What You
Need to
Know When
Moving to
Santa Fe

Santa Fe’s earliest settlers were Native Americans. The area was once home to Tanoan Pueblo villages along the Rio Grande, with the earliest settlements dating back to sometime around the turn of the 10th century.

The historic Santa Fe Plaza is the site of the Ogapoge Pueblo, built by the people of the Tewa nation around 900 AD. The Santa Fe River served as an effective source for water and fast transport for the area’s early inhabitants.

Spanish colonists were the next to arrive. In 1598, most of present-day New Mexico was part of the vast colonial empire called New Spain. The centerpiece of the Plaza became the Palace of the Governors. Built by the Spanish in 1610, the adobe structure is the oldest continually occupied public building in the United States.

New Mexico is a place that has adapted to new technology and changes in culture and society without abandoning what came before. The Palace of the Governors stands as a testament to Santa Fe’s unique timelessness.

The first U.S. city to be designated as a Creative City by UNESCO, Santa Fe’s reputation as an artist’s haven goes back to a railroad that never came to fruition. When planners instead went with Lamy, a town to the south of Santa Fe, the city had to explore other options to attract new residents. In the early 1900s, archaeologist Edgar Lee Hewett spearheaded an effort to create resources for archaeology and the arts, including the School of American Research. Before long, the city was drawing writers and artists from across the country, and has retained its reputation ever since as the creative capital of the Southwest.