Architecture / Style / Pueblo

Chronology

1915-1945 (Whiffen)
1905-1940 (Blumenson)
1900-1990s (Baker)

Description

The Pueblo-style house is characterized by battered walls, rounded corners and flat roofs with projecting rounded roof beams or vigas. Straight-headed windows generally are set deep into the walls. Second and third floor levels are stepped or terraced, resembling the Indian habitats called pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona (Blumenson, 7).

Variations

Leading Examples

Fine Arts Building, Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, New Mexico (Blumenson, 7).

Santa Fe County Courthouse, Santa Fe, New Mexico (Blumenson, 7).

Southwest Regional National Park Service Office, Santa Fe, New Mexico (Blumenson, 7).

Glossary

flat roofs
projecting roof rafters called vigas
parapet wall with canales (water spouts)
rounded corners
battered walls
unpainted round porch posts
roughly hewn window lintels
stepping or terracing

Sources Cited

Baker, John Milnes. American House Styles: A Concise Guide. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Ltd., 2002.
Blumenson, John J.G. Identifying American Architecture: A Pictorial Guide for Styles and Terms, 1600-1945. Nashville: American Association for State and Local History, 1981.
McAlester, Virginia. A Field Guide to American Houses: The Definitive Guide to Identifying and Understanding America’s Domestic Architecture. New York, NY: Knopf, 2015.

Also see Architecture / Style index.