New Mexico Ghost Towns
Cerrillos
County: Santa Fe
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Year Established: 1880
Year Abandoned: Semi-Ghost Town
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Population: 90 (As of 2020)
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Location: 25 miles southwest of Santa Fe
Cerrillos is located on the scenic Turquoise Trail 24 miles south of Santa Fe and 3 miles north of Madrid on NM 14.
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About:
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Remains: Tons to see! Worth the trip!!!
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TIMELINE
Doc Richard's Drug Store
One of the first children born in Carbonateville in June 1881 was to Mr. & Mrs. Richards. In September of that year the family moves 3 miles down the arroyo to Cerrillos, where they built two wooden structures on this site. They rented the upstairs rooms, and downstairs, Doc Richards ran his drug store. When the fire of 1890 destroyed all of the buildings on this block Richards rebuilt at the same location, but with adobe. During Prohibition this was a saloon whose proprietress once resisted a raid by shooting blindly through the door. In 1968 this building was used as TTVFD's first fire house.
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CERRILLOS HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The Simoni Store
In 1892 Sarah Jones purchased these lots and her husband, L.G. Jones, built this two story structure, which housed at various times Benn & Jones bar, Miller & Legace drugs & novelties, Mrs. Doyle's dry goods, groceries & notions, a feed store, and a meat market. On the upper floor were lodge and hotel rooms. Tony Simoni moved from Madrid to Cerrillos in 1914 and 1919 for $3,ooo he bought this building from E.W. Callender. Tony ran the grocery and August Probst the meat market. Upon Tony' death in 1956 this building was run by Edith & Corina Simoni until their passing. 2014 - now owned by Russel Saimons
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CERRILLOS HISTORY SOCIETY
Briggs Building
The earliest records, 1893, show the two structures that are today the Briggs Building as saloons. By the late 1890s they had merged into one large saloon, but by 1902 the building on the left sold clothes & dry goods and the one on the right was a general store. During Prohibition (1920-1933) there was a tunnel that allowed the movement of good between the basement of this building and the basement of Torreano's store across the street. E.J. Mitchell & family opened an antique shop here (1957-2013). In 2015, the Briggs remodeled the building and opened their business.
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CERRILLOS HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The Cerrillos Bar
Charles Lyon of Carbonateville built the first structure on this site sometime after 1884, and by 1893 he operated a restaurant and the post office here. In the early 1900s this became Ella Weltmer's stationary & books and ice cream parlor. Tony Tappero bought the old building from Ella in 1918 and repalced it with this current structure, which for nearly two decades served as the Sahd Brothers general store. In 1936 Tony & Catherine Tappero opened the Cerrillos Bar here, with their daughter Mary and her husband Leo Mora taking it over in 1977. Mary's daughter Kathy now runs the bar.
CERRILLOS HISTORICAL SOCIETY
C. Rael's Market
The earliest records show three saloons packed closely together along First Street here. By 1900 this building housed Louis Darass' saloon, and toward the middle of the block the third building was Joe & Anna Vergolio's bakery and general store. The Vergolios later moved to the Palace Hotel. By 1905 Ciriaco Rael had moved from Waldo to Cerrillos and occupied the middle building, where he opened a general store and meat market. Ciriaco's business soon expanded to include this building and a shoe repair shop. C. Rael's was a fixture in Cerrillos into the mid 1920s.
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CERRILLOS HISTORICAL SOCIETY
