Salinas Pueblo Missions "In the Midst of a Loneliness": The Architectural History of the Salinas Missions Historic Structures Report

Fray Francisco Fonte arrived in New Mexico in the autumn of 1621. It was probably at the chapter meeting in October of that year that the new custodian, Fray Miguel de Chavarria, assigned him to the pueblo of Abó. [1]

Fonte entered into the standard negotiations with the authorities in the pueblo. He arranged for several rooms at the east end of room block I as his first convento, and for the area just east of the room block as the site for the permanent church and convento. In 1622 and 1623 Fonte altered the rooms given to him by the pueblo and built several new rooms along their east side. [2] The people of Abó accepted his presence and some groups aided him in the construction of the new rooms of the temporary convento. This success with the people of Abó encouraged him to begin planning a permanent church and convento in 1623.

The Church

Fonte worked out a simple plan for a rather small church and convento, somewhat like those later built at Hawikuh and Halona. The room arrangements, however, resembled those of Pecos, being built by Fray Andres Suares about the same time. [3]

Because of the gentle slope of the site, Fonte based his plan on a low artificial platform somewhat like those later used at Quarai and Las Humanas. Fonte directed the mayordomo and construction crews as they marked out the lines of the retaining walls and began excavation on the foundation trenches (see figure 2 for a plan of the first church and convento of Abó). When the construction crews had completed the platform, the floors of the first patio convento rooms were only about three feet above the natural ground surface along the south and east edges of the building. The second courtyard rooms, stables, and sheds on the east side of the convento sat on the original ground level rather than being raised.

Figure 2. Plan of the pueblo and mission of Abó in the period from 1622 to 1673. The church and convento are shown at their greatest extent, after 1660. At the north side of mound I are the corrals and other structures of the Spanish compound built here between 1622 and 1645. The north wall of this compound lines up with the north wall of the apse of San Gregorio I. Some wall lines appear to have extended all the way to the church. The Spanish compound may have been used for the storage of supplies and trade goods belonging to the civil government, and possibly similar goods belonging to the mission. (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

At about this time, a kiva-like structure was built on the platform centered in the patio. It was a round structure about seventeen feet across and seven feet high on the inside, with the same interior arrangement and roofing as a kiva. Since it appears to have been built during the major construction effort on the church, Fonte must have approved of it. It may have served as the temporary church during the construction of the full-sized church, helping the Indians in the transition from their kivas to the above-ground churches typical of Catholicism. [4]

The construction crew began laying stone and building scaffolding for the above-grade walls of the church and convento. The church faced almost exactly south. It was twenty-five feet wide and 83 1/2 feet long on the interior, without transepts. The masons built the walls with an average thickness of about three feet along the sides of the nave, and 2.8 feet along the front and apse ends of the church. They stood about twenty-five feet high to the undersides of the roof vigas, and twenty-eight feet to the tops of the parapets along the nave. The roof was probably supported on square beams resting on corbels, with a spacing of about two feet between vigas, the usual method. Fonte built a doorway from the choir loft to the choir balcony at the front of the church, a window centered on each nave wall, eighteen feet north of the choir loft and about nine feet above the floor. Fonte probably built a clerestory window on the church, perhaps about sixty feet from the front of the church. If the clerestory was about four feet high, then the walls of the sanctuary and apse probably stood about ten feet higher than those of the nave, to about thirty-eight feet. [5]

The apse measured twelve feet across its mouth and twelve feet deep from south to north. It tapered only slightly, so that the width of the north end was 11.5 feet on the interior. To help support the apse walls, with a height of almost forty feet and a thickness of only 2.8 feet, Fonte had the masons build a large buttress five feet across and 2.8 feet thick centered against its north or exterior side.

