Santo Domingo Trading Post

Indian Service Rd 88 @ Indian Service Rd 851, Domingo, NM
Phone:

East < GO > West

The original Santo Domingo Trading Post opened ca.1881 along a trail that would become Route 66 some 45 years later. In 1922 the Seligman family of traders built this two story addition which became the public part of the operation. The large white protective panels on the first floor in this 2019 photo cover the display windows and the central entrance.

GPS: 35.511383, -106.321117

We got there by taking the I-25, exit 259 to Hwy. 22 to Indian Service Routes 88 (35.488856, -106.328483),to Domingo, 35.511383, -106.321117

The coming of Route 66 may have helped business a bit, but in 1932 Route 66 was relocated a few miles to the east, that probably hurt the tourist trade part of the business at the trading post. Even so the local trade was enough to sustain the business and in 1946 "Trader Fred" Thompson became the owner and operator. He ran the business until it closed in the mid-1990s when he passed away.

The building was nearly destroyed by a fire in 2001 and sat in a derelict condition, roofless for several years. Since then it has gone through extensive reconstruction thanks to over a million dollars of renovation grants. The building is closed to the public and is under the control of the Pueblo of Santo Domingo.

The building really consists of three sections, the newest being the two story 1922 part on the north end. The middle part was the original trading post and the southern section, on the left in this photo, was a residence. The concrete slab in front of the newer section is about where two gasoline pumps stood, they pumped Chevron gas in the 50s. There was a single pump, I think that was Poly Gas, at the other corner of the canopy on the front of the two story building, maybe a leftover or ?.

This section was the original trading post, with the large wood sliding door on the right allowing larger items to be brought in or out. This section of the building became warehouse space after the 1922 section was opened for business.

The next 5 images are those painted between the second floor windows in the first photo on this page.

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Vintage Advertising Highlights

SANTO DOMINGO INDIAN TRADING POST
In the center of the Santo Domingo Indian Reservation, halfway between Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico on Hiway 85 is one of the real, old time, trading posts. Thoroughly genuine in every respect, the nearby Indians still bring jewelry, corn, wheat, chilli peppers, and beautiful beadwork to exchange at the Trading Post for food clothing and other essentials of life.

Thousands of visitors from all over the world buy genuine Indian articles and thoroughly enjoy their visit to the old Trading Post throughout the year.

NOTE: The postcard shows the panels painted around the windows similar to those shown above.
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Photo(s): 2017, 2019