Quarai: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, National Park Service
BDA Architecture, Contractor, Morrow Reardon Wilkinson, Ltd., Contractor, Cherry-See Architects, Contractor, Kowalski J. 2011. Quarai: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, National Park Service. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 850099. NPS Intermountain Regional Office. Intermountain Regional Office/CLI Database
The cultural landscape at Quarai is deeply textured, displaying evidence from various layers of culture, settlement, and use that have characterized the site’s occupation. Quarai is one of three component landscapes of the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument in central New Mexico. Features at Quarai date from the 14th-century period of early settlement at the pueblo to the present. These include such carefully planned elements as Puebloan courtyards and plazas; a Spanish atrio, cloisters, and associated gardens; late Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. Territorial fields, gardens, orchards, and waterworks; and modern (New Deal) architecture and site restoration. Despite the usual depredations of time and considerable quarrying of worked stone from the ruins by later settlers, the landscape and buildings of Quarai have retained an impressive amount of integrity. Furthermore, a considerable number of the Puebloan and Spanish period landscapes in the Salinas Province seem to follow design patterns common to the eras and cultures that produced them. These are a blend of designed and historic vernacular landscapes, carefully contrived to complement local architectural or engineering works and created to suit aesthetic and practical purposes. These designed landscapes are mixed with a number of site features that are very practical in nature and vernacular in origin and execution; examples include ramadas, acequias, terraced planting fields, berry and fruit gardens, and seating bancos. The overall period of significance for Quarai is 1300-1938, although Paleo-Indians left evidence of earlier passages through the area. The particular combination of designed and vernacular landscapes is unique to the region, and the site retains integrity even as certain aspects have been modified or disturbed by later construction. The period, which represents a continuum of use and settlement in the southwest by settlers of various cultures, can be further divided into six historic landscape periods: the Pueblo (Southern Tiwa) Period (1300-1622) includes identifiable patterns of ritual areas, plazas, fields, shrines, paths, and fruit plantations. The Spanish Colonial Period (1622-1975), characterized by early blending of European and Native American styles, features a historic designed landscape with an ario, cloister, porteria, gardens, and corrals. Little evidence of use or development exists from the Abandonment/Transitory Use Period (1675-1800), when Quarai experienced a time of drought and war. The Secular Reoccupation Period (1800-1823) contains remnants of Spanish and Mexican settlement, including hacienda compounds, irrigation systems, and agricultural features. The Secular Settlement Period (1870-1938) was a time of early American homesteading and land use. Following this, the landscape character shifted from subsistence agriculture to park use and development. The Quarai landscape offers a unique perspective of developments in architecture and landscape design across centuries and cultures of what is now New Mexico. The period of abandonment in the late 1600s contributed to the preservation of its resources, sparing it from the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. The fusion of Pueblo and Spanish Colonial architecture and landscape architecture, which came to be known as “Santa Fe Style,” can be seen in various landscape elements.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- BDA Architecture, Contractor; Morrow Reardon Wilkinson, Ltd., Contractor; Cherry-See Architects, Contractor; Kowalski, Judy
- Date of Issue
- 2011-01-27
- Publisher
- NPS Intermountain Regional Office
- Units
- IMR , SAPU
- Keywords
- Abandonment/Transitory Use Period, Acequias, agricultural fields, Agriculture, Archeology, Architecture, Atrio, Bancos, Berry Farming, Cloister, Colonial architecture, Colonial Exploration and Settlement, Designed Landscape, Ethnohistory of Indigenous American Populations, Exploration-Settlement, garden, historic site, Juniper, Landscape architecture, Mexican, Mission Complex, Native American, Native American Economy, New Mexico, orchards, Pinyon, Plaza, prehistoric archeology, Pueblo, Pueblo Period, Pueblo Revolt, ramadas, Recreation, Religious Structure, Santa Fe Style, Secular Reoccupation Period, Secular Settlement Period, Southern Tiwa, Spanish, Spanish colonial period, Spanish Exploration and Settlement, Subsistence Agriculture, Torrance County, Vernacular Landscape