By Patricia Duran
Most homes in Raton, New Mexico are decades or over a hundred years old, and the families that move into them inherit unknown and unique histories.
For instance, plenty of homes in Raton were relocated from surrounding coal towns after the mines closed and coal companies sold their company houses for profit. My husband and I discovered our new home used to be a sort of boarding house or hotel.
I've heard rumors that during prohibition, homes were seemingly unnoticeable speakeasies in which bootleggers would transfer liquor underground from house to house.
With these rumors, I've been chasing a story about Raton's famous chapel houses for a few years now. These houses were regular-looking homes with a big piece of history behind them-couples during World War Il and the 1940s would travel from surrounding areas to Raton to get married in them.
Yes, during this time, Raton was your pass to wed fast because New Mexico did not have a waiting period to receive a wedding license.
As most young men were drafted for the war, they would pack up their sweethearts for a quick elopement and head to Raton. The historic Seaberg European Hotel (also known as the El Portal Hotel) had many late night, secret weddings in the 1930s, including that of famous New Yorker socialite Dorothy Parker. The justice of the peace was conveniently located down the street for a quick phone call.
My goodness-there is such suspense and intrigue in a late night wedding, hidden romance and a small town official helping to spread the love. If I'm not speaking out of turn, this sounds like a movie someone should make. Someone, take notes.
Rosemary Feldman, her husband Bobby and two daughters moved into a one-story home on North Third Street across from the county courthouse in 1981. The family did not suspect their home to have ties to the fast wedding-era in Raton.
Over the years, the Feldmans encountered a handful of unusual visitors standing outside their home. These unusual visitors were couples whom married inside the family home. The couples recounted the details of their nuptials and claimed they were married by a judge just inside the dining room in front of the stained-glass bay window. The bay window is still there to this day.
"The last gentlemen that came by stopped by himself as he just lost his wife of over 50 years, and he wanted to see the bay window," said Rosemary.
The family speculated that couples likely passed away because "after a while, the couples stopped coming." To Rosemary's knowledge, her home was one of four houses on the corner of North Third Street and Savage Avenue that were used as wedding chapels. The house is presumed to have been built sometime in or before the 1930s. Over the years, the other chapel houses were demolished or torn down, and the old Feldman home is the only chapel house left standing.
The Feldman's lived in the home for 23 years before moving.
Rosemary's husband Bobby passed away in 2020, and left behind many fond memories and pictures, some of which give us a glimpse into Raton's last chapel house. The stained glass of the bay window beams with blues, purples and yellows throughout the Feldman's family pictures where history still lives on.
In Loving Memory of Bobby Dean Feldman
September 15, 1950 - September 3, 2020
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