About the Santa Fe Rose Society

---

In the 1930’s, Nat Stern, a well-known Santa Fean, gave a sloping tract of land to the city for a park. Located between Galisteo Parkway and Galisteo Street in Santa Fe, the land was then far from any houses and, left untended, it grew more and more unsightly through the years. After Work War II, houses were built along the streets on either side of it, and when the householders moved in, they complained loudly to the city about the tumbleweed, the liter and the dirt blowing into their homes from the vacant land, but the city had no funds even to clean the place, much less make it into a park.

The late Joe Clark, who was the head of the New Mexico State Parks and Recreation Commission was increasingly bothered by the dump aspects of the land. In 1957, Joe, as a founder of and the first president of the newly organized Santa Fe Rose Society, set about badgering the City Council to allow the Rose Society to plant a garden there and, after more than a year, the Council Agreed. They also agreed to make a park. Joe went to Harvey Cornell, now also deceased, and asked him to draw up a grade slope plane to counteract water runoff which could endanger the rose gardens to be planted at the foot of the land. Joe also asked Harvey to plan the landscaping and the planting of lawns and trees.

Harvey had just retired from the National Park Service and from his position as Chief Landscape Architect for the eastern half of the nation. Before his transfer to Philadelphia, Harvey, his wife, Herdis, and their son and daughter had lived in Santa Fe for many years and, loving the city, they hotfooted it back to Santa Fe at his retirement. Harvey enjoyed giving his time and talent to the beautification of the city, so he drew up the Plans. He and Joe decided upon the kinds of trees and their placement so as to give character to the park and, at the same time, not interfere with the growth of the roses. 

Harvey did not live to see the park completed. When he died in 1959, Webb Young, a former city planning commissioner and Allen Stamm, a builder and developer, asked the City Council to name the park in Cornell’s honor. Their proposal was accepted, and the park was named the Harvey H. Cornell, Sr. Memorial Rose Garden. Webb young says that naming the place boosted work on the park. City workers put in dirt fill to conform with Harvey’s plan and, under the Rose Society’s supervision, they laid out the park. The local garden clubs planted iris at the top of the park, and the first roses to be planted were Blaze Climbers on a long fence at the Galisteo Street edge of the park. Herdis Cornell planted bush roses in her husband’s memory, and she had a fountain made especially for the center of the lower terrace of rose beds. The fountain was unfortunately broken, and this year the city has prepared its rock walled base with gravel for drainage, and with 10” of topsoil in which the Rose Society will plant miniature roses. 

Mrs Morris Abram, known as Tip, and her husband lived across from the park, and Tip hustled around and god some donations from the area’s residents to buy roses. The Rose Society bought roses from a local nursery out of the money from their dues and planting began in earnest. Every two years, in recent times, the Society plants new roses in the Memorial Park and this year they planted 105 of them. The Society has grown to over 60 members and their dues plus money from the city are used to buy the roses which in 1976 cost $250. 

Dr Richard Angle, and eight year member of the Rose Society, and last year’s president, was in charge of buying this year. The roses came too early and he had to arrange for them to be kept in cold storage for three weeks. In the meantime, the society had decided where to plant them and the members drove stakes into the rose beds to show the city workers where to dig holes.