On the interior, the carpenters built the customary arrangement of woodwork. They constructed a choir loft at the south end of the nave over the main entrance, extending twenty feet north from the front wall. The construction crews laid the floor vigas of the loft with their south ends set into the front wall of the church and their north ends resting on a main viga supported by two wooden columns. The bases of the columns rested on circular stone foundations set into the puddled adobe floor of the church. The choir loft was probably reached by a wooden or stone staircase within the church, like that used under the loft at Awatovi. In accord with the practice of the time, Fonte placed the baptismal font within the nave under the west side of the choir loft, rather than building a separate room for the baptistry. [6]

At the front of the church, Fonte designed a simple porch and choir balcony. A main cross viga extended across the front of the church, held up by four equally spaced columns. The main viga supported the floor vigas of the porch, which may have been the choir loft vigas extending through the front wall, as Fray Gutiérrez de la Chica did in constructing the porch at Quarai five years later.

At the head, or north end, of the church, Fonte designed a simple complex of altars. He built a platform in the apse supporting the main altar, with several steps along the front. The side altars also stood on low platforms. Painted patterns or a wooden structure formed retablos for the three altars. [7]

Fonte's plan included an awkward relationship between the church and its sacristy. When leaving the church for the sacristy, the priest walked through a door in the east wall of the nave near the northeast corner, into the west corridor of the ambulatorio. He then turned left and passed through a door into the sacristy. In transepted churches, the friar usually had direct access into the sacristy rather than having to pass through the ambulatory on the way. [8]

The Convento

Convento rooms ran along the north and east sides of the ambulatorio around the patio. Their floors were about three inches higher than the present floor surface of the convento. Only the walkway itself ran along most of the south side of the convento complex. Fonte probably had the carpenters built a covered porch, or portería, in the corner made by the east wall of the church and the south corridor of the ambulatorio. The portería had no enclosing walls, but only a roof supported by wooden pillars. [9]

A second row of rooms surrounded the first along the north and east sides of the patio. On the east side, the floors of this second row of rooms were fourteen inches lower than the floors of the first row along the ambulatorio. A stairway gave access from Room 8 eastward down into the second courtyard, to the east. It had five stone steps, each with a rise of eight inches and a tread of thirteen inches.

Two rooms along this side of the convento (Rooms 3 and 4) each had a doorway or window opening onto the second courtyard. Room 4, on the south, had a fire-baked area covered with ash and charcoal in its southwest corner. The area marked as Room 2 may have been a raised stone hearth along the south side of room 4.

Figure 3. The plan of the mission of Abó about 1630, as it was originally built. Construction on the building probably began about 1623, and was completed about 1628. The patio kiva had to have been built between 1622 and 1645 and later was only partially refilled. The front porch and portería are conjectural, but assume that the present plan derives from the first plan of these areas. The portería was changed at least twice, the final change resulting in the structure presently visible at the mission. (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

Little is known about the plan of the second courtyard itself. A large formal gateway may have faced east, and a smaller gate or doorway opened to the north. Some of the adobe rooms along the north side of the later courtyard may have been in use during the period of the first convento. [10]

The Campo Santo and Front Platform

At the front of the church, along its south side, Fonte built the campo santo, or cemetery and a front porch platform with stairs to allow traffic from the pueblo into the church. The campo santo was about 110 feet across and ran south perhaps 100 feet. The platform in front of the church was about seventy-seven feet across, east to west, and extended south from the facade of the church about eighteen feet. It had a stairway with three steps centered on the church. To the east of the facade of the church, the platform gave access to the portería and another higher platform along the south wall of the convento. [11]

Fonte probably finished the church and convento of San Gregorio I about 1627. Its plan and small size very likely resembled the churches built earlier at Tajique and Chililí. The lower volume of stone and smaller roof area allowed Fonte to complete the construction a year sooner than would have been possible with larger churches such as those at Quarai or Pecos.

