Casa Santa Fe | Melba Levick and Rubén Mendoza
Intro: Welcome to the one and only interior design book podcast, Decorating by the Book hosted by Suzy Chase from her dining room table in New York City. Join Suzy for conversations about the latest and greatest interior design books with the authors who wrote them.
Melba Levick: I'm Melba Levick. We're doing this podcast about our book, which is called Casa Santa Fe.
Suzy Chase: There's something about Santa Fe that seems otherworldly to me, a land of ancient cultures nestled in a new country. The mountains, the narrow streets, and mud houses, where the Native American culture, the Spanish culture, and the American West intersect. The oldest and highest capital city in the United States situated at an elevation of 7,199 feet above sea level. So, let's kick things off with some of the hallmarks of Santa Fe style.
Rubén Mendoza: Well, the hallmarks of the Santa Fe style have ancient origins, of course, and the ancestral Pueblo, or what used to be called the Anasazi tradition. This tradition readily transformed through the course of the Spanish colonial presence, and later through the Mexican, early Americans. So, each of these traditions have lent themselves to it, and you see that whether it's puddled adobe or what we call vigas or peeled timber ponderosa pines in the ceilings all the way through to the kind of a [inaudible 00:01:31] nature of the buildings, they kind of ebb and flow across kind of a litany of different types of fabrics, historic structural features.
So you have wood frame doors, you usually have very thick walls. You have, as I noted, peeled beam ceilings post. You have portales or arcades. You have patios or patios that are central to kind of the indoor-outdoor living arrangement. And of course, many of the buildings that we see in Santa Fe proper are typified by kind of either a beige or light brown to dark brown mud coating is actually built into the city codes, but this was original to the original buildings, beginning with, for example, the Palacio, the Palace of the Governors, which was saved in 1910, and it became the centerpiece for all the developments thereafter for the preservation of existing historic buildings.
Suzy Chase: That was Rubén Mendoza and Rubén, you're an archeologist, author, photographer and founding faculty member, California State University, Monterey Bay. Plus, you're the co-author and co-editor of several design books. For the design book process, I would imagine you would have to be in tune with each other when you and Melba Levick, the photographer, collaborated on this book. How does the collaboration work when an internationally acclaimed architecture and design photographer and an archeologist and architectural historian team up?
Rubén Mendoza: We began the book in the midst of COVID. And so that made it a challenge for contacts in the community. And I have a number of contacts there who work at the Museum of Indian Arts and Cultures and the Bureau of Anthropology. And so Melba and I have met repeatedly over the course of this process. And then she, in her long practice of meeting, greeting and so forth, has been able to enter these communities very fluidly, and suddenly she has friends everywhere. And so that has been instrumental in being able to identify the kinds of houses that the community itself sees as important to this process. Melba was very much engaged with the kind of material there. It's a photographer's paradise. And in the process, we ended up with twice as many houses than we had originally planned. But what that ultimately did was allowed for the integration of more and more design elements into a book that I believe, and in so far, everyone I've talked to believes, is really a masterpiece of sorts insofar as design style and tradition in a community that is literally hundreds of years old.
Suzy Chase: So I'd love to dive in and chat about three of the homes in the book. The first, the Roque Lobato house. Is that how you pronounce it?
Rubén Mendoza: Roque Lovato, yes.
Suzy Chase: Or House of Spirits. Constructed in 1785, deemed one of Santa Fe's most significant historic homes by the magazine antiques in 2007. The house underwent a thorough remodel by its current owners, Dr. Carl L. Horn, and his wife Susan, along with architect Craig Hoops. The renovation was intended to evoke the era identified with fame Mayanist Sylvanus Griswold Morley, who purchased the house in 1910. I would love for you to chat about the renovation and Morley.
Rubén Mendoza: For one, I was particularly honored to be able to visit this particular home and speak with Dr. Carl Horn and Susan. They were absolutely gracious hosts. We sat down in their living room and I literally took it all in because I am a Mesob Americanist. In other words, much of my career has been dominated by the study of pre-Columbian architecture and Sylvanus Griswold Morley was one of the leading proponents for the protection and preservation of Maya monuments all over the Yucatan Peninsula. He also happened to be a spy during World War I for the US government. And he was a particularly interesting character on many different levels, very complex personality, but Morley was basically recruited by Edgar Hewett, an archeologist to assist with the renovation and restoration of the Palace of the Governors.
