THE PAST 100 YEARS

From the Santa Fe New Mexican:

July 30, 1920: The Castaneda hotel at Las Vegas is undergoing an extensive overhauling by a force of Fred Harvey workmen. The interior of the building is being redecorated and new stone steps are being built up to the porch from the railroad platform. When the improvements are all completed the building will be in first class shape.

July 30, 1945: City Inspector Mel Hagman, in an explanation of the administration’s efforts to cope with the garbage situation under wartime handicaps, today asked the co-operation of residents in observing the stipulations of the city garbage ordinance.

Hagman, making his appeal in a letter to the editor of The New Mexican, also listed several ways in which residents could help collectors “in our mutual interest.”

July 30, 1970: The money squeeze has pinched the Santa Fe Opera to the point where officials of the opera are saying privately that they may have to close the doors of the theater before the end of the current season on Aug. 22.

John O. Crosby, who founded SFO 14 years ago and has guided its course since then as general director of the company, said this week that the opera needs $100,000 immediately to meet the August payroll for singers, staff and crew, 275 persons altogether.

July 30, 1995: The payouts offered on video poker machines and at crap tables at some Indian casinos are less — and less favorable to the player — than payouts in Las Vegas.

That’s the observation of one Santa Fe gambling aficionado, and limited financial information provided by the tribes with their first revenue-sharing payments this week seems to confirm his observation.