Santa Fe Living Treasures – Elder Stories

Faith Meem

THE SPIRIT OF CIVILITY

Honored November 1985

Faith Meem

Faith Meem's interest in construction came naturally. Her father's "first love" was construction--bricks and mortar. He invented some of the first modular houses," says Faith's daughter, Nancy Meem Wirth.

Born in 1902 to Faith Gregg Bemis and Albert Farwell Bemis, Faith grew up in the Boston suburb of Chestnut Hill. One of seven children, Faith and her father enjoyed doing construction projects together. Faith attended Vassar for a couple of years, but when she became unhappy, her father encouraged her to study art in France.

On her return, Faith wanted to study architecture. Women weren't admitted to MIT or Harvard in the 1920's. The two schools had created the Cambridge School of Design for women who wanted to study architecture and landscape design. Faith received her degree from this school in the late 1920s. Afterwards, she remodeled a house in Washington, D.C., and worked briefly in New York, "but it was during the Depression and jobs were scarce," Nancy said.

The man Faith would marry, architect John Gaw Meem, contracted tuberculosis and came to Santa Fe for his health in the early 1920s. He was establishing himself in his profession. and one of his best clients was a woman from Colorado Springs named Alice Bemis Taylor. Alice hired John to build the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center.

She also asked him to hire her niece, Faith, as a draftsman in his office. John agreed, and Faith Bemis headed to Santa Fe. The only one of her siblings to go West, Faith felt New Mexico was like "being close to the sea because she could see the horizon, Nancy told us. "She became attuned and identified closely with the Southwest."

Faith and John were married in 1933. The couple lived in his office for a while and then bought property on Old Pecos Road, now Old Santa Fe Trail. "Together, they designed and built the split level part of the house in 1938," said Nancy, who now lives in the home. "I was born in 1937. My parents had a housewarming and christening for my first birthday when the house was completed."