The Civil Compound West of the Church

A group of corrals and buildings grew up west of the church, which seems to have been associated with trade and the civil government more than with the Franciscans. It consisted of several large enclosures with stone walls built along the north side of mound I, with two rows of buildings forming an L-shaped block up the center and along the north side. The old convento rooms on the east end of mound I were probably converted to offices associated with the civil compound after Fonte moved into the new convento buildings east of the church. The row of buildings along the north side extended eastward and joined the west wall of the church, so that the north side of the compound and the north side of the apse of the church formed a straight, continuous wall. Apparently the road from Quarai ran between the civil compound and the church, perhaps through a large gateway at the northwest corner of the church. The road continued south between the campo santo wall and the east side of mound I. Then it passed along the east side of mound J and on south out of the pueblo area, heading for Abó Pass and the Rio Grande valley.

The civil compound probably contained stables, feed sheds, sheep pens, storerooms, and offices. Here would have been kept the salt hauled from the Salinas Lakes thirty miles to the east, [12] pinon nuts collected by the Indians, hides, and perhaps blankets and other woven goods made in the pueblo or the convento workshops. Some rooms may have been the casa real, the house maintained by the pueblo and the mission as a lodging for visitors and travellers. [13]

THE SECOND CHURCH AND CONVENTO

In 1629 Fray Francisco Acevedo arrived with the wagon train from Mexico in company with Fray Estévan de Perea, the new custodian, and Fray Francisco Letrado, soon to be assigned to begin the conversion of Las Humanas. In the chapter meeting held after the arrival of the train, Fray Perea assigned Fray Acevedo as the second missionary at Abó, joining Fonte. [14] He may have been assigned to manage the visita at LA 200 (probably the village called Ténabo), four miles to the west.

After Letrado's beginning at Las Humanas and departure for Hawikuh in 1631, Acevedo acquired Las Humanas and Tabirá as visitas. Acevedo embarked on a major building program, and over the next few years he completed the construction of the visita church of San Diego at Tabirá and built the visita church of San Buenaventura at Las Humanas. [15]

About 1640, Acevedo became guardian of Abó. [16] He soon began planning a renovation of the church and convento of San Gregorio. The reasons for the enlargement are unknown, but can be suggested. The church was almost 20 years old by 1640, and probably needed re-roofing. During the same period, Abó's place in the Franciscan effort in New Mexico had changed. Since 1634, Abó had administered of two visitas (or three if Ténabo was still a visita). [17] This made Abó the head of one of the largest chains of pueblos in New Mexico. Acevedo, with a decade of experience in construction in the Salinas basin, saw no reason to accept the small, simple church and convento of San Gregorio as the structure housing such a significant mission.

Acevedo carefully mapped the church and convento. He drew a scale plan of the buildings and a set of elevation drawings of the church. Using these, he began to work out the most economical reconstruction that would result in a fully-developed church and convento. He eventually arrived at a plan and elevation that would produce the desired results with the least amount of demolition and new construction. [18] By 1645 Acevedo had worked out the necessary changes and additions and the required steps for the renovation.

Acevedo decided that the large, impressive church he wanted could be achieved by a simple process of addition to the present church, minimizing the amount of additional stonework. He worked out a plan that added transept-like side chapels and a larger, more intricate and imposing group of altars to the old church. The old sacristy would be eradicated by the expansion, so a new, larger sacristy would have to be built. This meant that several changes had to be made in the rooms at the northwest corner of the convento in order to make space for the new sacristy. Further changes were necessary in the convento along the west side of the patio to add the sacristy storeroom and the new choir stairwell (see figure 4 for the plan of the second church and convento of Abó).

Figure 4. The plan of the mission of Abó after its first reconstruction. The church was almost doubled in size, and a new, larger sacristy added. The patio was changed to accomodate the new sacristy storeroom on the west. The kiva was probably filled to a depth of about 6 feet as part of this reconstruction. The portería and front platform are again conjectural, based on their appearance after several reconstructions. (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

Within the church, Acevedo wanted a higher, more imposing roof and more space and light in the nave. He decided to follow the new practice being used at the newer missions in New Mexico, and moved the baptismal font and the choir stairs to separate rooms outside the church. This would leave much more space under the choir loft. A new window would have to be cut through the east wall of the church and the original two windows filled. Space for the choir stairway had to be arranged in the convento and a second hole cut through the east wall of the church for an entrance to the choir loft. Acevedo wanted the baptismal area to be located outside the west wall of the nave, rather than outside the front of the church as at Quarai. This would require the addition of a doorway through the west wall under the choir loft. The old roof would have to be removed and replaced. All these changes would necessitate a considerable dismantling of the front end of the church.

