As the story goes from generation to generation, the Quintana and Native American families of which we are descendants have lived on this piece of land at 604 Agua Fria Street, Santa Fe since the mid 1500s.
My Dad told me stories of his grandfather Don Pedro Quintana, a trader of goods from Santa Fe to Denver and all points in between. I guess this history is one reason we have all had the desire to be in business for ourselves. My Grandfather Alejandro Quintana was a storekeeper, butcher, inventor and most famous as a filigree gold and silver jeweler. He passed this talent to my Dad, Pedro Quintana, who was also well known as a filigree jeweler, Spanish colonial tin worker, mathematician, building contractor and the best sheet metal man I have ever known. He and my Mother, Concha Sanchez Quintana, raised seven sisters and me all here on this land. A thousand stories could be told of all our exploits in this beautiful neighborhood. We all worked Grandpa’s grocery store where we learned how to wait on customers, give change, and most of all how to treat people with respect. My sisters and I grew up in a small 3 room adobe house without running water or a bathroom until my Dad added on in the mid 50s. Then our lives changed. After my Dad spent several years building up in Los Alamos, working on what we all know now as the Manhattan Project, we prospered and lived an unbelievable life with cousins and friends around town. I took over my Dad’s construction business in 1969 and raised my family on land South of town that my Grandpa Enrique Sanchez gave me and other cousins. He was also a builder, but most of all a master carpenter and the kindest most loving man I’ve ever known.
Now for the story of the Guadalupe Inn. My two sisters, Dolores Q. Myers and Henrietta Quintana and I came up with an idea to build a bed and breakfast back in 1988. We needed to find a way to make the property profitable so we could pay the taxes and keep it in the family. We jumped through all the hoops the City of Santa Fe put us through in order to build in the Guadalupe Historic District with all the strict city historical rules. We put our plans together and started construction in October of 1990. We had to stop construction after finding artifacts from the past, and the state archeologists stepped in. We didn’t get going again till late in 1990. Construction continued and we opened in April of 1992. My Mother Concha helped us navigate through many City Council meetings during the process. She was a tiny woman but would not let the Council Members, the Mayor, or anyone else push her children around. My children Chris and Charlotte even had a hand in the business from helping to build to cleaning rooms. My Mother “held court” in the dining room during breakfast hours and entertained our guests with stories for many years until she passed away in 2009.
We have had some great years and some slow years. We have had some wonderful people work for us, many guests who keep coming back and many others who have helped us to prosper through the years. We are grateful for all.