el Zaguan
by Priscilla Burgers
Title
el Zaguan
Artist
Priscilla Burgers
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
Image is a private apartment at El Zaguan, one of eight historic properties that the Historic Santa Fe Foundation owns and maintains to ensure their preservation and for the education and enjoyment of the public. In addition to apartments, El Zaguan houses the Foundation office and an exhibit area.
El Zaguan had its roots when James L. Johnson, a Santa Fe Trail merchant, bought two parcels of land, including a house and corral, on Canyon Road in the mid-1850s. By 1875 his business was thriving, his family had grown to seven children, and he had added on to his house. The Johnson home was described in the newspaper as "one of the finest villas on the edge of the city." The Johnson family was associated with the house for over 75 years. The house combines a Spanish Pueblo style flat roof, linear floor plan, and softly rounded adobe outlines, with such features of the later Territorial style as brick coping at the parapet and classical wood door and window trim. The garden is similar to the one that may have been originally planted by Mrs. Johnson.
The property was purchased in 1928 by Margretta Dietrich, a wealthy widow who had recently resettled in Santa Fe from Nebraska where she had been a leading organizer of women's suffrage groups. For a short time in the late 1920s, Margretta Dietrich operated El Zaguan as a hotel. Eventually Kate M. Chapman, one of the earliest practitioners of Spanish-Pueblo Revival style adobe architecture, directed El Zaguan's restoration and enlargement. In 1979 a private corporation formed by John Gaw Meem transferred the property to the Historic Santa Fe Foundation.
FAA Featured Photo:
Doors Group - 08/11/2014
Uploaded
August 14th, 2013
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