While Santa Fe is known for its historic buildings, historic neighborhoods and streets were equally important in shaping its character.  Santa Fe’s neighborhoods and streets are as much a reminder of its past as the plaqued historic structures.  In 1988 in effort to better understand this significant part of Santa Fe’s urban history, a study was funded by the New Mexico State Historic Preservation Office and the City of Santa Fe of the thirteen neighborhood districts in the downtown and the surrounding area, many of which make up the City’s downtown zoning districts.   The neighborhoods’ boundaries were chosen to include areas with a common history and pattern of development.  This study includes a history of each neighborhood and describes the significant structures and streetscapes. 

Staff for the project was Corinne Sze, Beverley Spears, Boyd Pratt and Linda Tigges who prepared the report using interviews with neighbors, newspaper articles, historic maps, County Commission and City Council minutes, and multitude of historic photos.  The study also used subdivision plats from the nineteenth and early twentieth century, for example those of the Valuable Building Lots, the Staab Subdivision, Don Gaspar Square, the Duran Estate, and Fort Marcy Heights.  Areas such as the Capitol and Cathedral complexes, and the downtown street realignment are provided with overlays showing original and subsequent development.  The study also provides excerpts from the 1885-1886 Hartmann map, the Kings Maps, the 1924 City Official Map, and the map for the proposed location for the Mammoth Dam north on the north side of the City.