The town of Clovis officially began in 1906 when the Topeka and Santa Fe Railway were laying tracks in the area and needed to choose a town site. It was first named Riley’s Switch (a reference to directional tracks) and was renamed, Clovis, later by the station master’s daughter. The thing that made Clovis what it is today (along with many other railroad towns in New Mexico) was the access to Eastern goods and supplies. These commodities greatly impacted New Mexican Architecture. Buildings began to be constructed from fired bricks and tin roofs, and were quite stylish and useful (considering the drabness of wood and other local materials for building construction). The new type of architecture was intriguing and visitors from all over chose to settle down in Clovis and other New Mexico towns. This increase of population officially led to more commerce and industry, and today the town of Clovis has roughly 39,000 inhabitants.