Acevedo's plan for his new sanctuary and altars was innovative, incorporating several unique features. The addition of transepts and a larger altar area would not have been surprising in itself. Acevedo, however, did not do just this. Instead, he designed the "transepts" to contain two altars. They were not transepts, in other words, but side chapels, partially closed off from the nave by wooden screens. [19] This made a total of five altars at the head of the church. Above the side chapel altars, Acevedo built two balconies, or tribunas. In order to connect the balconies, while at the same time providing support for the main roof vigas across the north edge of the side chapels, he created a daring catwalk across the nave of the church at a height of twenty-two feet. In addition, the balconies and catwalk allowed access from the roof of the convento to the bell tower. [20]

Beyond the side chapels the nave would widen into true transepts, although very shallow ones. The additional width was sufficient to allow for three full-sized altars: two collaterals and an imposing high altar in the center. [21] The location of the main altar and the height of the walls of the church required the clerestory to be located well south of the altar in order for the sunlight to illuminate the area during the Christmas feast-days. Juggling sizes and heights, Acevedo worked out the proper size and placement of the clerestory at the south edge of the new side chapels. Still, in order for the proportions to work out correctly, he had to accept that maximum sunlight through the clerestory, during the Christmas season, illuminated the high altar stairway and the floor immediately in front of it, rather than of the altar itself. [22]

First Steps in the Renovation

Acevedo probably began with the alterations to the convento and the construction of the foundations for the additions to the church. This allowed him to continue services in the first church until it was necessary for the work crews to begin dismantling the walls and roof. After the demolition began, services were transferred either to a room in the convento or to a temporary altar set up under a ramada outdoors near the church.

Within the convento, three sides of the patio were torn down. First the demolition crews removed the roofing from the ambulatorio along the north, west, and south sides. Then they dismantled the stone balustrades, pillars, and pilasters along these sides of the patio. The front or south wall of the convento was also removed, as well as the south wall of room 10. The patio "kiva," unroofed a few years before, was filled about this time, but only to within 6 feet of ground surface. It appears to have been left open at this depth for the rest of the life of San Gregorio.

Figure 5. The sanctuary area and altars of the church at Hawikuh, burned out in 1672. The altars of Abó and Quarai probably looked very much like this. At the left edge of the stairs up to the main altar can be seen the large post that supported the bannister for the stairs. The predella platform under the main altar is visible, as are the platforms for the side altars.

The surveyors laid out new foundations along the north and south sides of the ambulatorio, and another trench across the west side of the patio, reducing the area of the patio by about one-quarter. Along the north side of the patio they built the new wall on the foundations of the old patio wall while on the south the new wall was built slightly north of the old wall. On the west side they built the new patio wall on the new foundation, about six feet east of the old patio wall foundation.

Along the front of the convento, the construction crews laid out a new foundation just north of the old, and at a slight angle to it. This new wall kept the width of the ambulatorio the same as it had been, while moving the wall north far enough so that the new exterior stairs to the choir loft fit properly between the ambulatorio and the choir loft door. [24] In the space originally occupied by the west ambulatorio hall, adjoining the church, crews constructed the sacristy storeroom and the new choir loft stairwell, reusing the old patio wall foundations for part of the construction. They built a doorway opening from the storeroom into the ambulatorio, and a second through the south wall of the room into the new choir stairway. Crews also built a large doorway from the ambulatorio into the stairwell. [25]

The construction crews built a two-story room onto the southwest corner of the first ambulatorio, using the foundations of the east wall of the west corridor. Acevedo designed this room to be part of the new portería at ground level and the preparation room for the choir (the antecoro) on the second story. The staircase was probably of wood, and contained about seventeen steps, each with a tread and riser of nine inches. It led to the top of the new south wall of the convento and out onto the roof of the portería, now the floor of the second story antecoro room at the same level as the choir loft inside the church.

