Special Properties

We are saddened by the loss of one of our long time residents and historians, Kathryn "Kit" Sargeant, co-owner of Casita Chamisa, a 200 year-old adobe converted to a village Bed and Breakfast. Kit wrote many articles for the Village newsletter (one of which is reprinted below) providing interesting insights into our past, the people and the land. She will be missed.

Special Properties
by Kit Sargeant - Resident archeologist, historian and author
For more fascinating information on our area get a copy of Shining River, Precious Land by Kit Sargeant and Mary Davis available at Bookworks (4020 Rio Grande Blvd, 87107, 505-344-8139) or the Albuquerque Museum.

Los Poblanos
Los Poblanos, a name now generally associated with private properties on the west side of Rio Grande Boulevard somewhat north of Montano Road, was the name of a small Spanish Colonial period plaza, settled about 1750AD (one of six such plazas north of Old Town). The plaza site was identified during the course of the Los Ranchos Historic Site survey conducted in the 1980s. The site is located south of the Gallegos Ditch on the east side of Rio Grande Boulevard. La Plaza de San Antonio de Los Poblanos is thought to have been settled by Juan Cristobal Ortega, a native of Puebla, Mexico. It may be that his birthplace accounts for the name of the plaza which is first mentioned in the 1783 church records of Fray Gabriel de Lago, and is listed in the 1790 census as located south of the Los Ranchos Plaza. Twenty-two men and 31 women of 15 households were listed. Five family heads were farmers, two were carders, and three were laborers, plus one weaver, one shepherd, and one mason. The 1814 census recorded only 12 families in Los Poblanos, and it was left out of the 1860 census entirely. It may have merged with the larger Los Ranchos or may well have been destroyed by one of the destructive floods of the Rio Grande which plagued the valley from time to time. Test excavations by a NM State Highway Department archaeologist in 1986 support the latter theory. Further excavation of the site might well reveal buried walls of the old village as were discovered in the 1996 archaeological excavation of the Los Ranchos Plaza site, also destroyed by a flood.

The Poblanos name survived in the valley in connection with the wealthy Armijo family. Lands in Los Poblanos first came into possession of the Armijos through the marriage of prominent Juan N. Armijo and Rosalia Ortega, a daughter of Juan Cristobal Ortega. Juan and Rosalia had six children, who in turn became important Albuquerque figures. Their oldest son, another Juan Cristobal, owned land in Los Poblanos which eventually came into the possession of Albert Simms and Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms who bought the 1930s estate known as Los Poblanos which included land on both sides of Rio Grande Boulevard. The Simms enlarged the Armijo house with plans by famed architect John Gaw Meem and built another handsome building nearby, La Quinta, as a social center. Among his other interests, Albert Simms established a dairy on the property. A large barn, silo and other dairy buildings still stand on the land.

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