A historic three and a half-story structure that has served as a courthouse in Clovis, New Mexico for more than eight decades is expected to see restoration and upgrade work beginning later this year.
Located in the 700 block of Main Street, the Curry County Courthouse was built by the New Deal’s Public Works Administration in the late 1930s and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Members of the New Mexico State Legislature earlier this year approved a $2 million capital outlay for the restoration of the building, money that will be added to the roughly $4 million the county has put aside for the project.
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham subsequently approved the outlay.
According to plans, space within the structure will be reconfigured and expanded, allowing for additional courtrooms, and new office space.
A new HVAC system will also be installed.
Built in 1936 and officially opened in January of the following year, the Art Deco courthouse was designed by the Santa Fe architectural firm of Schaefer & Merrill, and was built at a cost of $150,000.
At the time of its opening, it was noted that just under forty people, in the final reaches of the Great Depression, had worked on the project, at one point installing eight steel beams weighing 4200 pounds each.
A two-story addition was subsequently built onto the structure in 1954.
Construction of the Curry County Courthouse was one of just over a dozen such judicial facilities undertaken by the Public Works Administration in New Mexico in the 1930s.
By Garry Boulard
