UNM’S D.H. LAWRENCE RANCH NOMINATED TO NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES

August 20, 2003

UNM’S D.H. LAWRENCE RANCH NOMINATED TO NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES

The University of New Mexico ranch of author D. H. Lawrence has been nominated to the National Register of Historic Places and placed on the State Register of Cultural Properties. The Cultural Properties Review Committee (CPRC), which oversees the Historic Preservation Division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, nominated the property where Lawrence lived and wrote several significant works, including The Plumed Serpent at its bi-monthly meeting recently.

The nomination, prepared by Virginia Hyde, Department of English, Washington State University, was five years in the making. It drew unanimous praise from CPRC members recently appointed by Governor Bill Richardson to nominate historic properties to the state and national registers.

Terry Gugliotta, chairwoman of the UNM’s Historic Preservation Committee, said the property, named “Kiowa Ranch” by Lawrence, represents several aspects of the writer’s personal and literary life.

“The connections are significant at every level because of the life he lived there and the writing he did on the ranch,” Gugliotta said.

The 16-acre property near San Cristobal in Taos County is of local, national and international importance, says Joe McKinney, university planner, Hugh Witemeyer, a board member of the D.H. Lawrence Society of North America and UNM representative, said, “placing the property on the state and national registers will help raise the status of the ranch for endowments to pay for continued maintenance.”

The property is owned by UNM and preserved for its location, design and association with events in the author’s life. An English author best known for works such as Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Sons and Lovers and Women in Love, Lawrence ranks among the most notable 20th Century writers. He was given the ranch by Santa Fe art patron Mabel Dodge in 1924 after discovering the area in 1922 with his wife Frieda.

Frieda deeded the ranch to UNM in 1955. The Lawrence Ranch District includes 16 acres of the 160-acre property, six buildings and structures, sites and contributing objects including: Homesteader’s cabin; D.H. Lawrence’s armchair; adobe horno original site; Dorothy Brett’s cabin; Lawrence Memorial; Frieda’s headstone; big barn; small barn; corral; cowshed; and The Lawrence tree.

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