You have to bear in mind that while the Palace of the Governors is one of the central features of the Plaza, it's one of the largest civic buildings in at least early civic buildings in Santa Fe, it was also one built from about 1610 onward, and it saw literally a transition from the Pueblo, ancestral Pueblo through to the Spanish colonial when it was constructed into the Mexican era, and it housed American governors as well. So it's a building with major gravitas. It was a place of centerpiece for political and cultural life.
However, you have to bear in mind that when the Santa Fe Trail was created and you had people moving from the East Coast, Americans trading with essentially the Mexicans, for the most part, the Santa Fe trail grew exponentially over a thousand miles long. And Santa Fe became the crux of the intersection between this far-flung frontier settlement and Mexico City with its own El Camino Real that extended 1,600 miles to the South. What's important about Morley is that he Hewett and other archeologists, including photographer Carlos Vierra, who's also cited in the book, they came together in order to see through the restoration.
And as a result, that restoration became pivotal to saving the Santa Fe style because many of those who had come from the East saw the buildings as primitive. They saw them as rustic. They saw them as un-American. And so there was a move to demolish or to modify the buildings to give them more of a Victorian style, especially in the late 1800s or for that matter, create a New England style. And in fact, there was a period with the Palace of the Governors where they had begun to add wooden ornaments, which were essentially Victorian stylistic elements. And well, the building fell into disrepair and it was about to be demolished. And Hewett and his colleagues, including Morley, stepped in and they began to advocate for its preservation. They ultimately purchased the building and it became basically the new school of American archeology. And it was just a matter of time before that became kind of a cultural centerpiece for the community.
And then Morley and Hewett managed to get onto the planning commission, and they pushed to preserve the Adobes, the old Adobes of the Mexican era. They pushed to preserve them for posterity. And then eventually through Rapp, a later architect, they were able to encode the guidelines and policies that live in Santa Fe today. In fact, it was Morley who pushed the idea of the city different as opposed to the city beautiful. In other words, the city different because this is like no other American city. And I think I can vouch for that, having seen many of the cities across the country and how they are eclectic and very different than this city that has a rather homogeneous appearance in terms of Adobe architecture, whether ancient or modern.
In sofar as the Roque Lobato house, this was a site that is interesting by virtue of the fact that it was that home that was built by a Spanish soldier, was also the armorer of the Presidio of Santa Fe. And this house was basically constructed in about 1785, and it is situated a top a hill overlooking what would've been the presidio at that time. And when I use the word presidio, I'm talking of a Spanish fort or fortress or garrison where Spanish soldiers were housed.
The house itself is absolutely beautiful. The owners, Dr. Carl Horn and Susan went to great lengths to make sure that the house was returned to its appearance when Morley lived there. And I should note that I was in high school, I was a huge fan of Sylvanus Griswold Morley, and I would pour over his books, and that's a lot of what got me into archeology. His work here or there in Santa Fe ultimately translated to the restoration of preservation of Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, ultimately places like Chichén Itzá in Mexico where he was situated for several years and engaged in the restoration of that site where literally millions of people each year visit this site that really is the product of his work.
When you go through the house, there are many of the design features of the original house that are absolutely intact. And there are additional pieces like the 17th or 18th century beam and post corbel or arcade in the front, that was brought from a nearby house. And that particular house maintained a more stylized woodwork, and that was integrated into the portal or the portico right at the front as you enter the house. The day I arrived there was a significant downpour, and the Horns were there to greet me. They were absolutely wonderful as I noted. And we did a tour of the house and literally there were many features of the house that I would love to see integrated into my own home. In fact, so much so that I plan to redesign my living room in the Santa Fe style, which might sound like an obsession, but after I saw their home, I was absolutely convinced that that was the way to go.
The building, as I've already noted, is one that dates to 1785, and it's gone through quite a history. But again, the Horns made sure that many of the original stylistic elements, the interiors, the arcades and so forth were preserved. Sylvanus Griswold Morley's addition of board and baton woodwork for a wainscot around the living room is absolutely perfect. And while it may have departed somewhat from the Spanish style, it does show the American influence of that time. So you have this milage of both American, early American elements as well as Spanish colonial and Mexican interiors with artistic works from the ancestral Pueblo or Anasazi and other cultures mixed with more recent Mexican works, Santos or statuary, bultos that are kind of the religious tradition, Spanish colonial era.
Suzy Chase: The whole art and furnishings by William Penhallow Henderson are just incredible.
