Armijo, Juan Cristobal, Homestead

Juan Cristobal Armijo's "New Homestead" is one of the very few hacienda residences enclosing a placita remaining in New Mexico from before the 20thcentury, and the only one in the Albuquerque area. Changes over the years have respected the building's historic qualities; now, beautifully maintained in its superb setting, it conveys the feeling of New Mexico's rural past. it is also significant as the home of a wealthy merchant-farmer and member of Albuquerque's influential Armijo family.

The "New Homestead" is sited at the eastern end of the old village of Los Griegos, now part of Albuquerque, but a separate farming community until the 1950's. The village was established by a 1708 grant to Juan Griego; historically, most houses were built along Griegos Road with farmlands on either side watered by acequias (irrigation ditches). The houses to the west were subject to frequent flooding from the Rio Grande until the development of flood controls in the 20th century, but the Armijo homestead,built near the edge of a low escarpment overlooking the valley, was high enough to escape most floods. A number of Albuquerque's most significant Territorial buildings, including the Griego de Garcia House (National Register, 6/79) and the Barela de Bledsoe House (National Register, 3/79)are located along Edith Boulevard, the old Camino de la Ladera (Foothill Road) which was an alternate wet weather route through the Rio Grande valley.

By the time the homestead was built, Armijo family members were well established as the patrones of the Albuquerque area, wealthy and politically influential. The son of Juan Armijo and Rosalia Ortega, Juan Cristobal was born in 1810 in Albuquerque, at the beginning of a century when his family would exercise enormous political influence. Manuel Armijo, the last Mexican governor of New Mexico, was his uncle; his cousins Cristobal and Salvador and his brother Ambrosio were wealthy merchants and politicians in Old Albuquerque.

Like many others in his family, Juan Cristobal had a distinguished career of public service and private enterprise. In 1830 he married Juana Chavez, daughter of Mexican Governor Francisco Xavier Chavez. He served as a soldier in 1837 and in an 1840 campaign against the Navajo, and in a dramatic incident in 1851, was charged and, acquitted of the killing Curtis Skinner, shot at Juan Cristobal's Ranches de Albuquerque house.

He saw public service both under the Mexican and United States regimes,as a member of the Mexican departmental assembly in 1845 and as a member of the Territorial legislature of 1851 and 1852. During the 1850's Juan Cristobal and his family lived, at least part of the time, in Albuquerque,where he had a store and house, both since demolished. During the Civil War, Armijo interrupted his mercantile activities to serve with the Union militia at Fort Craig.