PHOTOGRAPH BY SIMONE FRANCES FROM OLD Santa Fe TODAY, 5TH EDITION
The Arias de Quiros is a large, complex commercial site characteristic of colonial-era Santa Fe. The property includes Sena House and Plaza, Prince Plaza, and the courtyard building at 109 East Palace Avenue. General de Vargas granted the land on which the property now sits to captain Arias de Quiros after the Spanish Army recaptured Santa Fe following the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Don José D. Sena built the original home with placita on this site in 1831. The house eventually grew to an impressive 33-room casa grande to house his large family of 23 children. New Mexico chief justice and Territorial governor (1889–93) Bradford L. Prince purchased No. 115, the contiguous property to the west known today as Prince Plaza, in 1879 from Carmen Benavides de Roubidoux, widow of French-Canadian trader Antoine Roubidoux. The courtyard building and placita at 109 Palace Avenue sits farthest west, directly east of the Palace of the Governors. From 1943 to 1963, this property, called Trujillo Plaza, served as the Santa Fe office of Los Alamos National Laboratory.
From Old Santa Fe Today, 5th edition by Audra Bellmore with photographs by Simone Frances.
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF MELANIE MCWHORTER