Belen Harvey House Museum, Whistle Stop Cafe to temporarily close for roof replacement, repairs

BELEN—The Belen Harvey House Museum, which has stood tall since 1910, has been a cornerstone of the Hub City’s identity, representing both the town’s rich history and its current significance.

Time and weather have taken its toll, and the building’s roof has undergone significant damage. As a result, the historic building will be closed to local customers and visiting tourists as construction crews restore and replace the tiled roof on the 115-year old building.

The Harvey House Museum on First Street will be closed beginning Monday, April 28, and it will re-open in about two months.

“It’s a good thing,” said Harvey House manager Frances Zeller about the upcoming repairs. “Finally, we’re getting our much-needed roof replaced. We had the roof on the portico replaced several years ago.”

Invested in restoring and keeping the Harvey House a viable and important asset, the Belen City Council recently approved a GRT Improvement Revenue Bond worth $891,000 for the roof improvements.

The original terracotta clay-tiled roof, once sturdy and reliable, has been showing signs of wear for at least a decade, with leaks causing serious interior damage. Broken roof tiles and ceiling damage are just a few of the issues threatening to erode the building’s legacy.

Belen Harvey House and library director Kathleen Pickering said because of the condition of the roof, the interior of the Harvey House has also been compromised with water leaking into different rooms of the building.

“If you go into the main room and look up, there are several places where the ceiling has been damaged due to the leaks,” Pickering said.

Zeller pointed to another water-stained and bubbled ceiling above one of the rooms of the Whistle Stop Cafe, and said there are several others on the second story of the historic building.

The Belen Harvey House was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in October 1983, meaning the city has to restore the roof to the building’s original state as much as possible. Because of the requirement, the city had to find tiles as similar to what was originally installed more than a century ago.

“There was a small patch that was repaired (several years ago) but not restored. It was not authentic to the original and, apart from that, nothing has been done to the tile portion,” said Pickering.

Zeller said crews with the National Roofing Company, who will be performing the work, estimates the project to be completed nine weeks from the start of construction.

“They could finish early, but we don’t really know,” she said. “We don’t have a re-opening date, but we’ll make sure we’ll let everyone know when to expect our re-grandopening.”

Both Pickering and Zeller said the decision to close the Belen Harvey House Museum and Whistle Stop Cafe during construction was easy, saying they wanted to ensure the company could focus on the roof and not have to maneuver around parking and people.

“In hopes of making progress, we thought we’d just close, let them do it so they can get done faster,” Pickering said. “It’s the same company that replaced the tiled roof at Albuquerque Academy.”

“The parking lot is already a ... nightmare, so to try to navigate pallets of Ludowici tiles, their work trucks, scaffolding and ladders, they have to be very delicate,” Zeller said. “There’s a lot of logistics ... we hate to do it, but we want to make sure everyone is safe and the project moves along quickly.”

Any tiles that aren’t broken, Pickering said, will be placed back on the roof. The tiles that are broken will be replaced with Ludowici tiles. The clay, which is from Italy, is then manufactured in Ohio — at the same company that made the original tiles for the Belen Harvey House more than 100 years ago.

“They were able to come up with the batch numbers,” Pickering said. “That’s part of the restoration piece. We want to make sure it’s very authentic.”

Zeller said it’s nice to know the quality of original construction of the building was so good that it’s lasted more than a century.

“That patch part will have to be replaced with the clay tiles, but everything else — they thought maybe two-thirds of the roof might be salvageable,” Pickering said. “They won’t know fore sure until they actually start the work.”

In the meantime, those who frequent the Whistle Stop Cafe in the Belen Harvey House will have to get their lunch-time fix somewhere else for the time being. The local eatery has been a busy scene since its opening in July 2023.

“We want people to get excited for the re-grandopening,” Zeller said. “We’ll be posting updates and the progress of the work, showing photos and videos. We’re going to continue to communicate because I don’t want to be forgotten about. We’ve worked too hard to gain a good reputation.”

Pickering said if there is any money left over from the GRT GO Bond, it will be used for upgrades to Belen City Hall. The city had been searching for funding to replace the aging roof for many years.

“It’s become a challenge to find funding to restore historic properties,” Pickering said. “It’s difficult in New Mexico, where we have this embarrassment of riches, the competition of restoration projects is really tight. It was tough.”

“We feel the Harvey House is finally being recognized by the city council, the city manager and the community,” Zeller said. “It’s not just a sleepy little museum anymore; it’s a busy, happening place. It feels good to have the city believe in us.”

While there isn’t a date set for the re-grandopening of the Belen Harvey House Museum and Whistle Stop Cafe, Zeller said they are planning to have a bake sale, the volunteers will dress up in their Harvey Girls uniforms and they might sell the broken clay tiles as a fundraiser.

Along with dressing up the roof, Zeller and other volunteers will be working on a couple of new displays when the building reopens. One of the new displays will be an exhibit of antique 1920’s Flapper dresses donated by Reggie Chavez and Darlene Aragon. The collection comes from Chavez’s grandmother, and also includes other family heirlooms such as different beaded and silk dresses, fur coats and metal bags from the era.

The second exhibit is a tribute to Buckland Pharmacy. Evelyn Brower has donated items, such as antique bottles and other display items to recreate the original pharmacy from the early 1900s.

“We’re really excited about it because the cafe has been so busy, we haven’t had time to do specialty exhibits,” Zeller said. “This will be another opportunity to get back to museuming.

“People have been so loyal ...,” she added. “It’s so amazing how much people love coming here to this little restaurant. It’s like a visit to grandmas.”