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Polly RAYE

Central to the community

BY DENA MILLER · PHOTOS BY NATHAN BURTON

When Polly Raye moved to the Taos area in the mid-1970s, she had already amassed enough adventures and compelling stories to fill a book. But, a few years earlier, when she left the East Coast with her three young children, there was no inkling as to the road her life would follow or where she would wind up decades later.

For 40 years, Raye has been the beloved owner of the John Dunn Shops located in the center of the Taos historic district. Under her care, the tree-lined outdoor pedestrian shopping area became host to some of the town’s most alluring boutiques, but is best known as the heart of the community — a place of conviviality and home of the iconic bonfire-lit festivities that welcome every winter holiday season.

Hers is a story with as many twists and turns as the road to the ski valley.

Raye grew up in a small town outside of Boston. When she was 14, she told her parents she wanted to work at a ranch in Colorado, and their answer was, “If you can figure it out, then you can do it.” It was a principle she held close and carried forward.

Raye graduated from Smith College with a major in the philosophy of religion, but she also had an interest in finance. “My father and grandfather were in business and taught me that there is more to value than money,” she recalled. “‘A deal that’s not good for everyone isn’t good for anyone,’ they both said.”

Raye spent two years in New York as a stockbroker before moving to Hartford, Conn., and working as a financial analyst in common stocks. “Out of all the analysts in the New York area, only three were women,” another hint of her pioneering spirit. Regardless, “I was on the train tracks to the conventional.”

When Raye got divorced, “The train derailed and I decided I wasn’t getting back on it. What mattered to me then was supporting my children (sons John and Will, and daughter Hannah); not being an absent mother; and engaging in meaningful work.” With a guide book to spiritualbased communes in hand, she loaded her family into a converted Chevrolet camper van and drove south to Mexico, visiting a number of them in the U.S. along the way.

During their travels along the then-sparsely-populated eastern Mexico coast, she “experienced a paradigm shift: I learned how little we really needed.” She home-schooled her children and accepted the assistance of local villagers, with whom she developed friendships, “even though we didn’t speak each other’s language.” They traveled through Belize and Guatemala, sometimes in the company of hitchhikers and always respecting the lessons of the land, before returning to the U.S.

By 1976, Raye and her family were living at the Lama Foundation north of Taos. When her children enrolled in public schools, “they tested at two grades above their expected grade levels.” Raye, herself, both taught math and mastered the art of cooking as meditation, a practice that would serve, several years later, as the foundation for The Apple Tree, a restaurant (now Lambert’s) espousing the Buddhist mission of “right livelihood.” Owned by Raye and operated by her community of like-minded companions, “We served love disguised as food,” she said, recalling their open-door policy and starving-artist daily specials.

After four years of off-grid living, Raye’s move to the center of town set the stage for not only one of Taos’ nostalgic restaurants but for her eventual ownership and expansion of the John Dunn Shops. The development of the shopping area came in fits and spurts, she recounted, noting fire, finances, merchants clamoring for spots in the up-and-coming property, and the Town of Taos requesting a master plan that would create a pleasant walkway between Taos Plaza and municipal offices on Civic Plaza Drive.

On all fronts, Raye delivered.

“I didn’t know anything about retail, but I wanted to landscape the overgrown grounds so people would find it more attractive to walk over to the Apple Tree from the plaza, where all the other businesses were in those days,” she said. “For the first several years, I lost money, but I was happy to landscape the grounds and encourage the merchants to grow their businesses.”

Like the greenery Raye planted, the John Dunn Shops continue to flourish. And her legacy in Taos will continue to be defined by her love of community and commitment to its prosperity.

YOUR CULTURAL GUIDE TO NORTHERN NEW MEXICO

2022-2023

ANTONITA LUJAN (wife of Ben Lujan) poses with child in the studioof E. I. Couse. 1910.

COURTESY LUNDER RESEARCH CENTER

ON NEWSSTANDS EVERYWHERE AND ONLINE AT TAOSNEWS.COM Recovery is Possible. Recovery is Possible. Discover your Path to Wellness

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Rio Grande ATP, Inc. has been helping your family Recovery is Possible. members and friends find recovery for 44-years. Our communities are strong and resilient! Discover your Path to Wellness There are many Paths to Recovery. Rio Grande ATP has been and continues to be there for all those seeking a new way of life.

Rio Grande ATP, Inc. has been helping your family members and friends find recovery for 44-years. Our communities are strong and resilient! There are many Paths to Recovery.

Rio Grande ATP has been and continues to be there for all those seeking a new way of life. Rio Grande ATP, Inc. has been helping your family members and friends find recovery for 44-years. Our communities are strong and resilient! Una Vida Buena y Sana / A Good and Healthful Life There are many Paths to Recovery. Rio Grande ATP has been and continues to be there for all those seeking a new way of life.

Una Vida Buena y Sana / A Good and Healthful Life

Una Vida Buena y Sana / A Good and Healthful Life

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Taos Community Foundation for being our title sponsor for this year’s Tradiciones section. Your generous support made this year’s Tradiciones section one of our biggest ever.

Tradiciones

twenty-second annual Honorar a Nuestros Héroes 2022

2022 Taos Pueblo Governor Clyde M. Romero, Sr.

Artes: The art of living in balance with our surroundings for more than 1,000 years.

Taos Mountain Casino is proud to honor those who both exemplify the best of the past and who help us weave it into the future. These people are our own links in what continues to be an unbroken circle of tradition at Taos Pueblo.