National Register Listing

Los Poblanos Historic District

a.k.a. See Also:Albuquerque North Valley MRA

NM 194, Los Ranchos, NM

Important for its architecture, its place in local agricultural and political history, and for the landscapes and art associated with particular properties, the LOS Poblanos Historic District is a distinguished and highly distinctive rural neighborhood. This district's three 1930's houses by John Gaw Meem are among the best works of "the dominant architectural talent at work in the Southwest during the first half of the present century." (Bainbridge Bunting, John Gaw Meem) All three show the effect of Meem's insistence on hand craftsmanship, his meticulous detailing, and his fine sense of proportion. La Quinta, the Simms' entertainment center, incorporates significant works of local art. The landscapes of the district, which include valley fields and cottonwood bosque (associated with the John Simms House), are largely rural and traditionally New Mexican, with the notable exception of LOS Poblanos' formal gardens, a polished and unusual combination of English Renaissance plan with folk detailing. The district has political significance as home to the influential Simms family--John Sr., a New Mexico Supreme Court Justice: John Jr., New Mexico Governor from 1954 to 1958; Albert G. Simms, U.S. Congressman from 1929-1931, and Albert's second wife, Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms, Congresswoman from Illinois for the same term. The Simms' homes, particularly La Quinta, served as a political and cultural center in Albuquerque for decades. The district also is important in the history of Rio Grande valley agriculture; Jacob Jacobson ran one of the area's early dairies, and his ranch contains the only known mill building in the vicinity of Albuquerque; the land continues in use as a farm and ranch, as do Los Poblanos, where Albert Simms began a dairy that has evolved into a major local business and the John Simms House. The continued agricultural use of these lands has been one of the major factors in the preservation of the district's unique landscape.

The Los Poblanos Historic District has a long history as an agricultural area, and even a probable prehistoric agricultural use (potsherds have been found on district properties, but the significance of any possible archeological sites has not been formally evaluated). In the historic record, the LOS Poblanos area shows up first as a small community called San Antonio de los Poblanos in an 1802 census, when it had a population of 23. LOS Poblanos has early connections with the wealthy and politically influential Armijo family, and it is possible (though as yet unproven) that the LOS Poblanos ranch was once the hacienda of Vicente Armijo, San Antonio de los poblanos. The name of the ranch and of the district comes from this early village and refers to people from Puebla, Mexico, who were among the early settlers of the area.

The property which is the nucleus of Albert Simms' LOS Poblanos Ranch was owned in the later 19th century by Juan Cristobal Armijo, who may have constructed the early building incorporated into the present LOS Poblanos house. The records do not show clearly whether Juan Cristobal acquired the property by inheritance (Vicente. Armijo was his grandfather) or by purchase, but after his death in 1884 the land was divided among his many descendants. The property was sold by the various heirs in 1912 to Neill B. Field, a major Albuquerque developer. After passing to two subsequent owners, the 110 acre tract was sold to Albert G. Simms by Wylie Williams in 1928.

The Jacobson property, much of which later became the property of Simms, was assembled in 1880 by Franz Huning, one of the central figures in the development of Albuquerque. Huning acquired the property from the Zamora, Garcia, Lucero, and Torres families; further research should reveal which family is to be associated with the old terron farmhouse on the ranch. Huning sold the land to Charles Etheridge almost as soon as he had assembled all four parcels, so this appears to have been one of his many speculative real estate ventures. In 1902, Jacobson acquired the property intact from Angela Gianini.

The third tract of land that makes up the LOS Poblanos district, that on which the John Simms House was built, was purchased from Altagracia Lopez de Martinez by H.B. and Mary Thomas in 1912; Mary Thomas, in turn, sold it to the John Simms' in 1931. Thus, unusually for this area of the north valley, all three original tracts which are included in the district had passed from Spanish into Anglo hands by the early years of the 20th century. The agricultural richness of the area, and the large size of the tracts involved, rare in an area where land was often divided among heirs in narrow strips, probably led to this investment.