Rubén Mendoza: Yes, I agree. One of the features that was most striking, that most impressed me was the library. It is an amazing library replete with all the things that really appealed, for example, to an archeologist like myself or someone engaged with the study of southwestern arts and crafts, it really was that, it was an immaculate at home. It truly was. I might note that the Horns have also published a book. Their son is engaged in all of this, and they wrote a book about the house, which I collected and which is really quite appealing.
Suzy Chase: I like how the library is basically half pottery and half books.
Rubén Mendoza: When you look at it, it just works. All too often, we collectors will often mix our materials and strew them across our bookshelves along with books. But in this particular case, this was beautifully done.
Suzy Chase: So moving on to Casa Hankison, a historic Adobe structure. You say this Adobe exudes a distinctive old New Mexico charm and an ambience that modern construction simply can't replicate. The exact date of construction remains unknown. So was there just not much information on this building? I would think you could visually date a building by inspecting it. I'm so curious about that.
Rubén Mendoza: I do historic assessments on the Monterey Bay. I've been doing these for years. There in Santa Fe, you are dealing with mud brick architecture often coated with layers of either mud or stucco, usually lime veneers. And one of the things that happens is because these buildings are so organic, people through the years will modify them, add to them, build off of them, but retain the original style, which is now part of the city code. And as a result, what ends up happening is the building at the core ends up encased or surrounded or amended with additional buildings that don't necessarily follow the original stylistic reference of the original historic fabric. And in the case of this building, this started out as a mill, a Spanish mill. And so it's hard to define what the core of that building was.
In this particular case, I'm sure that if we go back to the historical record, there's got to be a reference to this original building in the presidio records. Those aren't always digitized or accessible, but I can assure you if given more time, I could get to the bottom of that.
So in this particular instance, what I did was I projected to the 1700s, and I believe the building at least the core building, was constructed in about the 1720s or thirties. And then the building was essentially abandoned, went through a period in which it began to go into a period of dilapidation. And then in 1930, you get literally an effort to rebuild the building under the New Mexican architect William Lumpkin, who basically inserted a lot of his vision for what a Spanish Pueblo building should look like.
And of course, you have additional remodels that occurred extending between 2009 and 2019. And then you have the addition of the outdoor pavilion, and of course the landscaping that was done by Alana Markle. And so all of these things come together to reflect a long period of use, disuse and redevelopment.
Suzy Chase: So located on a hillside overlooking Santa Fe's historic East Side sits Hollenback House. And it also graces the cover of the book. Designed and built by architect John Gaw Meem for New York heiress and Victorian feminist Amelia Hollenback in 1932. In the book he wrote, "Meem saw this house as one of his most significant architectural achievements, while at the same time admitting that much of the credit must go to Hollenback." This story fascinated me. Please chat a little bit about this really special house.
Rubén Mendoza: Yeah, I was intrigued by Amelia Hollenback because she saw the value in the architecture, the style, the traditions and the arts of Santa Fe and vicinity. And she went to great lengths to collect architectural elements, building materials of every imaginable sort. Can you imagine this New York heiress, wandering about the desert with a crew, salvagers? And in the process going into pueblos and a number of them were ancestral Pueblo buildings stating back centuries and the elements would be lying out and being weathered, or they were buildings that had fallen into disrepair. And she would go in, purchase the materials and take those pieces that she thought would compliment the home. So really the home is a constellation of the history and pre-history of northern New Mexico because many of the elements came from many different areas in Northern New Mexico and Santa Fe in particular.
And so as a result in this particular case, we have a whole host of additions that are not original to the house, but do reflect the antiquity and the historicity of this place we call Santa Fe. And so when I saw the pictures that Melba produced of this house, I was particularly taken, and it would've been one of those houses I myself did not get to. But I did visit with about a dozen folks there in Santa Fe during my one-month stay in Adobe, a hundred-year-old Adobe there in downtown Santa Fe.
But if you look at the house, the doors, [foreign language 00:18:09] is a term that characterizes the deeply inset and carved wooden doors of the Spanish colonial period. We find them originating in Andalusian, Spain under the Moors, and they are usually very ornate and elaborate. And we do see that here. We also see the massive hand hewn vigas and the corbels that uphold those vigas, again, exemplifying not only the architecture of Santa Fe, but some of those religious architectural traditions like the main churches there in San Juan where you have these exact same elements. The corridors, the doors, the flooring, all of it fits with an ancestral Pueblo design mystique. And so for me, seeing the front of this house, I was convinced that that was the picture that needed to be on the cover. And essentially Melba had already seen that as well.
