Pueblo Style
New Mexico historic adobe architecture evolved from early Native American dwellings that impressed the Spanish when they first arrived in the region in the 16th century. They found Pueblo Indians in the Rio Grande Valley living in communal houses with hundreds of rooms, often four or five stories high, accommodating thousands of people.

The Spanish, who called these communities "pueblos" (the Spanish term for villages), saw how the Pueblo people built their shelters as a series of rooms surrounding a central plaza, with earth floors and flat roofs held up by pine logs, or vigas. These beams were covered diagonally or at right angles with small poles, or latillas. The Pueblo Indians built their homes using wood, stone and puddled adobe, a laborious method of molding adobe walls by hand then laying them in low bands to dry before adding the next layer.

As the Spanish settlers established communities in the region, they sought to improve the Pueblo construction methods using adobe. After all, the essential materials—mud, earth and straw—were plentiful and readily available. But to streamline the construction process, they designed wood molds to shape uniform adobe bricks.

This melding of Native American with Spanish architectural influences gave rise to the Pueblo style, also known as Spanish Pueblo. In the Spanish homes, the style's characteristic elements include round walls, corner fireplaces, vigas, flat roofs and a series of rooms fronted by covered porches, called portales, that enclosed an exterior patio, echoing the Pueblo rooms designed around a central plaza.

The Spanish often built their houses with one or two rooms then expanded them later on with additions to accommodate growing families. They installed few doors or windows in order to retain heat during the winter and maintain cool temperatures during the summer.