The Stone House

At the February 23, 2023 Board of Directors meeting, the Education, Research, and Archives Committee recommended that the Stone House be added to the HSFF Register of Properties Worthy of Preservation. The Board approved the recommendation, adding the property with its distinctive façade and an often-misconstrued history to the Register. Any passerby glancing up La Vereda Street from Palace Avenue will have noticed the two-story stone house standing in sharp contrast to the adobe homes which prevail over the Downtown and Eastside Historic District. Built with stone sourced from the nearby river or hillside, the house appropriates the use of a material typically reserved for religious and governmental buildings in Santa Fe during the mid-to-late 1800s. This fact coupled with its proximity to the defunct Fischer Brewery may be why generations of Santa Feans have mistakenly contended that the Stone House was once the Brewer’s House. In fact, the house was built around 1927, decades after the brewery shuttered, as Unit 12 of the Renehan Apartments. Owned by attorney Alois B. Renehan, the apartments were part of a larger trend of investors building standalone rentals in Santa Fe to accommodate seasonal visitors who did not wish to rent a room. The Stone House was built by Augustin Alyandro Sosaya, an important figure in the Eastside’s construction boom and the lone building contractor in the city directory with a Spanish surname. It is unknown why Renehan and Sosaya deviated from the materials they used to build the first 11 apartments and selected stone for the last apartment.