A rumor that has plagued Coronado Hall for years is just that — a rumor, according to UNM officials.
Coronado Hall residents claim that the dorm used to be a hospital, but a look through the Southwest Center for Research’s UNM archives proves the claim is false.
“I’ve heard that it was a hospital, and to me it seems like a hospital because of its location and the room layout,” student Derric Romero said. “That’s kind of scary because people die in hospitals, and the dead tend to stick around, if you know what I mean.”
The story has existed for years, and student Patrick Arite said he heard the tale from his dad’s friends who are UNM alumni.
Even a YouTube video tour of the dorm garnered comments about its speculated morbid past.
“It was a hospital before it became a residence hall,” one comment says. Another says, “I’m assigned this dorm for the fall semester, and I have to say … This is the creepiest looking dorm … It looks like a crazy hospital.”
Terry Gugliotta, an archivist for the Center for Southwest Research, said she doesn’t know how the rumor got started, but she doesn’t want it perpetuated.
“I was alarmed to hear the infirmary story attributed to Coronado because it isn’t correct,” she said. “Once something (like that) is written, researchers in five, 10, 20 years will pick it up and write it as fact and forever change our history.”
A book by Van Dorn Hooker, Only In New Mexico: An Architectural History of the University of New Mexico, chronicles Coronado Hall’s early planning and construction. It was originally a men’s dormitory.
“In September 1955, UNM President Popejoy said within three to five years there would be a new 400-man dorm …,” Hooker writes. University architects began plans for the dorm right away, and by 1957, they were ready to begin building.
“Robert E. Merrel and Warren F. Pendleton, representing the architectural firm of Shaefer, Merrel and Associates from Clovis, presented preliminary plans for the proposed men’s dormitory to the Board of Regents Feb. 1, 1957. There would be 379 beds in mostly double rooms,” Hooker writes.
An Albuquerque Journal article, “New Dorm Plans OK’d by Regents,” published Jan. 25, 1958, said the Board of Regents approved President Popejoy’s building plans and construction on the dorm would soon begin. Two years later, in 1959, Coronado dorm was completed for a little more than $1 million.
Men occupied the dorm until the late 1970s, Gugliotta said, which is when it became a co-ed dorm.
Today, Coronado Hall is “a co-ed hall with 432 students, known for its active community association that organizes many fun events throughout the year,” according the UNM housing website.
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The dorm was also known for its alleged creepy past, though it was built with the intent to hous students.
Though the story persists, student Kenndra Gatzke said she didn’t believe the rumor.
“You know, you hear a lot of things,” she said. “I’d heard the hospital story around, but I also heard that Alvarado dorm was built on a graveyard. You just never know.”
