Lovington
Lovington MainStreet, with the help of the University of New Mexico’s Design and Planning Assistance Center, has completed their new downtown master plan, giving direction to the exciting future of Lovington’s growth. The plans highlights include: stressing the preservation of existing historic structures, greening Main Street with trees and medians, adding a multi-use plaza, creating skate park, planting a children’s garden and growers park, plus suggestions on everything from housing to clean energy. To see the entire plan, please visit Lovington’s MainStreet website.
Part of the plan ensures that existing treasures like the Lea Theater and the Lister Building remain vital parts of the community’s identity. The Lea Theater was built in 1948 with seating for more than 800. Its distinctive marquee welcomed film buffs during the boom of the 50’s, through the 60’s and 70’s, up until the 80’s, when the theater went dark. In 1991, the Joy family undertook an extensive restoration and re-opened the theater. It won the New Mexico MainStreet “Best Building” award in 1997 and is listed in the National Registry of Historic Places.
The historic Lister Building, built in 1931, is now home to an expansion of the the Lea County Museum, including their new Sports Hall of Fame. Among the featured inductees is Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher, arguably New Mexico’s most recognizable citizen. Lovington celebrates their hometown hero with billboards and a giant mural painted for a national Nike advertising campaign.
History
Early visitors to the Llano Estacado, or Staked Plains, were buffalo hunters – both Native Americans and Europeans. Among them was George Causey, who is said to have killed forty thousand buffalo in his time. When the buffalo were eliminated from the plains Causey became a cattle rancher. His horse is credited with finding a water source for the vast reservoir of the Ogallala basin. Causey was the first permanent American settler of the High Plains of the future Lea County.
Robert Florence Love filed a claim in 1903 on the land where the Lovington town site would eventually be located. Love and his brother, James, were the first postmasters and James was the settlement’s first merchant. He opened the Lovington Mercantile in the year of the town’s founding, 1908. Oil came to Southeast New Mexico in the 1920s, but Lovington resisted becoming an oil town until 1945. However, it had a major impact on the community 15 years before when the railroad came to Lovington in 1930. Lovington’s Railroad Committee had been working feverishly to lure a rail company when the presence of oil led the Texas & Pacific Railroad to bring a line 113 miles from Monahans in May of that year. The new line was called the Texas & New Mexico.
Lea County MuseumCulture
The Lea County Museum, 103 S. Love, formerly the Commercial Hotel, is home to many artifacts of the early years on the High Plains. The grounds of the Museum include the Love Home (pictured above), the Baker School, the McDonald Mercantile and the 1912 freight wagon pictured here. For more information: www.leacountymuseum.org.
Event: The Lea County Fair and Rodeo has been an area tradition for over 70 years. You want variety? Well, this Fair has everything from livestock shows to fiddle contests to pro rodeo battles to national country music acts. Lovington hosts the event each August.
Check out Lovington’s new MainStreet website for all the latest happenings!
Contact:
Becky Griffin
100 W.Central Unit C
Lovington, N.M. 88260
raggia62@yahoo.com
Phone: 575.396.1418
