Bisbee daily review., 1907-03-16
OLDEST PALACE IN AMERICA IS PRESERVED
Building Centuries Old at Santa
 Fei N, M., in Which Lew Wallace Wrote Ben Hur 0b-
 jeCt of Legislation.

SANTA FEE, N. M., March 15.-f a bill now pending in the legislature be- comes law. the old Governors Pal ace" one of the most historic struc- lures in Santa Fe, erected hundreds of years age. will be turned over to the city for a city hall.
 The bill was introduced by Speaker Roman Liberato Baca of the honse. who is a descendant of one of the old est native families in the Southwest. and whose ancestors helped to build the Old Palace.
 Since the introduction of the bill a protest has come from many quarters against converting 1t to such use, and it is now reported that another bill is being drafted to donate the Old
 Palace to the Bureau of Ethnology at Washington, for the establishment of school of ethnology in this city.
 At present a section of the Old Pal ace is rented by the Territory to the United States Government for a post office The New Mexico Historical
 society also has a valuable collection of antiquities stored in the palace. Sev- eral rooms have been used by patriotic and political organizations for head , quarters. One room, in which General Lew Wallace, while governor of New Mex
 ice, wrote Ben Hur," has, been pre- served just as it was vacated by the
 now famous author. No provision is
 made in the bill to preserve this room.
 Should the bill pass it is proposed that the building shall be remodeled, police headquarters established, the i mayor and city council be given of fices and the remainder of the build ing used for similar purposes.
 Former Governor l.. Bradford Prince and others, it is said. are opposing the Dill and working for the school of eth nology.
 The old Governors palace has been the scene of action, martial and polit- icel, for centuries, and could and should be preserved for all time. The history of the Southwest is in- terwoven about the old structure From the Old Palace Onate started ip 1899 on adventurous expeditions to the Middle West.
 Seven years later 1 GOO Indians held a council in the Old Palace, having come from Quivero to ask for aid in their war with the Aztecs. From the Old Palace Vicente de Saiazar, in 1918, as shown by Spanish history, started for the Moqui country, to con quer and explore. but turned back when told of the terrible giants await ing his coming there.
 Penaloss, a Spanish cavalier of the period of 1862, occupied the old pal ace and from it's plaza started with his troops to find the Missouri valley. In the old prison once attached to the Governors palace, bat few traces of which now remain, Penalosa impris- oned his commissary general and oth- CT ofncers for certain alleged military offenses.
 The stout walls of the Old Palace live feet thick and made of compact adobe, withstood the hard attacks of the revolution of 1880, when a handful of Spaniards fought off hordes of say age Indians who besieged them. For ty~efght Pueblo Indians in the same year were captured, tried and shot in the placito back of the governors of flee.
 On Sept. If. 1892, De Vargas, after desperate battle north of the city, re- pulsed the Indians and took up his res idence in the Old Palace The build ing was occupied by dozens of Span ish governors. judges and other off ciais. including Governor Perez, who was decoyed from the Old Palace at night and shot Aug. g, 1S37, by assas- sins who laid in wait for him near by.
 Indian governors and warriors. Span ish and American governors and sol diers have in turn used the Old Palace as headquarters. The histories of the murders. assassinations, fights and councils that have been held within it's walls would fill many volumes. It Is probable that when the bill to turn the historic old structure into a city hall comes up for consideration much of the history of the ancient pal ace will be brought out in speeches on the floors of both houses W