1Ernesto

January 1893 Golden Girl Calendar

This is my best photo of the 1893 Golden Girl calendar hanging in the kitchen pantry of the Customs House in Deming, New Mexico. The Customs House was located i...
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This is my best photo of the 1893 Golden Girl calendar hanging in the kitchen pantry of the Customs House in Deming, New Mexico. The Customs House was located in Judge Seaman Fields’ House; a low, white residence with shingled roof and decorative gable windows is literally a building from the territorial period, a loose time when a private residence could assume the function of a U.S. Customs facility. Field bought an existing house on Silver Avenue, a small adobe built sometime between 1881 and 1886. (A portion of this adobe — presumably the oldest dwelling in Deming — remains in the center of the house). From 1898 to 1902, the house changed from a typical adobe to what could be called a ranch house exhibiting folk Victorian elements — with a prominent front gable, full-length porch and shingled roof. The contrast between the rough and new is best seen standing in the attic looking out the gable window. Almost as if wedged in the un-plastered adobes are wood windows outfitted with delicate lozenge and diamond shaped lights, giving the residence — at least its exterior — a Victorian finish. By 1902, the same year Field became Eminent Commander of the Deming Knights Templar, the house was complete.
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