Pueblo of the Seven Fires – Springfield College

Edgar M. Robinson was a close friend of Seton’s who served as a professor at the YMCA College in Springfield, Massachusetts.  Robinson and Seton worked together in the early days of the Boy Scouts of America.  Robinson was Boy’s Work Secretary of the International Committee of the YMCA.  In this role, he led camping and other programs for boys and became familiar with Seton’s work. He was appointed the first managing director of the Boy Scouts of America for a limited assignment to initiate the national organization and recruit key members to the executive board.  Following retirement from the YMCA, Robinson served as a professor at the International YMCA College in Springfield, Massachusetts (now known as Springfield College).  He also visited Seton in Santa Fe and served as a lecturer at the College of Indian Wisdom in Seton Village.

Robinson conceived of a training facility on the East Campus of Springfield that would train camp leaders, somewhat similar to Seton’s training programs he planned for Seton Village in New Mexico.  Robinson consulted Seton for his ideas, and Seton provided initial drawings of a pueblo-style building.  John Gaw Meem, the noted Santa Fe architect who was instrumental in the development of the Pueblo Revival style, was engaged to design the actual structure, but his design was deemed too expensive, and another architect completed the project. 

The building became known as the Pueblo of the Seven Fires.  A noted San Ildefonso painter, Wo Peen, the son of Seton’s San Ildefonso friend Juan Gonzales, painted extensive murals on the walls of the Pueblo of the Seven Fires.

The building continues to serve Springfield College today as the centerpiece of its East campus Outdoor Learning Center.