354.26 Acres in Abiquiu, NM - $5,000,000
El Sueno del Corazon
Imagine a pastoral and pristine landscape on the Chama River.
Imagine living along the historic Old Spanish Trail, a pathway for travelers and commercial traders since 1829.
Imagine the flowing curves of a Spanish Colonial adobe hacienda steeped in the lore and cultural history of Georgia O'Keeffe country.
Yet, no imagination is necessary for El Sueo del Corazon because its real and has offered gracious living since the early 1800s outside the former territorial outpost of Abiquiu.
Meaning The Dream of the Heart, this nearly 15,000-square-foot homage to Spanish colonial architecture has evolved through generations in this light-infused land, a place resonating with the spirit of the ancient ones, early Spanish settlers and all kinds of adventurers, and immortalized by the legendary and iconic masterworks of OKeeffe.
Carved out of the centuries-old Plaza Colorado land grant, settlem...
Carved out of the centuries-old Plaza Colorado land grant, settlement in this area began 800 years ago. Artifacts indicate human visitation from 5,000 BCE. Irrigation ditches dug a thousand years ago led to the acequia (ditch) system used in the Chama Valley since the 1700s by the Spanish colonists and their modern-day descendants.
According to the historian and author Lesley Poling, the original Spanish land grant created in 1739 did not go to a man and his extended family, but to a single Spanish mother Rosalia Baldes (later Valdes) and her two brothers.
The original dwellings were three small adobe and wood houses built close together for protection. The first well was dug in 1740. Through the 1800s, the site of the current hacienda passed through several families and architectural iterations until it was sold to a descendent of Rosalia Valdes in 1892. By 1940, the hacienda had fallen into disrepair and was abandoned. Anglos from Dallas, captivated by the landscape, bought the property in 1940. The first of several restorations and improvements began in 1944.
In 1993, after multiple inhabitants over nearly three centuries, the current owners dreamed of restoring and caring for the land and hacienda in a way that honored and celebrated familys past, present and future.
Working with a Santa Fe design/build firm, they began a meticulous renovation to restore the hacienda to its original Spanish Colonial grandeur and into the 21st century.
Today, the grand hacienda pays homage to its architectural legacy in design and function.
It blends elements of the Territorial and Pueblo Revival styles with Spanish colonial detailing.
Beamed ceilings accented with peeled wood latillas, tumbled brick, wood plank and Saltillo-tiled floors meet lustrous hard plaster walls. Bancos, recessed cupboards and a shepherds bench reflect the haciendas history and its culturally rich pedigree. Theres even a grand library hall, three strategically separated private offices and a four-car garage.
The Ruth House
As if El Sueo del Corazon werent rich enough in the tri-cultural history of the area, the 350-plus-acre property also holds a unique piece of the history of the American West.
In the early 1890s before Utah became a state Mormon families began moving through the American Southwest, many of them eventually settling in Mexico where today they flourish as ranchers and farmers.
It was to El Sueo del Corazon that two brothers whose names may have been James and Soren Berthelsen (or Bertelsen) arrived in the late 19th century. Many of that name had emigrated to Utah in the 1850s from Denmark.
Authors familiar with Mormon history suggest that they were probably sent by the Church of Latter-Day Saints to colonize the area as a church outpost and acquire territory from the mineral-rich and verdant old Spanish land grants.
The brothers built two brick houses west of the main hacienda on the lush bottomlands along the Chama Rivera. Typical of Mormon design in the West before 1900, the dwellings were austere, symmetrical and economical to build. Its believed the owner at that time hired the brothers to build the houses for his sons.
Constructed by craftsmen who made the red adobe bricks onsite, the simple Victorian style differed dramatically from the local architecture along the Plaza Colorado as the area was known from Spanish Colonial times.
The fledgling Mormon community did not survive, and one of the residences was demolished. The remaining structure was restored in 1993 to its original simplicity and still stands as a remarkable monument to a little-known piece of history.
ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS/FEATURES/FINISHES
o The property is a one-hour drive from Santa Fe
o A 45-minute drive from the full-service municipal airport in Los Alamos, NM
o Surrounded by a bosque of cottonwoods, some of them 200+ years old
o Eight bedrooms, eight full bathrooms, including au pair quarters in the main house
o Large public rooms, dining room and spacious kitchen
o In-floor radiant and baseboard heating run by separate boilers
o Complete fire suppression system, including hoses and a 10,000-gallon cistern as backup water supply
o Domestic, purified well water from a 6,000-gallon in-ground tank
o Multiple propane tanks scattered through ranch compounds, including a 6,000-gallon unit that serves the main house compound
o Backup generators in the event of a power failure
o Hacienda re-stuccoed in 2013
o Security system
o Spa/exercise space
o Three in-house office/study rooms
o A resident office and ranch manager currently live on the property. They have worked with the land and family for 25 years and will assist in any transition.
RELATED INFORMATION
Agricultural
Through the decades, El Sueo del Corazon has enjoyed a verifiable link to agriculture and the cattle industry.
The Chama River flows through the 353-acre property and its rich bottomlands have successfully produced crops of hay and alfalfa, with the help of significant irrigation rights (702 +/- acre-feet).
A full-scale cattle operation was run during its time as a working ranch.
Corrals, livestock feeders, troughs, chutes corrals, sorting pens, open-storage feed shed, fuel storage tanks and arena are discreetly located at the east end of the ranch. They are serviced by pumps, irrigation gates and storage tanks with supporting irrigation equipment. The property also includes a barn, property managers residence, mechanical room, garage, staff quarters, and standalone office and storage space. The west end of the property has two Quonset huts, one designed to garage large recreational vehicles and the other to house a workshop, woodshop and additional storage space.
Abiquiu, NM
Abiqui, (pronounced Abbey-cue) NM, is about 50 miles north of Santa Fe, NM. The village sits at 6,080 feet elevation along US 84. The nearest full-service airports serving the area are in nearby Los Alamos, NM, about an hours drive, and the municipal airport in Santa Fe, about 60 miles to the south.
Abiqui means wild chokecherry place in the Tewa language. It was founded in 1742 by 24 Tewa Pueblo families led by a Roman Catholic priest, Francisco Delgado. Strategically, the settlement was part of an overall plan to defend the frontier against marauding American Indians like the Apaches, Comanches and Navajos.
According to Wikipedia.org, Abiqui was the third Genzaro settlement established in New Mexico, after Belen, NM, to the south and Trampas, NM, to the east. The Genzaros were American Indians of various tribes who had been held as slaves, captives or servants of the Spanish colonists. With few rights under the caste laws of the Spanish, resettlement on the dangerous frontier of New Mexico was the best way for Genzaros to become landowners. Residents still celebrate their Genzaro heritage to this day.
Abiqui was also the starting point of the pioneering commercial Armijo Route of the Old Spanish Trail in 1829, ending up in Alta, California. A few years later, the Northern Route veered northwest from Abiquiu.
In popular culture, Abiqui has been featured in numerous Western movies. Located nearby are the home and studio of the artist Georgia OKeeffe, Ghost Ranch, the home of the Ruth Hall Museum of Paleontology and the Monastery of Christ in the Desert.
Offered jointly and exclusively with James L. Overton of Sothebys International Realty in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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