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Chapter 1: Coming Home
Delia Cooper noticed the unpaved streets, the dust, and the high wind that threatened to blow her hat away. Silently, she asked God for the strength to make do in this exotic land while her husband’s lungs healed. She couldn’t know that they would remain so far away from the green, treelined streets of Ohio, to create not only a home, but an institution that still serves New Mexico more than a century later. Gratefully, the family boarded the Presbyterian minister’s carriage, and rode through the tiny city to their rented house. “Thank goodness Presbyterians help their own,” mused Dr. Cooper as they trotted by Second and Gold, nicknamed “Bankers’ Corner” for the financial institutions that graced the four corners.
Top: The Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railway Depot and the Fred Harvey Indian Room at Alvarado Hotel Courtesy: Western History and Genealogy, Denver Public Library
circa 1905
Above Left: Mrs. Delia Cooper
Courtesy: First Presbyterian Church Photoarchive
circa 1905
Above: Central Avenue looking west
from First Street
Courtesy: The Albuquerque Museum
circa 1910
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9/23/08 11:12:55 PM