Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary American Latino Heritage |
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Barrio de Analco Historic District Santa Fe, New Mexico |
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The National Historic Landmark Barrio de Analco Historic District in Santa Fe, New Mexico is one of the oldest residential neighborhoods of European origin in the United States. Originally settled in 1620 by the Spanish, Barrio (or District) de Analco suffered major destruction during the 1680 Great Pueblo Revolt. The Spanish rebuilt Analco beginning in 1692 during their recolonization of New Mexico. The buildings of Analco are in the Spanish Pueblo and Territorial styles that reflect the merger of Spanish, Indian, and eventually American building techniques. In the seven adobe brick buildings that make up the Barrio de Analco Historic District visitors can see how working-class Spanish colonists, Tlascalan Indians, and other American Indians lived in Santa Fe during the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
The Spanish first settled Santa Fe during the winter of 1609-1610 as they sought to “civilize” the North American continent and to expand their New World empire. Mirroring other Spanish colonial settlements of the era, the colony in Santa Fe was a defensible fort and village set around a central plaza. Also featured in this itinerary, the Santa Fe Plaza became the commercial, social, and political center of the community. Fearing attacks from the local Pueblo Indians, many high-ranking Spanish officials and citizens built their homes around the plaza because it was a central defendable area. As Santa Fe prospered, the original settlement expanded to include growing neighborhoods on the opposite side of the Santa Fe River from the plaza. By 1620, the newly constructed Chapel of San Miguel was in place and a suburb, the Barrio de Analco, began to grow. The Tlascalan Indian word, “Analco,” means “the other side of the river,” which distinguished this barrio from the neighborhood on the plaza side of the Santa Fe River where government officials and other prominent citizens resided and attended mass. The Chapel of San Miguel provided laborers, artisans, and Tlascalan Indian servants with a place to worship in the growing suburb.
Analco and Santa Fe suddenly stopped growing when the Great Pueblo Revolt of 1680 erupted. After years of enduring Spain’s encomienda system of forced labor and the insistence of Catholic conversion, the Puebloan Indians revolted against Spanish rule. During the revolt, Analco was the first Santa Fe neighborhood the Puebloan Indians destroyed, including partially burning down the Chapel of San Miguel. The Spanish colonists and most of their Tlascalan Indian servants fled from Santa Fe to El Paso. The Puebloan Indians held Santa Fe for 12 years. In 1692, led by Diego de Vargas, the Spanish returned to re-occupy Santa Fe, and Vargas made peace with the Puebloan Indians. After regaining control, the Spanish began rebuilding Santa Fe and the Barrio de Analco.
Across the street from the Roque Tudesqui House at 132 East De Vargas Street is the Gregoria Crespin House. In 1693, a Tlascala Indian received a grant for the land on which the Gregoria Crespin House sits. Tree-ring samples obtained from the vigas in the house indicate a cutting date for the tree of between 1720 and 1750, while the first existing title transfer on the house was filed in 1747. Originally of Spanish Pueblo design, this one-story house with its thick adobe walls, five rooms, a covered veranda, and a patio, later had Territorial embellishments added to its trim along the roofline.
Just south of the Chapel of San Miguel on Old Santa Fe Trail is St. Michael’s Dormitory (today known as the Lamy Building). Constructed in 1878 by the Christian Brothers to use as the main building of St. Michael’s College for Boys, this adobe Territorial style building was originally three stories high and had a tower, porticos, galleries, and a mansard roof. A destructive fire reduced the building to two stories in 1926, diminishing what had been described as one of the stateliest buildings in Santa Fe. Now part of the New Mexico State office building complex, the building has one of only a few two-story rear porticos remaining in Santa Fe. Please call 505-827-7313 for more information. From St. Michael’s Dormitory, walkers can stroll back to East de Vargas Street heading east to the final two stops of the walking tour, the Boyle House at 327 East De Vargas Street and the Adolph Bandelier House at 352 East De Vargas Street (also listed as 1005 Paseo De Peralta). While the exact date of construction of the Boyle House is unknown, it was in place as early as 1766-68. This one story adobe house has walls four feet thick, a flat roof, and supposedly had at one time 37 rooms. Territorial embellishments, including squared off ceiling beams, a long rear portico, mantel fireplaces, and a bay window are later additions to the house.
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