Los Duranes Chapel
2601 Indian School Rd., NW, Albuquerque, NMThe Duranes Chapel is locally significant as one of the five little-altered late 19th-century chapels remaining in the city. It is presently being restored by the citizens of Los Duranes for use as a community chapel and when this restoration is completed it will be one of only two early chapels being used for religious purposes. The restoration plans will not alter the building, SO the resultant chapel will look as it did when it was built in the late 1880's.
The chapel was probably built not long after Maria Jaramillo donated "una pieza de casa con un serco", to the parish in 1885. The house had two rooms furnished with doors and windows and was to be used "para el culto religioso de San José y beneficio de todo el commun de toda la vecindad de Los Duranes" (Archdiocese of Santa Fe records). Since the chapel is built in the traditional style of one large room with a much smaller room attached for use as a vestry, Maria. Jaramillo's house was probably removed to build the chapel. The building served as the local chapel and many Duranes residents took communion and were married there and maintained the chapel. After a new church was built in the 1960's, the chapel was used by St. Jude Express, a medical and relief mission to scattered southwestern Indian communities. For the past five years, it has been vacant and was badly vandalized until the community put up a protective fence.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.