Architectural Historian

Contained within Box 143 of RG 75—Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs—Navajo Area Office—Central Classified Files at the National Archives in Riverside California is a letter from H.W. Thompson of the US Corps of Engineers to L.T. Hoffman of the federal Navajo Service in Window Rock, dated August 24, 1942.  The letter is accompanied by two site plans of Leupp, as well as three plans relating to the girl's dormitories there.  Also appended to the letter is an aerial photograph of Leupp.

According to historian Lester L. Williams, in 1888, Clinton Neal Cotton (1859-1936) requested a lease from the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad for a plot of land on the north side of the railway  tracks in downtown Gallup.  By 1889, Cotton had begun construction of a warehouse there measuring 25' by 60'.  Cotton was an important Indian trader and had a large business handling Diné weavings.  In 1915, Cotton made plans to expand the warehouse and on May 13, the Mckinley County Republican reported that the building was soon to become "one of the largest business houses in the Southwest."  

In 1933, as Cotton was winding his business down, he heard that the federal government was looking for office space in Gallup.  On August 8, he wrote to Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, offering the warehouse for sale.  Cotton's letter includes a detailed description of the building; he also appended a site plan dating from 1930 and a sketch showing how the interior was divided into five sections.  Ickes responded on August 18, turning Cotton's offer down. The letters and plans are now located in Box 1426 of RG 75—Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs—Central Classified Files, 1907–1939 at the National Archives Building in Washington, DC.

The C.N. Cotton Warehouse became famous not only for its adobe construction and significant size (the ground floor alone contained over 24,000 square feet); Cotton also displayed a large statue of the Diné leader, Chief Manuelito in a niche above the building's main entrance.  The statue was executed by sculptor Herman A. MacNeil of Chicago and is now located in the lobby of the McKinley County Courthouse in Gallup.  The building has been significantly modified but still stands in its original location.  I have included a postcard of the warehouse from my collection; the postcard's photo was taken by J.R. Willis, probably during the 1920s.