The Powder House is a remnant of the mining era in southern Santa Fe County’s Cerrillos District. Santa Fe merchant James L. Johnson sold a one-acre lot adjacent to his slaughterhouse in 1880 to the Connecticut-based Hazard Powder Company, which constructed the native sandstone building to hold blasting powder safely on the edge of town. The small, pitched-roof structure, with its heavy wooden door reinforced with iron, protected the chemical explosives once held within its 18-inch walls. More recently, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Unitarian Church of Santa Fe purchased the surrounding property including the little Powder House.
From Old Santa Fe Today, 5th edition by Audra Bellmore with photographs by Simone Frances.
