Constructed 1900.
With the arrival of the Southern Pacific Railway in 1881 and the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad six months later, the town of Deming was born. First a tent city and shantytown, it did not take long before permanent buildings were erected. The Downtown Deming Historic District encompasses a variety of historic resources spanning its 130 year history, including: Meyer’s Meat Market, a Queen Anne style commercial building built in 1886; the 1889 U.S. Customs House; the imposing 1916 Deming Armory; and, Morgan Hall, built in 1939 as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project.
Historically referred to as the Windmill City or New Chicago, Deming retains a surprising number of commercial buildings that maintain a high degree of integrity from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The district also includes several structures, such as the buildings at 108-112 East Pine Street, which were updated and modernized with formstone bases and numerous large plate glass windows in the mid-twentieth century. In the case of Tidmore’s Department Store at 213 South Gold Avenue, which was largely reconstructed following a fire in 1946, that damaged or destroyed several businesses within the block.
Pine St., Silver Ave., Maple St., Copper St. Deming, NM 88030
photo by Elmo Baca.
