Gustave Baumann emigrated to Chicago with his family from Magdeburg, Germany, when he was 10 years old. As a young man he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Royal School of Arts and Crafts in Munich, Germany. He eventually settled in Santa Fe in 1918 and became a leader in the local arts community and a founding member of both the Santa Fe Art Club (1923) and the Society of New Mexico Painters (1926). In 1923, Baumann purchased the property at this site and commissioned Santa Fe architect Charles T. Gaastra to design a one-bedroom bachelor home and studio. The Baumann home blended the local Spanish Pueblo Revival Style with the Territorial Style and Baumann’s own playful decorative touches. In 1925, Baumann married Jane Devereux, an actress and singer from Denver, and the couple added a detached art studio to the back of the property and expanded the house. The Baumanns lived in the house until the 1970s. In 2009, the house was donated to the Historic Santa Fe Foundation, which sold the property to a local preservationist in 2014.
From Old Santa Fe Today, 5th edition by Audra Bellmore with photographs by Simone Frances.
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF MELANIE MCWHORTER