Suzy Chase: So Melba, I think in this photo, the shadows really make it. It looked like it was getting ready to rain or it just had rained. Can you talk a little bit about that photo?
Melba Levick: Yes. It was a stormy sky, but it was the end of that golden light. It was the end of the afternoon when the sun just went below those dark clouds and it created a light that was absolutely fantastic. So I was just going like crazy and trying to capture that. It didn't last that long. And I was able to get shots of also the portals which were just illuminated. It just looked otherworldly. It was very, very beautiful and mysterious and very Santa Fe, the drama. And this went back and forth. I mean, with the publisher, they weren't sure because they thought this photo might look a little sad or might look a little just stormy. But I was pretty convinced that this was the dramatic photo that really captured the Santa Fe feeling, this kind of mystery of this conjunction of cultures and just beauty on a mountaintop. And we fought for it, and they deferred to our passion in wanting this photo on the cover. And I think it really did work out really well.
Suzy Chase: As you were writing and researching this book, did you discover anything new that you didn't know before?
Rubén Mendoza: Well, for my part, there were a lot of details because I've written and published on the material culture architecture and traditions of California and the American Southwest. I was trained at the University of Arizona. And so I was constantly surrounded and kind of embedded in traditions that included Adobe structures, included Mexican and Spanish colonial and indigenous elements. And so when I began the research on this, one of the things that stood out to me, and I don't know that it's particularly well known, although it has been written about, is that archeologists were instrumental in saving essentially the Palace of the Governors. And they were absolutely fastidious in the effort to restore it as well as to propagate the idea of a Santa Fe style. And so it really began with them.
But before I entered the fray and Melba, I began to collaborate on this, the architects that I heard about most were Rapp and Meem, and each of them contributed significantly. And in fact, Meem was instrumental in seeing the city code embedded with the Santa Fe style. So he takes the lion share of the credit for what has become the tradition there. But the tradition has ancient roots. And as I investigated further, not only were these archeologists, including Sylvanus Griswold Morley, significant to my understanding of the place, but when Melba returned from her first stay in Santa Fe, she kept making reference to the kivas in the individual households that she was photographing. And the Kiva fireplace was a term that was not one I was accustomed to. And it's very commonly use there in Santa Fe, but it's almost like an isolate because I know these as ornos. We know them with a lot of other terms.
But the folks there, especially during the Pueblo revival period in the 1920s and thirties, decided that these ovens, these fireplaces built into the corners of the rooms looked like kivas. They were round, they had elements that suggested a Kiva and a Kiva of course, being a Pueblo religious building, typically these can be traced all the way back to the pit houses of the 700s, 800AD. These eventually evolve into ritual chambers that where various groups, what we call sodalities or clans, would meet and converge over religion and politics. Clearly that hasn't gone away. And in the process of doing that, these then became subterranean structures, and then in the pueblos of the Rio Grande, they were actually being built on the surface. So you see these massive round structures and they do suggest at least the fireplaces suggest kivas. The Kiva, when I first heard it, I thought, well, that's kind of sacrilegious to use that. I was actually hesitant to use the term.
But then I began researching these kivas further and found that there were Native Americans of ancestral Pueblo dissent, who acknowledged the use of the term, but also acknowledged that for Pueblos it was a term that could be construed as hurtful, problematic. And many of them have accepted it to one degree or another, but it's part of the lore of the Pueblo revival movement. So you can argue on one hand, they're acknowledging the contributions and traditions of the ancestral Pueblo, but at the same time, by using the term then misappropriate and use it in a context which is probably not appropriate. Nevertheless, the term has stuck and it is used in the book, it is defined accordingly.
Suzy Chase: So Melba, what about you? What is one thing or more that you discovered doing this book?
Melba Levick: For me, it's a discovery through and through. I mean, how the four or even five cultures are one. I mean, it's a place where the indigenous and Mexican and Spanish and American West come together.
Suzy Chase: So where can we find you both on the web and social media?
Rubén Mendoza: I'm a recently retired professor from Cal State University of Monterey Bay, but I'm also an architectural historian, an archeologist, and you can find me on the web at archivesarcheology.com.
Suzy Chase: And you Melba?
Melba Levick: So Instagram would be melbalevickphotos. My website, I'm really happy with, it's melbalevickphotos.com.
Suzy Chase: Well, this has been just terrific. I adore this book and I want to thank you Ruben and Melba for coming on Decorating by the Book podcast.
Rubén Mendoza: Well, thank you.
Melba Levick: Thank you, Suzy. It's been such a pleasure. And thank you for having us.
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