Church Renovation

In the fall of 2008, the west wall of the San Anthonio de Padua Catholic Church in Questa, New Mexico collapsed. The Archdiocese of Santa Fe declared the church site unsafe and set plans to demolish this historic landmark. Between 2008 and 2011, negotiations with the Archdiocese and a restoration group arrived at a decision to allow the church to be restored and reconstructed. These negotiations bore fruit only because the Village of Questa declared the church a historic building. The most important stipulation made by the Archdiocese was that the Village would be given six years to complete the restoration. If at the end of these six years, the restoration was not complete, the Archdiocese was free to do what it wished with the site.

A 501(c) not-for-profit organization was formed with the purpose of raising money to restore the church and the work began in earnest.  By the fall of 2012, the west wall of the church had been rebuilt as a result of over 45,000 volunteer hours and $1.5 million in donations.  Attention was turned to the east wall to check if the collapse of the west wall had compromised the rest of the structure. It was determined that this east wall was in dire need of help. So, the restoration group set to work on the reconstruction of both east and north walls. In all, the reconstruction of the west, east and north walls entailed the laying of over 30,000 adobe bricks. In keeping with the original architecture of the church and the choir loft and communion rails were restored and completion with reconsecration occurred on August 14, 2016, six months ahead of schedule.