National Register of Historic Places
Caverns, The, Historic District (Boundary Increase)
Carlsbad vicinity, Eddy County, New Mexico
The record
- Listed
- January 8, 2014
- Type
- Historic district
- Address
- At end of NM 7, Carlsbad vicinity
- County
- Eddy
- State
- New Mexico
- Contributing resources
- 2 buildings, 5 structures, 29 sites, 1 object
- Coordinates
- 32.18493, -104.41580
- Reference number
- 14000012
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
The outline is the area recorded for this listing in National Park Service map data, drawn approximately.
USGS Historical Topographic Map CollectionUSGS Historical Topographic Map CollectionDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesUSGS Historical Topographic Map CollectionUSGS Historical Topographic Map Collection
The story
Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com
Caverns, The, Historic District (Boundary Increase) is a district at the end of NM 7 near Carlsbad in Eddy County, and it is tied to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Its styles include Simplified Pueblo Revival, Simplified New Mexican Territorial Revival and Park Service Modern.
Why it's listed
The district was first listed in 1988, and this boundary increase was listed in the National Register in 2014 under criteria A and C, with national, state and local significance in architecture, landscape architecture, industry, commerce, social history and prehistoric and non-aboriginal historic archeology. The nomination gives a period of significance of 1903 to 1925, reflecting the start of guano mining in 1903.
Physical character
Walls are limestone laid as random rubble, their tops undulating like broken masonry, or are stuccoed adobe or steel and cement block with beige stucco. Flat roofs are covered in asphalt and asbestos, later coated with urethane foam, and in 1959 parapets and vigas were removed. The west wing gained a small rock-walled addition in 1954 and was expanded on two sides in 1970.
Historical context
Guano mining began in 1903, and a national monument designation came in 1923. The CCC, a named builder, repaired flood damage in 1941, and NPS staff did the same in 1947. Road building ran from 1925 to 1927, a road was paved in 1935, and Loop Fire damage came in 2011.