By Ed Asher
Tribune Reporter

City Hall's plan to move Casa San Ysidro out of Corrales will ruin a cultural treasure, says the historian who amassed the museum's collection of Spanish Colonial artifacts.

"I think the city government is doing a disservice to Hispanic culture," said Ward Alan Minge, who sold the collection to the city of Albuquerque in 1997 and donated buildings and land for the museum.

"My wife and I thought we were doing the best possible we could do with our collection and the property by benefiting Hispanic culture and giving Albuquerque a tremendous cultural treasure.

"It's a crazy idea to think that they can replicate part of the place and move part of the place. What they are planning just blows me away."

Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez announced plans Tuesday to move the collection and three buildings from Corrales to the Rio Grande Botanic Garden near Downtown Albuquerque.

The original adobe building, which some say is at least 130 years old, cannot be moved and would have to be replicated.

City officials acknowledge that it would not be possible to perfectly duplicate the old building. But they say the move is needed for the survival of the collection and the museum.

"It won't be easy to replicate. But we can do it. As far as humanly possible, we will try to replicate it. I think we can get pretty close," James Moore, director of the Albuquerque Museum, said.

Moore said the city can no longer afford to operate the museum at its current location in an out-of-the-way rural area of Corrales.

Last year, for example, the city budgeted $150,000 for museum operations, but after six months private funding was needed to keep it open for the rest of the year, Moore said.

"This is not the way to try to fund this on an ongoing basis, where funding for the museum is constantly in jeopardy year in and year out," Moore said.

"The alternative would be the city would have to close it down. I don't think we could continue to fund it. And I would hate to see the alternative: mothballing the collection and shuttering the buildings."

Attendance at the museum has hovered between 6,000 and 8,000 a year for the past few years, Moore said. By moving it to the popular Botanic Garden site, attendance would leap upward by "the thousands," he said.

Also, the Botanic Garden already has maintenance and security crews in place, so those services would not need to be duplicated, he said. And concessions at the park could be used to offset expenses of the museum, he said.

The city has already budgeted about $480,000 to build a "period farm" at the Botanic Garden, meant to be a working farm representative of life in central New Mexico from the 1850s to the 1950s. Plans had already called for some sort of building to be constructed as part of the farm.

A reconstructed adobe building for the museum can be built instead of a farmhouse, Moore said. Moving the other three buildings can be done through "sweat equity," meaning by city crews at little cost, he said.

Minge says the original part of the home - the front rooms of the adobe building - is at least 130 years old and cannot be replicated.

It includes 17th century doors and an 18th century ceiling that cannot be duplicated, he said.

"There are many significant and unique architectural elements that cannot be replicated," Minge said.

Minge said the collection of some 2,500 artifacts - some dating to 1780 - is one of the most extensive collections of Spanish Colonial artifacts in the country.

The city used $1.8 million in bond money to buy it, and Minge donated the buildings and land.

Michelle Frechette, a former neighbor of Casa San Ysidro and friend of Minge, said she was stunned by news of the mayor's plan.

"You can't duplicate history. You can't duplicate ambiance," Frechette said.

"There is absolutely no way that anyone could duplicate it."

Hope Grey, chairwoman of membership for the Corrales Historical Society, said, "I'm speechless," when she heard the news.

But Millie Santillanes, city cultural services director, said, "It's going to be an incredible exhibit" at the Botanic Garden. "We are bringing it to a location where it will be accessible to thousands of people. It's going to be so much better and people are going to be so pleased when they see what is being created for them."

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