Historical Marker

Juliana Gutiérrez y Chaves Hubbell (1833-1899) / Gutiérrez-Hubbell House

Historical marker location:
6029 Isleta Boulevard, SW / NM Highway 314, Pajarito, New Mexico
( near the entrance of the Gutiérrez-Hubbell House)

Side 1
Juliana was a member of two prominent early Spanish families in New Mexico and a descendant of Josefa Baca, the original owner of the land comprising present-day Pajarito. In 1849, at the age of 16, she wed trader and army officer James Lawrence Hubbell through an arranged marriage. The couple built an extensive ranch that supported a mercantile and post office, orchards, vineyards, and pasture lands for livestock, which they raised and traded. With James often away on business, Juliana managed the property, becoming the matriarch of one of the most successful trading families in New Mexico history and helping establish the modern village of Pajarito. Their ranch is preserved today as the historic Gutiérrez-Hubbell House.
Side 2
Constructed in four phases in the Territorial style, the first eight rooms of the house were built from 1855–1859 around a large central hall, an architectural innovation in New Mexico at the time. The design was influenced by Eastern styles admired by Hubbell. The three-room kitchen ell added in the mid-1860s formed a placita, one of the home’s key Hispanic architectural elements along with its 27-inch-thick adobe walls, flat roof, vigas, and milled planks. In 1867, two bedrooms were added and a year later the large mercantile wing built north of them. The foot print of the 19-room, rambling structure is still evident. Thirteen of the rooms remain.