What do houses tell us about the people who built or remodeled them? Adobe carefully painted to make it look like brick says as much about Anglo culture and presence in New Mexico from 1850 to 1912 as does any political history of those years. This study of domestic architecture, though, is more than a regional one; it addresses issues basic to an understanding of how one culture transports its social mores, cultural values, and material goods to a frontier where they can take hold.

In towns, on ranches, and as forts, the changes to the buildings people lived in came from many sources. Magazines popular in the East and mail order catalogs were often consulted and influenced choices as diverse as adding balconies or picking wallpaper with okra or artichoke patterns. The abundant historic photographs of houses--some now demolished, remodeled, or restored--enable readers to look at furnishings and use of space and understand life in a frontier society better.

In showing the numerous, specific ways in which architecture in New Mexico between 1850 and 1912 reflected an increasing dominance of an Anglo society over a native southwestern one, this book will interest historians, architects, folklorists, and nonspecialists in these fields.