One of the National Park Service's most historic and elegant buildings looked abandoned at 15 minutes before noon last Friday.

Eight cars were in the parking lot, and the lights were on in a few rooms, but the front door as well as the side and rear entrances were locked.

Nobody answered knocks on the three doors or on two more on an auxiliary building behind the main structure at 1100 Old Santa Fe Trail. A small sign at the front door notes the day's color-coded terrorism alert is yellow.

Despite the abandoned look, the grounds look well-cared-for with mature piñons and other natural vegetation. The 68-year-old building, a National Historic Landmark since 1987, appears in good shape except for flaking plaster and a few roof problems.

"There are problems with any building that's built in any day, but I'm going to tell you one thing: You won't find the quality of work anymore like you did in the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps)," facilities manager Albert Duran said in a telephone interview.

"The good men and women of the CCC worked during the Depression to build all kinds of stuff for the government — buildings, water barriers, dams, roads, you name them," he said. "Then after that, they got pulled into World War II. This building could be made a national monument to be in recognition of these people."

More than 800 CCC employees worked from 1937 to 1939 to make and lay adobe bricks in walls that are 3 to 5 feet thick. Works Progress Administration artisans handcrafted its doors, windows and furniture. It was decorated with Navajo rugs, Pueblo ceramics and dozens of original artworks, including oil paintings by Victor Higgins, etchings by Gene Closs and drawings by Joe Garcia.

In 1939, the 24,000-square-foot building opened as the Southwest Regional headquarters, administering National Park Service properties in New Mexico and its surrounding states.

In 1995, when the park service's Southwest District merged with the Rocky Mountain District, the regional headquarters moved to Denver. About the same time, the service began leasing a new office building on the far south end of Santa Fe.

Today, about two dozen employees work in the old building. Duran said many of them are on leave during the Christmas and New Year's holidays.