Though only the oldest building on the Jacobson property remains from the 19th century farming of this area, the pattern of acequias which forms part of the district's boundary probably dates back at least to the 18th century. The Griegos Lateral is among the ditches that show up on the earliest maps of the north valley and the individual ditches it feeds may be of comparable age. The acequia network accounts for the richness of the district's landscapes, making a plenitude of water available in the dry Albuquerque climate; the network is also one of the chief beauties of the district with water running spring to fall through the tree and reed-bordered ditches.
The landscapes formed by the pattern of fields and acequias are typical of those areas of the North Valley which remain rural, but the west garden of Los Poblanos is a formal work of landscape architecture unique in the area and probably in the state. Though designed in 1933, it has exceptional significance in its extremely successful blending of a formal Italianate layout with playful examples of local folk art. To this landscape, designed by Rose Greeley, should be added the landscaping of the interior patio at LOS Poblanos, with its elaborate brick and tile paving and star-shaped fountain, and of the fine tree-lined entry drive.

The earliest architecture of the area, on the Jacobson ranch, makes an important contribution to the character of the Los Poblanos District in its preservation of a Colonial terron farmhouse and of a complex of early 20th century farm buildings constructed for Jacob P. Jacobson, a long-time resident of the district and operator of a dairy cooperative. The most significant structure is the terron farmhouse, one of the very small handful of existing mid-nineteenth century buildings in the Albuquerque area, and one which has seen little alteration, though it is now physically linked to a much more recent structure. The gambrel-roofed terron barn and the brick-faced adobe house built by Jacobson in 1902 are interesting combinations of Anglo form with New Mexican materials. The two-story brick mill is unique in the area.

Jacob Peter Jacobson, known as "Pete" to his friends, was a serious and dedicated dairy farmer who brought new agricultural techniques to his north valley lands. Raised in Copenhagen, where he combined school with service as a choir boy, he was trained as a machinist. In 1890, at 21, he immigrated to the United States, working in lumber camps and machine shops on the Pacific coast. In 1899, he came to New Mexico, and like many other settlers, worked for the Santa Fe Railway. Three years later Jacobson purchased his north valley property and turned from machinery to farming. According to Coan, "he started dairying with two Jersey cows. His wife was an expert butter maker, and for fourteen years they made a specialty of butter production, and the quality of their product was such that it was sold before it was made."

Jacobson began his cooperative dairy in 1921 with stockholders from the community, and Coan's 1925 biographical vignette indicates that it was then a success. Coan also notes that was a farmer, Mr. Jacobson has pursued the efficient principle of returning to his soil all or more than is taken from it, and the result is that he nas one of the most productive farms in this section of the Rio Grande Valley.... One feature of the ranch is the mill for the grinding of feed and also flour, and it does a considerable custom business for the entire community. Mr. Jacobson has been one of the active movers for the drainage of the low lands along the Rio Grande River, and while the plans for this movement have been made their carrying out awaits a more auspicious time." These much needed drainage improvements were finally begun in the 1930's, and the Riverside Drain which forms part of the west boundary of the district is one of the results.

with no children of his own to succeed him on the ranch (his wife had three from a previous marriage), Jacobson was ready to . retire from active farming in the mid-1930's. At that same time, Albert Simms, who was expanding his already large north valley land holdings, made Jacobson an offer, as Ruth Simms reports in an October, 1934 letter to John Gaw Meem: "Pete Jacobson...will not consider at this time selling the acres which include his house and those dreadful barns but in the future he will let us have it. In the meantime, we have offered him a price for all the rest of his land and we are quite certain he will accept it by the end of the week." Jacobson did sell Simms land, but he was never willing to let Albert and Ruth have his ten home acres, happily for the preservation of the "dreadful barns" and other buildings. After 1945, when he is shown as owner on a survey map of the area, Jacobson did sell--but to the Barberschmitts rather than to Albert Simms (the precise date of sale has not yet been found). Around 1950, Cecil Pragnell, the English gardener who had worked on the Los Poblanos landscapes before becoming County Agent, bought the Jacobson mill and renovated it as a house. In 1960 the present owners, Albert and Mary Anella, bought the Barberschmitt property, and two years later acquired the mill from Pragnell, reuniting Pete Jacobson's 10 acres. Happily, they have kept its farming history alive, maintaining the barn and corrals, as well as the houses, SO that the pattern of Jacobson's mill and dairy is still clear.

