Salvador Armijo House, Albuquerque

The historic Salvador Armijo House, located in Albuquerque's Old Town neighborhood, was built in the 1840s by Salvador Armijo, a prosperous merchant and nephew of Governor Manuel Armijo. The house, which remained in the Armijo family for five generations, underwent several remodelings and expansions, notably in the 1870s and early 1900s. Soledad C. Chacón, Armijo's great-granddaughter and future New Mexico Secretary of State, resided in the house during the early 1900s. In the mid-20th century, parts of the house were converted into apartments.

Frances Wilson, Armijo's great-great-granddaughter, sold the house in 1977, and it became the Maria Theresa restaurant until its closure in 2004. The adjacent Hotel Albuquerque purchased the building in 2009 and transformed it into a venue for parties and receptions. The house is listed on both the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties and the National Register of Historic Places.

The house's architecture reflects the alterations made by its inhabitants to keep up with changing tastes and fashions. Originally, it featured 12 rooms surrounding a central courtyard, occupying a footprint of 100 by 70 feet (30 by 21 meters), with walls 32 inches (81 cm) thick, mostly made of adobe and some sections of stone. The original house had few windows and was entered through covered passageways called zaguanes.

The 1875 remodeling enclosed the zaguanes to create hallways and added new portales and windows with Territorial-style wooden trim. In the early 1900s, the west side of the house was demolished, and a new addition was constructed on the south side, featuring new portales, pitched roofs with ornamented pediments, and a cast stone veneer that has since been removed.