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Adobe & Pines Inn, Taos, New
Mexico, is centered around a
preserved 1832 adobe hacienda.
The Inn is part of the Ranchos de
Taos Plaza area, just four miles south of the center
of Taos Plaza. There are six such plazas that make
up "Taos"‚ a series of plazas that include Ranchos
de Taos (just one-third mile from the Inn), La Loma,
Talpa, Arroyo Seco and others -- all just a few
miles apart around which the Spanish built their
original dwellings and established their
communities.
 In
the late 1930s, Mrs. Paul Griffin, from Wichita
Falls, Texas, owned and lived in the hacienda and
transformed it into one of Taos' cultural salons for
the gathering of artists such as Georgia O'Keefe and
other area notables.
Mrs.
Griffin, who kept peacocks on the property (thus it
was often called the Peacock House) is also the
patrona who financially made it possible for the
Mystery Painting to come to the United States from
Europe and find a permanent home at the St. Francis
of Assisi Church in Ranchos de Taos Plaza, just
one-third mile north of the Inn. The back of the
historic church is the famous adobe facade many
times painted by O'Keefe and memorialized by Ansel
Adams and other artists through the decades.
Adobe & Pines has been an Inn
now since 1991, and sits on just over three acres,
offering guests nine rooms - five of them part of
the original hacienda and its adobe additions.
From the earliest period of the
Inn, there is a hidden underground rock-lined tunnel
from root cellar (now wine cellar) to the
well-house.
The Inn also retains many old,
lovely wall tiles. Some are obviously religious
tiles of saints, but others are tile "half shells"
that were to let visitors know not so subtlety that
the owners had been on a prestigious official
Catholic pilgrimage - perhaps the El Camino or to
Jerusalem.
In addition, the Adobe & Pines
property, which has water rights running with the
land, has its own acequia, visually transformed on
the property into a lovely stream, that is part of
the ancient Spanish irrigation system throughout New
Mexico that continues to thrive today, and a
well-appointed two-seater adobe outhouse (soon to
become a dry sauna/steam room). In addition, The
Inn's Grand Portal has a wall fresco, sponsored by
Mrs. Griffin, by noted Taos Pueblo artist Juan (Jo
Wo) Mirabal.
During 2003 Juan Mirabal, and
the Inn's fresco, were featured as part of the
University of New Mexico Harwood Museum's
retrospective on Taos Pueblo painters,
http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/3aa/3aa495.htm. An
excerpt from David Witt's article about these
artists is noted below.
"JUAN MIRABAL (1903-1970)
remains the least known of the three artists. It is
not certain whether he worked as a model for any of
the Taos Society of Artist members or if he ever
attended the Santa Fe Indian School. In the late
1940s, he studied for a time with the Taos modernist
painter Louis Ribak who ran an art school for a few
years after World War II. During that period, the
Taos Valley News ran a photograph of Mirabal with
some other students. This was unusual for, unlike
Martinez and Lujan, he seems to have pursued his
career in a less public way. There is no mention of
him painting on the plaza in the Village nor did he
open a shop there.
Visitors from outside the
Pueblo did, however, come to see him and some of
them at least must have purchased his paintings. He
differed from the other two painters in this
exhibition in several respects. The most surprising
thing he did was to depict ceremonial dances at the
Pueblo. Before this time, no Taos Pueblo artist
created such realistic pictures for a non-tribal
audience. These paintings are highly evocative of
the power and beauty represented by the dances. They
are also interesting for their modernist flavor.
From the 1930s, Mirabal's work shows a decidedly
Cubist influence which was probably unique among
Southwest Indian painters of the time.
 He
most likely learned about modernist painting from
Marjorie Eaten, a painter of his own age who lived
in Taos in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In
addition to being well educated in European
Modernism, Eaten was enamored of Mirabal. She later
became an assistant to Diego Rivera from whom she
learned the art of true fresco, painting with
dissolved pigment on wet plaster. She may have
taught Mirabal the technique because in 1950 he
painted a large mural on the portal of a residence
in Ranchos de Taos, now the Adobe & Pines Inn Bed &
Breakfast. In whatever medium, it is Mirabal's
inherent design and color sense that make his
paintings come alive."
The earliest history of the
Adobe & Pines Inn is that it was part of the Taos
Pueblo's (Tiwa's) sacred hot springs area, which is
now known as Llano Quemado (dry plain), and still
has Hot Springs Road as its primary street up behind
the Inn.
After the Spanish arrived in
the area, the property on which the Inn sits
ultimately became part of the King of Spain's land
grant to Soldier Cristobal Dela Serna who acquired
his lands South of the (Taos) Pueblo on April 8,
1710, when it was granted to him by Governor Jose
Chacon Villasenor. Governor Juan Ignacio Flores
Mogollon revalidated the grant to Cristobal Dela
Serna June 15, 1715, for the soldier Serna had been
unable to take formal possession and reside on the
land as required because of Military Service.
August 5, 1724, Juan and
Sebastian Dela Serna, sons of Cristobal Dela Serna,
sold the land to Diego Romero. Acting Governor Juan
Paez Hurtado revalidated the grant to Diego Romero,
November 24, 1724. Diego Romero had resided in the
area for sometime prior. In August 20, 1714 Diego
Romero had registered a Livestock brand, while a
resident of San Geronimo de Taos. He described
himself as "A Coyote."
Noted New Mexico Historian Myra
Ellen Jenkins says that when Fray Miguel De Menchero
made his report of his 1744 Visitation of Missions,
he spoke of only (4) four ranches in the Taos
Valley, with ten (10) Spanish Families, most of whom
were obviously The Romeros. Other than the San
Geronimo De Taos Pueblo, the only inhabited site in
the valley appears to have been the settlements of
the Diego Romero's Clan on the Rio Dela Trampas (Rio
Chiquito), which today is the Adobe & Pines
Inn/Ranchos de Taos area.
Many Spanish as well as French
explorers, trappers, artisans, farmers, and ranchers
settled the Ranchos de Taos area and their
descendants are still here today.
Adobe & Pines is now adding to
its history as a luxurious historic Inn, and we are
happy to share its current charm and previous
stories with guests and new visitors. |
