About the Property
The four houses on the Stay Old Town Road property were built as a farmer’s family compound beginning in the mid-1800’s by the Cervantes family. They worked the nearby farmland, which is now Tiguex Park and the museums. The flat roofed house by the road (that we call Homestead) was built first. The middle room is the oldest, original house. The two bedrooms were added as separate dwellings as the children grew, married, and started families of their own. Each house has lived many lives in the 100+ years they’ve been standing. Homestead even had a short run as a restaurant in the early 2000’s. It was being used to store the owner’s antique furniture collection before the houses were restored and turned into vacation rentals.
The other three houses on the property (as well as the two next door) were built by members of the extended family. Each house is named for the people who last lived there. There’s Casa de Abuela, where the matriarch of the family lived. She was the last family member to stay as everyone else moved away. We’ve spoken to neighbors, now in their 60’s, who remember Mrs. Cervantes as a surrogate grandmother. Her house was a place for after school snacks.
The two smallest houses were rented out when the Cervantes family moved away over the years. The Silversmith’s House was rented to a jeweler who sold his pieces under the portal in Old Town. Casita de Padre was last lived in by a priest. Both houses are considered “shotgun houses” because the doorways open straight through from front to back. You could shoot a bullet right through the house without hitting a wall. This style was typical of the time they were built. Originally, neither one had a bathroom. The small building out back (now our laundry and storage room) had two full bathrooms, one for each house.
Ultimately, all four houses were basically abandoned. They had been in the family for generations beyond anybody’s memory. But nobody lived there anymore. They are made of adobe (mud and straw bricks). It’s a simple and sturdy material. But, after years of neglect, the houses were beginning to crumble and return to the earth.
We are so deeply grateful to the previous owners (Kris and Terry) for the restoration they did on these houses in 2015. Kris shared with me the story of how they came to own the property, saying “I was coming home from the museum one afternoon, down Old Town Road… and I saw the sale sign. I remember thinking that someone would buy it, raze it because it was in the process of falling down already, and build some new adobe-looking structure. In that instant I stopped the car, backed up, got the phone number on the sign and called them. It was a long process-someone had made a commitment of sorts and later, when that fell through, there were three siblings that needed to be reassured that whoever bought it would be respectful of the property. It had been in their family for generations, beyond their memories.”
Kris made it her mission to restore these houses while honoring the history of the family that built them a century before. Daniel and I are so honored that she chose us to continue her work here. You see, our story is quite similar to hers. We drove by one day and fell in love with this place. But there was already another offer on the table. We are so thankful that, in the end, Kris chose us. She saw that we shared her passion for preserving and showcasing the history and beauty of the property. She believed we could be part of the story that these houses tell for the next hundred years.
We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to share this special place with travelers like you, who appreciate the beauty of adobe walls that have stood over a century and held so many stories.
