices. The Victorian house in crummy condition you could get for $20,000 15 years ago is now $75,000-$100,000. And there is a need for historic preservation zoning to ensure we don't lose these lovely old homes
Updated ordinances and zoning, a steady supply of good-paying jobs, infrastructure support - these things will help Silver city grow and develop properly, say people who have invested time, money and love in its historic buildings.
As city planners and economic developers tackle those challenges, Silver's historic renovations continue to improve the town's aesthetics, pleasing both owners and citizens. "If you believe that art and architecture can influence people's lives, and that part of what attracts people to a place is the way it looks and feels, you'd agree that virtually everybody who lives here has some appreciation for Silver City's architectural uniqueness, whether conscious or unconscious," said Smith.!
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