Local nonprofit gets Lowe’s grant to renovate CCC schoolhouse

Thanks to a grant from Lowe’s Corp., Human Systems Research, Inc. (HSR), a Las Cruces nonprofit, will be able to renovate the old schoolhouse it uses as a headquarters – and just in time for HSR’s 50^th anniversary in 2022, said HSR Executive Director Deborah M. Dennis, Ph.D.

HSR’s home, 535 S. Melendres St., “is the last of the historic Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp schoolhouses still standing in New Mexico,” Dennis said. “The renovation will provide community residents and visitors with reminders of the building’s rich past and be a model for historic preservation.”

The 1938 building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, she said.

Lowe’s Las Cruces store manager Kevin Quinn was expected to bring 20 to 30 volunteers from Las Cruces and El Paso Lowe’s stories to HSR on Aug. 17 – Red Vest Day (Lowe’s employees wear red vests at work) to join HSR volunteers in one-day removal of the building’s concrete stucco, Dennis said.

Lowe’s Corp. announced its 100 Hometowns Project this spring to celebrate Lowe’s 100^th anniversary. HSR was one of 100 grant recipients in 37 states selected from about 2,200 applications received from across the country, Dennis said. It was one of two New Mexico projects selected and the only one in southern New Mexico.

Volunteering with Lowe’s and HSR on Red Vest Day were: Dr. Sonya Cooper, a licensed structural engineer who recently retired from New Mexico State University after serving as interim dean of the College of Health and Social Services (Cooper served for 25 years in NMSU’s College of Engineering as regents professor and associate dean); and Jean Fulton, an historian and architectural historian and owner of TimeSprings, Inc. in Mesilla, which is dedicated to conserving cultural resources.

Dennis said HSR is “also looking forward to having the expertise of Larry Limon when he is not working on the Amador Hotel project.”

“Limon is a maestro yesero, a traditional plasterer of historic adobe homes and buildings. His work is recognized throughout the state and the Southwest. A third-generation plasterer, he was recognized with a state of New Mexico Historic Preservation award in 2017 for continuing a family tradition that is essential to preserving New Mexico’s adobe buildings. Limon has taught plastering in multiple venues, including at Phillips Chapel CME, the oldest African-American church in New Mexico, which during segregation became a school for Black children in Las Cruces,” Dennis said.

“Our hope is that Larry will be able to host a few clinics on Saturdays in September and October to teach plastering.”

“As (HSR) executive director and head cheerleader, I’m recruiting volunteers to complete the rehabilitation of the exterior using traditional lime plaster,” Dennis said. Anyone “interested in learning the art of plastering and wanting to save a piece of Las Cruces history in the process” is encouraged to contact Dennis and volunteer to assist with the HSR renovation project.

HSR is the oldest nonprofit in New Mexico doing anthropological and archaeological research and preservation work and was founded in February 1972.          `

HSR has been involved in a wide range of research and excavation projects since its founding. It has served as the sole-source archeological contractor for a host of historic sites on White Sands Missile Range for more than two decades. HSR’s 20-year Cañada Alamosa Research Project yielded more than 400,000 artifacts, along with enough data to complete seven master’s theses at three different universities and 21 oral histories and to publish multiple archeologically significant research papers.

Other HSR clients have included the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and New Mexico State Monuments, along with historical societies, corporations, nonprofits and individuals throughout New Mexico and the Southwest and across the country.

Contact Dennis at 575-524-9456 ddennis@humansystemsresearch.org.

Visit humansystemsresearch.org and corporate.lowes.com/newsroom/stories/serving-communities/100-hometowns-lowes-reveals-100-impact-projects-part-centennial-celebration.