Tucumcari Real Estate Listing is Part of City’s Jewish History

An entire block of buildings built nearly 120 years ago in downtown Tucumcari is up for sale.

Stretching between 101 and 105 W. Main Street, the structures were the inspiration of Joseph Israel, a businessman who arrived in Tucumcari in 1903, launching a business called the Golden Rule Cash Store.

“Four years later,” writes historian David Stratton in an article entitled “The Jewish Founding Fathers of Tucumcari” for the New Mexico Historical Review, “he opened Israel’s as a clothing store in the two-story, sandstone” building located at the corner of Main and Second Street.

As listed by the Clovis-based Sagebrush Real Estate, the property includes the two-story 2,300 square-foot clothing store building, along with a 400 square-foot structure that was formerly a boot shop; and a 1,400 square-foot one-time tavern.

A fourth building at 105 W. Main Street once housed the Waffle House Cafe.

The entirety of the property, making up some 6,800 square feet, has an asking price of $89,000.

According to Stratton, Jewish merchants in the early 20th century played a pivotal early role in the development of Tucumcari, injecting “new sources of capital and cultural standards into an isolated and sparsely populated area to create a vibrant urban hub.”

​By Garry Boulard

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