Allen Stamm

Honored May 2003

Allen Stamm

No other Santa Fe builder in the modern era contributed as much as Allen Stamm did to the bedrock concept of "home." A visionary as well as a man of immense integrity, character, compassion and humanity, he built thousands of high-quality—but not high-cost—houses all across the face of this community. He worked always to make them livable, durable, handsome, architecturally sensitive, friendly and, perhaps most important, affordable for ordinary Santa Feans with average incomes.

As a Depression-era graduate of the University of New Mexico, Stamm understood that hard-working but poor people needed decent homes in which to live and raise their families. As early as 1939 he was building "affordable housing" here—long before the term was coined. His first homes ranged from $3,800 to $4,500, and the $300 down payment and $40 monthly mortgage bill were within the reach of state employees.