Historic governor's home demolished

PORTALES - In all kinds of weather - through ice storms, violent dust storms, heavy rains - Zach Jones remembers the home always felt "quiet and safe."

"Like a ship carrying its passengers across the High Plains," is the way Jones described it.

That north Portales home, built in 1900 by New Mexico's third governor, is history now, knocked down Tuesday morning to make room for a new barn in which Roosevelt County can store its road equipment.

Despite months of public pleading to save the former home of Gov. Washington Ellsworth Lindsey, workers began tearing it down about 8 a.m., clouds of dust enveloping the heavy equipment on the cool, cloudy morning. Within the hour, only rubble remained.

Roosevelt County purchased the 5-acre property near the county fairgrounds in November 2018 with the intention of building a new road department barn. Officials offered the house for sale to be moved but received no bids. It hadn't been occupied since the summer of 2017 and was in need of major repairs.

Jones, a biology professor at Eastern New Mexico University, lived in the historic home from 2007 until 2015 when he moved to Oklahoma. He sold it to the county for $133,240.58, records show.

Jones expressed mixed feelings about the transaction, knowing the house would likely be reduced to a memory.

"There was an amazing amount of solace in that house," he said in a telephone interview early last month.

"It seems like a loss, but, my goodness, caring for the house to get it back into some sort of solid future state would have been an endeavor. It's been on that High Plains in those winds for so long, it was embedded in the landscape."

Lindsey built the two-story home in the summer of 1900 when he arrived in Portales to practice law.

He soon became an integral part of the community, serving on its school board and as its county clerk. He helped in the creation of Roosevelt County and was a member of New Mexico's constitutional convention.

Lindsey was elected the state's lieutenant governor in 1916 and became governor in 1917 following the death of Gov. Ezequiel de Baca.

He lived most of the rest of his life in Portales, dying in 1926, at age 63, in the home he built. He's buried in Portales and a statue honoring him stands outside the Roosevelt County Courthouse.

His home had been renovated multiple times, at least once by Lindsey himself. Following his death, a bedroom was added on the north side and a kitchen on the east side. A bathroom appeared to have been renovated in the 1960s, Jones said.

Had Lindsey been able to see his home just prior to its demolition, "It would have looked strange to him," Jones said, "but you could certainly see the bones were still there."

Roosevelt County Manager Amber Hamilton said a contract has been awarded for construction to begin on the new road barn.

"We're waiting on materials and a permit," she said Tuesday morning, predicting the new barn would be in place within the next six months.

Hamilton said a few items original to the house were donated to the Roosevelt County Museum, including stained-glass windows and old door knobs.