Jacobson's modest house was clearly the home of a hard-working farmer, and until the late 1920's (and in most places much later), the North Valley was Albuquerque's prime agricultural land. Albert Simms' purchase of the Armijo lands marks the beginning of a new trend in the area which continues to the present, the purchase of "country estates" by the wealthy. Simms, of course, did operate Los Poblanos as a very serious ranch, but his wealth allowed his operation to take place on a scale entirely different from that of Jacobson's ranch.
Before the ranch purchase, there is little in Albert Simms! biography to indicate an interest in farming. Albert and his younger brother John were born in Arkansas; Albert attended the University of Arkansas while John received an LL.B. from Vanderbilt. John practiced law in Texarkana until 1913, when he moved to New Mexico for his health (ne was then 28). Soon thereafter, Albert, who had been working as an accountant, joined his brother in Albuquerque, and was admitted to the New Mexico bar in 1915. Both brothers bought houses in what is now the Fourth Ward Historic District near downtown Albuquerque. John continued to practice law, and served as a New Mexico Supreme Court Justice in 1929-1930. A Democrat, John Simms was a very influential figure in his party, and he is highly rated as a politician by local historians, in spite of the fact that he never ran for office. John served as his brother's lawyer, and helped put together some of Albert's most important projects, especially his acquisition of the immense Elena Gallegos land grant north of Albuquerque. According to family members, the brothers admired and respected each other, and Albert often followed his younger brother's advice.

Albert Simms practiced law until 1919, when he was named as President of the Citizens National Bank in Albuquerque; he continued to hold major positions on financial institution boards for the remainder of his life. Albert began his political career in 1920, when he was elected Chairman of the Bernalillo County Board of Commissioners; in 1925, he went as a Republican delegate to the State Legislature. In 1929, Albert became New Mexico's at-large Congressman in the 71st Congress, in a time politically inauspicious for Republicans, but personally momentous for Albert Simms, as it was there that he met his second wife, the wealthy and powerful Congresswoman from Illinois, Ruth Hanna McCormick...

Ruth McCormick had grown up political. The daughter of Senator Mark Hanna, she became a close friend of Alice Roosevelt Longworth, and was a lifelong ardent Republican. John Tebbel says that "Mark Hanna had bequeathed to her something of his own political genius, and she had already made her first political speech seven years before her marriage. From that point she went on to merit the accolade one observer gave her: 'The only woman in America with a political technique.'" In 1903, at 23, she married Joseph Medill McCormick, of the wealthy Chicago McCormick and Medill families. Medill, as he was called, was then editor of the Chicago Tribune, and later became a U.S. Senator from Illinois. She was Republican national committeewoman from Illinois (1924-28), a post she would later hold from New Mexico. After McCormick's death in 1925, she emerged even more fully as a political power. Elected Congresswoman in 1928, she campaigned for Medill McCormick's Senate seat in 1929, but lost the election. Politics was not her only field: one of the owners of the Chicago Tribune as a member of the Medill Trust, she was also publisher of the Rockford, Illinois Register - Republican and Morning Star. From her McCormick marriage she had two daughters and a son, Medill McCormick. Her special political interests included labor legislation, women's trade unions, education, and civic improvements.

Albert Simms was also a widower when they met in Congress, and in March, 1932, they were married--and John Gaw Meem drew up his specifications for the Los Poblanos ranch house. Meem's association with Ruth Simms, which was to produce such fine results, was just beginning.

The son of missionary parents, Meem grew up in Brazil and was educated as a civil engineer at Virginia Military Institute, a training which proved valuable in his later architectural work. Stricken by tuberculosis, he moved to Santa Fe to recover his health at the Sunmount Sanatorium, one of many illustrious New Mexicans to show the healthy properties of mountain air through a long career. After his recovery, a time when he had become interested in architecture, Meem trained with Fisher and Fisher and at the Beaux Arts Institute of Design in Denver. In 1924, he formed a Santa Fe architectural partnership with Cassius McCormick (no relation of the Chicago McCormicks) and began a career that was to focus on the revitalization of Southwestern architectural traditions.

By the time Meem came to Santa Fe, the first stirrings of the Spanish-Pueblo Revival style were underway, with the 1911 remodeling of the Palace of the Governors from its 'Territorial appearance to an imagined 17th century style and the building of Rapp and Rapp's Museum of Fine Arts in 1916, as well as the construction of several Pueblo Revival buildings at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque from 1906-1910. Meem's early work showed his interest in this style, and was supplemented and expanded by his work on the rehabilitation of historic New Mexico churches as a member of the Society for Preservation and Restoration of New Mexico Mission Churches. Bainbridge Bunting dates the period of Meem's early work from 1924 to 1928, while he was in partnership with McCormick. The middle years, 1929-1941 were the times when "the office was small and the most distinctive work was done" (Bunting), and the period in which Meem developed his personal and distinctive version of the Territorial style.

