NM08 - New Mexico Living — A World View

When Anna Maria Morris traveled to Santa Fe in 1850, she described the town in her diary: “The houses are mud, the fences are mud, the churches & courts are mud, in fact it is all mud.” The young pioneer would soon learn that the so-called mud that made up the city was actually adobe and made from earth and straw. It was a material that suited the region — inexpensive, plentiful, and cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Adobe remains the primary construction method in New Mexico, and in fact can become quite pricey to build. And because of this simple, flowing style of building, many world styles look right at home in New Mexico abodes. East Indian woodwork, Mexican tile, Asian accents, African masks, French Country, Victorian and, of course, Native American weavings and pottery, all look perfectly harmonious in New Mexico homes.

New Mexico architecture reflects the history and culture of the region’s inhabitants — the American Indians, the Spanish, and the Anglo-Americans. The earliest homes created by the American Indians were cliff dwellings carved out of rock, and later they built large communal houses — pueblos — some four or five stories high and containing hundreds of rooms and housing thousands of people. The Pueblo homes consisted of stone or “puddled” adobe for the walls; vigas (peeled logs) overlaid with latillas (wood saplings) for the ceiling; and a roof of twigs and packed earth. These features and techniques are still common.

With the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, the basic building materials remained the same, but sun-dried adobe bricks replaced the “puddling” method. “Adobe” actually comes from an Arabic word, reflecting the Moorish 800-year occupation of Spain until 1492. The typical Spanish home consisted of two or three rooms in a row, and as rooms were added later they were built around an interior placita (courtyard). A large front zaguan (gateway) allowed for horses and wagons to pass into the placita. Interior rooms had mud plastered adobe walls painted with whitewash, earthen floors, corner fireplaces, and small windows with sheets of selenite for glazing. The few embellishments were the portal (covered porches supported with wooden beams) and hand-chiseled wooden corbels and doors. Eventually iron, tin, cloth, and glass were brought to the region through trade with Mexico along the Camino Real.

With the U.S. occupation of the territory in 1846, noticeable changes occurred in home building. The Anglos brought their own customs and traditions. The Santa Fe Trail, which began in St. Louis, Mo., and ended in Santa Fe, became crowded with wagonloads of goods and materials from the States. During this period, the Pueblo/Spanish manner of building merged with the details of the Greek-Revival style popular in the Eastern U.S. and flowered into what became known as Territorial design. Adobe was still used for walls and plastered with lime stucco; rough hewn timbers and posts on exterior portals gave way to slender, squared columns made at a mill; windows were double-hung with small divided sashes and crowned with plain pedimented lintels; and parapet walls were capped with ornamental brick copings that simulated Greek dentils. Pitched metal roofs (harder to build but better in the rain) and two-story porches began to appear for the first time.

When the railroad reached Las Vegas, New Mexico, in 1879, enormous shipments of factory-made building materials, including trims and moldings, cast iron and pressed metal, glass, and brick, entered the territory and transformed the simple New Mexican adobe forever. “Modern” homes were built in the styles of the Victorian era, including the Second Empire with French mansard roofs, the Queen Anne with jig-sawed ornaments and spindle work, and the Italianate with elaborate cornices and classical columns.

The round arches, white stucco, and red-tile roofs of the Spanish Mission Revival style that originated in California and was adopted by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad for its depots and hotels, inspired New Mexico home builders during the first decades of the 20th century. Modest-sized bungalows with sleeping porches and Craftsman details, appealing to the many health seekers from the East Coast flocking here to cure their tuberculosis in the dry climate, were also popular for a short time.

Around the time New Mexico achieved statehood in 1912, a revival of the Pueblo-Spanish and Territorial architectural traditions engulfed the region. These native styles of architecture were believed to better represent the flavor and character of the fledgling state. The essential building type — featuring curving and earthen-hued adobe walls, flat roofs, viga beams, carved woodwork throughout, nichos (wall indentations used for displaying bultos — or sculptures of saints), and corner fireplaces (called kivas after the Native American design) — became known as the “Santa Fe Style” and its popularity spread throughout the state.

Today, houses continue to be built in the authentic manner of New Mexico’s early residents or in methods and materials that imitate the old adobe homes. Architects and builders combine current fashion, such as Tuscan style, with historical building styles and techniques to create homes that are enchanting, unique, and undeniably New Mexican. The state’s fascinating multicultural history is evident in every detail of the typical “Santa Fe Style” home, which exerts its powerful magic on anyone who enters.

Author Margaret Moore Booker has written a book on historic architecture of Santa Fe, which will be published by Rizzoli International in spring 2009.