The Antonio Vigil House is a historic building in the

Old Town In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations. There are ma ...

neighborhood of

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

. It was built in 1879 as a rental property by Santiago Baca, a wealthy landowner who moved with his family to Albuquerque from

Pecos, New Mexico Pecos is a village in San Miguel County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 1,392 at the 2010 census, shrinking slower than other parts of San Miguel County, partly because Pecos is within commuting distance of Santa Fe. The village i ...

in 1874. The home's original occupant was Albert Grunsfeld, a German Jewish merchant for whom Albuquerque's oldest Jewish congregation,

Congregation Albert Congregation Albert is a Reform synagogue, located at 3800 Louisiana Boulevard NE in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was established in 1897. The synagogue is the oldest Jewish organization of continued existence in the state. History Formation and ea ...

, is named. The Baca family sold the house in 1900, and after two changes of ownership, it ended up in the hands of Pilar Vigil in 1904. Her son Antonio Vigil lived there from 1922 to 1961 and the Vigil family continued to own the property at least into the 1970s. At some point the building was converted to commercial use. with It was added to the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties in 1976 and the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1978. The house is a one-story, flat-roofed building constructed from ''terrones'', large

adobe Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...

bricks, with outer walls thick. The architecture is based on the traditional

Territorial Style Territorial Style was an architectural style of building developed and used in Santa Fe de Nuevo México, popularized after the founding of Albuquerque in 1706. Reintroduced during the New Mexico Territory from the time of the Mexican and American ...

, but utilizes more modern features like milled lumber, large windows, and wrought iron grillwork, which were becoming increasingly available at the time in New Mexico. The house has an off-center entrance door opening into a hallway with three rooms to the south and a double row of rooms on the north. Some of the rooms have surviving brick floors and corner fireplaces. The ceilings are high, higher than in most older adobe homes.

References

Houses in Albuquerque, New Mexico Houses completed in 1879 Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties National Register of Historic Places in Albuquerque, New Mexico {{NewMexico-NRHP-stub