A combination of New Mexican building traditions with eastern materials and influences, the Territorial style was at its height from 1850 through 1880. Larger houses in the territory continued to be constructed of adobe or terron, but the mud bricks were laid up more carefully in straight rather than battered walls with right angles rather than rounded corners. Large windows, carried by pack trains across the prairies, replaced the small openings of the Colonial house. Windows and doors acquired a pedimented trim to approximate the Greek Revival style, already out of date in the east. Brick copings--designed to keep adobe parapets from eroding-- became decorative elements in their own right.

According to Bunting, "one might be able to say that it was Meem who first turned back for inspiration to that nineteenth-century New Mexican fashion" beginning with the 1925 Ashley Pond house, and it is the Territorial Revival style, fully developed, which he uses in his three houses for the Simms . He met 'Ruth Simms, and other patrons of this period, during a time which was unfortunate for many architects: "In the dark day of the 1930's, the Meem office was an exceptional place. At a time when most offices were idle and talented architects without work, John Meem was singularly fortunate in obtaining commissions so that his practice actually flourished." In this time. Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms was Meem's most generous patron. "A somewhat imperious lady used to preferential treatment, she did not hesitate to call on Meem for advice on the most trivial details, but she provided him with a chance to design some of his most important buildings."

Two letters from the Meem archives give a sense of the relationship between patrons and architect. In 1935, Ruth Simms wrote, "Dear John: I am furious with you for having spent the night in Albuquerque without saying anything to me about it, as your room at the house was empty. However, I am glad that you have left for a clinic specializing in headaches, and I shall be particularly interested to know what you think of it...." A couple of months later, Meem wrote Albert Simms a classic architect-client letter: "I will also try to get the type of shower head you have in mind. I would like to call your attention to the fact, however, that the ones we have specified are not 'expensive and obsolete' fixtures. In reality they are the most modern and up-to-date ones one can get in spite of the unhappy experience you apparently have had with some of them." These and other letters in the files show a relationship of real friendship as well as delighted collaboration between Ruth Simms and Meem, while Albert Simms remains more distant. Ruth Simms' imperiousness was well met by Meem's meticulousness, and it is clear that they both had a splendid time designing La Quinta, working out the perfect tile and best fabric for the art gallery walls.

Los Poblanos and La Quinta were only the first fruits of their relationship; Meem went on to build the campus she donated the Sandia School, a total of eight buildings, and because of her patronage was given the commission to design the Albuquerque Little Theater. A downtown Albuquerque office building he designed for her was cancelled before construction.

In his work for Ruth Simms and in his other designs from this period, Meem combined his interest in the revival of the Territorial style with his engineering background, feeling that "there is no reason why a structure which is thoroughly functional in terms of engineering and economic viability and in the use of modern technology cannot be cast in forms that recall symbolically the rich heritage of New Mexico. It is possible for a building to be both functional and evocative" (Bunting summary of 1966 article by Meem). Meem's work amply meets both tests, and his handsome, subtle buildings are some of the most functional and best-loved in New Mexico. Bunting says of Meem, "His is a rare blend of characteristics: the sensitivity and perceptiveness of an artist, the practicality and discipline of the engineer, the decisiveness and acumen of a man of affairs... Surmounting all these positive traits were Meem's honesty, integrity, and generosity." His example is undoubtedly responsible for the continuing popularity of Territorial Revival buildings in New Mexico, but few of these more recent structures will stand comparison with Meem's master works.

A desire to spread Meem's influence and to bring a new architectural standard to Albuquerque may have played a part in Ruth Simms' wish to have him design the John Simms house. She wrote Meem in the letter asking him to help John and Anne, "It will not be long before we will have people coming in here buying up land for places like ours and these places will set a standard for those to come." She was, in many ways, correct: Pueblo and Territorial Revival have come to be the predominant style of major new houses in Albuquerque's North Valley, and these revivals are particularly pleasing in their blend both with the landscaping and with the existing historic buildings of the area. The Simms' example may well have been a formative one.
The relationship between Meem and the John Simms' was briefer and more formal than his long association with Ruth Simms; in both cases, the woman took the major role in working with the architect, but the John Simms House files show little evidence of friendship developing from the project.

