Cloudcroft School
Cloudcroft, New Mexico

Description: Cloudcroft School
Other Names: Cloudcroft High School, Red Brick School Building, currently Welcome Center for tourists
Address: Cloudcroft, Otero County, New Mexico
Type: educational
Original Client: [local school board]
Historic Inventory: New Mexico Register of Cultural Properties, 1989
Date: 1918
Condition: extant

Architect or Firm: Gustavus A. Trost (?)
Associated Architect or Firm: Trost & Trost
Contractors:
Dimensions and Orientation: basement and one story on a sloping site; faces West; South elevation, 84 feet; West elevation, ca. 60 feet
Budget/Cost: $15,000, including equipment

Foundation: stone-faced concrete
Wall Materials: red brick
Roofing Materials: tin
Other Materials Used: concrete entry stairs
Remodeling and Additions: bell housing removed

Present Owner: [local school board]
Location of Drawings: None known to exist
Location of Documentary Photographs: El Paso Public Library: Ponsford 375, perspective view from the South; Sacramento Mountains Historical Society, Inc., Cloudcroft: photographs, ca. 1924 and ca. 1926, plus files of publications and clippings illustrating the school

Bibliography: The Round Up, Cloudcroft High School [yearbook for] 1952-1963; Marie Wuersching, `Red Brick’ Schoolhouse Placed on State Register,Mountain Monthly (Cloudcroft, New Mexico), April, 1989, pages 1, 7, history

Remarks: The design, a compact, finely detailed building, is unique among Trost & Trost school buildings. There was a library and auditorium at the rear; the basement contained two classrooms, and lavatories with running water. From the beginning, the school served as a community center. Dramas and recitals were presented, and non-denominational services were held every Sunday.

Prepared for the El Paso Public Library by Lloyd C. and June F. Engelbrecht under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, 1990.