Ancestral Sites Tour -Adobe Preservation

Walls made of adobe bricks quickly erode and melt without protection. The National Park Service protects the original adobe walls of the church and convento by encasing the walls in new adobe brick veneers. This ensures the remaining original adobe brick walls from the 1600s and 1700s are preserved and the form and outline of the mission remains intact. Condition assessments show that many walls in the church and convento still have original adobe brick over 150 years after the Pecos people departed.  

The use of adobe brick veneers to encapsulate fragile original adobe brick walls began in 1915. The bricks for the veneers are made by park staff in the flat area west of the convento. If you look at the convento walls you will notice that some of the bricks are black or gray and some are reddish-brown. During the life of the mission there were several construction phases in the convento, including the addition of a second story and more rooms and corrals to the south. Based on archaeological investigations, the black or gray bricks date to between 1620 and 1640, while the red bricks date to after 1640. Park staff construct the brick veneers in a color similar to the original wall to show the history of construction.