Both Simms houses served as political centers--Albert's for Republicans, John's for Democrats, but La Quinta was certainly the foremost center for political and cultural events in the area for many years. Ruth Simms' generosity equaled her wealth, and party fund-raising events, concerts, and art shows were frequent at La Quinta. The entertainment center had been planned partly for a place where her son, Medill McCormick, might entertain his friends; sadly he was killed in a climbing accident in the Sandia Mountains only three years after it was built. The tradition of La Quinta's hospitality continued nevertheless. Many Albuquerque-ans remember with particular pleasure the years in which the June Music Festival, which now plays at a University concert hall, was held in the ballroom, and the works of local artists were shown to the public in the art gallery.

Some of the art was an integral part of La Quinta: the large mural by Peter Hurd, Gustave Baumann's wood carvings in the inglenook, Peter Lantz' murals in the shower rooms and refreshment center, and--not least--the tiles, wrought-iron door hardware, and iron lanterns designed by Meem make La Quinta significant for the art it contains, as well as for Ruth Simms' role as patron of the arts.
Ruth Simms intended to will her beautiful entertainment center to the City of Albuquerque for use as a center for music and the visual arts, according to Katrina McCormick Barnes. Since, however, she died intestate, La Quinta passed into Albert Simms' hands and continued to be the property of the Simms family until the mid 1970's. When it came on the market, the city investigated the possibility of purchasing the building as the home for the Albuquerque Museum, but decided against acquiring La Quinta because of its cost and distance from the city center.

Ruth and Albert Simms also took a particular interest in local education, he founding the Albuquerque Academy, which still benefits from his gift of many of the lands of the Elena Gallegos land grant. She founded the Sandia School for Girls and the Manzano Day School in Albuquerque, as well as acting as trustee for the Fountain Valley Boys School in Colorado.

With all this, both Albert and Ruth were deeply involved in the ranching life of Los Poblanos and of the great trinchera cattle and sheep ranch in southern Colorado, originally purchased by Ruth Simms for her son Medill. Members of the American Livestock Association, they developed pure-bred Holstein cattle. In their north Valley home, they fit easily into a long New Mexican tradition and became the patrons of the community. Talking to long-time residents of the nearby neighborhoods, one gets the clear impression that everybody worked at Los Poblanos at one time or another. One of the great events of the year was the annual barbecue, to which all the Los Poblanos workers invited all their relatives, and probably most of their friends. An agricultural establishment as large as Los Poblanos was the major economic force in the north valley community. While such patronage might well have been offensive, the Simms appear to have been extremely popular with their Hispano workers, as well as with their politically and culturally inclined friends. Hispanos were not the only workers at La Quinta; during the Second World War some 40 German prisoners of war were sent there to work the fields. Their names can still be seen on the lockers they used.

Ruth Simms died December 31, 1944, following a fall from her horse: her pallbearers, appropriately, included an artist, Gustave Baumann, financier Clifford Dindle, and neighbor Robert Dietz III. Albert Simms continued the traditions of Los Poblanos hospitality until his death in 1964, willing the property to his brother John's sons, John Jr. and Albert Simms II. At this time, much of the land of the Los Poblanos ranch was sold, and in many cases has since been developed. Dr. Albert Simms and his wife Barbara made their home at LOS Poblanos, and preserved the farm buildings as well as the houses. Finding the running of the complex property somewhat burdensome, they sold it to the Rembes and Walkers in 1978.

While Los Poblanos Ranch is clearly the most opulent and influential of the properties that make up the LOS Poblanos Historic District, the district functions beautifully as a whole, tied together by its agricultural setting, by its architecture, and by the long associations among the various properties. The district is connected as well by the commitment to preservation both of buildings and of the landscape shown by all the owners. Important for the art of La Quinta, the landscape architecture of LOS Poblanos, and the political connections of the Simms family, the district is most significant in its architecture and in its contribution of agriculture, both historically and in its present-day preservation of a heritage of fine farms and beautiful buildings.

Local significance of the district:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1982.