The architectural firm of Rapp, Rapp, and Hendrickson designed a home for Frank and Rosina Smith in 1920. It was a rare residential commission for the firm, which specialized in public and commercial facilities and was the primary developer of the Santa Fe Style. Frank Leonard Smith and his mother moved to Santa Fe from Denver, Colorado, where his father had made a gold-mining fortune and founded the First National Bank of Denver. The home’s heavy buttressing and modified tower and projecting vigas and canales are loosely based on Acoma Pueblo’s San Estevan del Rey Mission Church. The interior exhibits characteristics of the Arts and Crafts Movement popular at the time and modern features such as an interior vacuum system, a sprinkler system, a full basement, and a three-car garage.
From Old Santa Fe Today, 5th edition by Audra Bellmore with photographs by Simone Frances.