The Roque Lobato House - A Book on HSFF's Register Property Lobato - Morley House
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The Roque Lobato House
Santa Fe, New Mexico
by Chris Wilson and Oliver Horn
Photography by Robert Reck
Schenck Southwest Publishing
2014
Description from book jacket:
The eighteenth-century world that Roque Lobato, soldier and eventual armorer to the Royal Spanish Garrison of Santa Fe, entered was a dark, turbulent, and unforgiving place. Born into a poor family most likely in the 1730s, Lobato grew up during a time when the nature of the Spanish colony was changing. Brash and perulant, Lobato avoided almost certain indentured servitude by opting for the dangerous course of winning honor and wealth as a soldier. As a reward for his many years of participation in the Comanche Indian Wars, Governor Juan Bautista de Anza granted the land for the construction of the Roque Lobato House.
Built in 1785, the Roque Lobato House has not only witnessed transformative historical events but also actively participated in some. In the nineteenth century, the house was intimately involved with Don Gaspar Ortiz y Alarid and the activities of the notorious Santa Fe Ring, known for defrauding New Mexicans of their land titles.
In the twentieth century, the by then renovated house served as a prototype for archacologist and occasional spy Sylvanus G. Morley's Spanish Pueblo revival architectural style, ultimately adopted as the Santa Fe style that unified the city architecture and attracted tourists to the city. Most recently, the Roque Lobato House underwent an extensive renovation that removed many of the changes made in the previous few decades.
Chris Wilson and Oliver Horn trace the long history of the Roque Lobato House and its fascinating owners. This house was not only pivotal in the development of Santa Fe style but also one of Santa Fe’s most historic houses.
About the Authors:
CHRIS WILSON, former J. B. Jackson Professor of Cultural Landscape Studies of the University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning in Albuquerque, and founding director of the its Historic Preservation and Regionalism Program, has written widely on architecture, tourism, and the politics of culture in the Southwest. His coauthored book La Tierna Amarilla: Its History, Architecture, and Cultunal Landscape (1991) won the Downing Award from the Society of Architectural Historians. His book The Myth of Santa Fe: Creating a Modern Regional Tnadition (1997) received the Villagra Award from the Historical Society of New Mexico and the Cummings Award from the Vernacular Architecture Forum. Facing Southwest: The Life & Houses of John Gaw Meem (200) sings the virtues of both one of Santa Fe's leading citizens and the regional design tradition he helped to sustain. Everyday America: Cultural Landscape Studies After J, B. Jackson (2003), also coauthored, provides the most up-to-date survey of cultural landscapes. Wilson was lead author and editor of the award-winning study The Plazas of New Mexico (2011). A Field Guide to Cool Neighborhoods, focuses of pedestrian neighborhoods in North America before and after the automobile.
OLIVER HORN is urrently a PhD candidate in US Diplomatic History at Georgetown University. He also holds an MA degree from Georgetown University in Global International and Comparative History. He
graduated magna cum laude with a BA degree from Washington and Lee University, double majoring in US History and Politics. He has written numerous articles for Heritage Foundation. This is his first book.
Read about the Lobato - Morley on HSFF’s Register of Properties Worthy of Preservation nomination written by Dr. Audra Bellmore.
The Roque Lobato House
Santa Fe, New Mexico
by Chris Wilson and Oliver Horn
Photography by Robert Reck
Schenck Southwest Publishing
2014