Lordsburg High School gains recognition for historic architecture and O'Connor link

State preservation officials unanimously forwarded Lordsburg High School’s National Register nomination to the National Park Service on June 23, 2015. The move put a 1916 red-brick building, first built as Lordsburg’s high school, closer to recognition as one of Hidalgo County’s remaining civic anchors and a place where the town’s public life once gathered under one roof.

The school’s strongest architectural claim comes from a 1927 expansion by El Paso firm Trost & Trost Architects and Engineering, which gave the building Mission Revival character. That work added two classroom wings and a two-story auditorium with a full stage and balcony, turning the school into more than a place for lessons. The auditorium hosted performances, movie screenings, community events, study hall and staging for New Deal programs during the Great Depression.

The building’s history also reaches well beyond Lordsburg. Sandra Day O’Connor attended school there before later becoming the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. That connection gave the building a national dimension without loosening its ties to Hidalgo County, where the high school remained a familiar marker of the town’s growth and memory.

Preservation efforts around the building had already stretched across years. Edmund Saucedo nominated the property for New Mexico’s Most Endangered Places list in 2006, and it was added to the New Mexico Heritage Preservation Alliance’s Most Endangered List in 2007. The Hidalgo County Heritage Society gathered 379 signatures from citizens and former students in support of saving it. In July 2011, the city and county government signed a transfer agreement with the Lordsburg Municipal School District to become joint owners, and in October 2011 the heritage society was formed as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit to manage fundraising and renovation. The school district later gave permission in 2013 to list the property in the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties.

The preservation fight reflected a practical split over what the building had become. The New Mexico Historic Preservation Division said the district viewed it as a maintenance burden and believed the money would be better spent on additional teaching staff. Preservation officials also said federal preservation tax credits could help finance rehabilitation if the building were preserved, giving Lordsburg a path to reuse the landmark instead of losing one of its most visible pieces of civic history.