When work within the church permitted it, the construction crews would cut a doorway from the new antecoro through the east wall of the church into the choir loft. Meanwhile, they built a doorway in the east wall of the stairwell to the roof of the convento.

After the construction crews completed the new walls in the convento, the ambulatorio was reroofed. Building the sacristy storeroom roof would have been difficult, because beam sockets had to be cut into the facing stones of the nave wall. Once the roof was completed, however, the storeroom could have doubled as the sacristy for the first church while the new sacristy was under construction.

At the northwest corner of the convento, demolition crews removed the old sacristy walls and some walls of the adjacent rooms and constructed the foundations for the new sacristy across them. The roofing of this room could not be completed, however, until the walls of the sanctuary being added to the church had been raised to the height of thirteen feet.

Finally, work on the church itself could begin. The first step in the renovation was the construction of two buttresses, each five feet square, against the outer face of the west wall of the church. Acevedo designed the buttresses to prevent the collapse of the west wall of the church during the period when it would be standing unsupported by cross walls or roof beams. Using the standard scaffolding, the crews built each buttress at full thickness to a height of nineteen feet. At this point the masons stepped the outer or west faces of the two buttresses in about two feet, making a new cross-section five feet north to south and three feet deep. They then continued construction on the reduced buttresses, raising them another four feet to a height of twenty-three feet. At this height work on the buttresses stopped. The flat surfaces of the top and first step were probably designed to act as scaffolding support during the later stages of the construction, when the roofing and parapets of the first church would be removed and those of the second church constructed.

As part of the construction of the buttresses, the crews built the walls of the new baptistry on the exterior of the southwest front corner. In order to make a smooth joint between the baptistry walls and the southwest facade tower of the church, they had to remove the facing stone from the corner itself to a height of about fifteen feet, and then to rebuild the facing with the baptistry walls tied in. At a height of four feet above the original ground surface, the masons inserted a window frame in the south wall and built a splay into the facing stone of the corner tower.

As they built the baptistry, the construction crews added the necessary features the room required. Against the north wall they built a square stone altar, three feet wide, 1 3/4 feet deep, and 1 3/4 feet high. Above the altar, in the stonework of the north wall of the baptistry and the buttress making up part of the north side of the room, the masons inserted boards in stonework to form a small niche for religious statuary. At about this time, they cut a hole through the west nave wall, inserted a lintel about seven feet above floor level, and began the process of refacing the edges to make a doorway from the nave into the baptistry. When work on the baptistry doorway was finished, the construction crews cut sockets into the west wall of the church, set the vigas for the baptistry roof into these holes, and then finished the roof and parapets of the baptistry.

Once the construction crews had completed the buttresses and baptistry, the major task of demolition of the roof and sections of the walls of the first church began. The first step was the removal of the roof. Crews broke up and shovelled off the clay plaster and fiber matting in chunks, uncovering the latillas above the roofing vigas. At the same time, the demolition crew carefully dismantled the parapet above the beams and corbels, with the intention of reusing the stone. The construction crew then built scaffolding on the interior of the church, braced the corbels in place, set up a shear legs, and began the labor of lifting the vigas and lowering them to the ground. If the job were done carefully, many of the latillas, vigas, and corbels could be reused in the new roof, assuming that they remained unrotted. As the work crews removed the vigas and corbels, the masons continued to remove stone from the tops of the walls. After the lowest corbels were lifted off, the masons carefully leveled the wall tops in preparation for the addition of bearing beams. These beams would be set horizontally into the wall to help support the new roof structure.

Once the work crews had removed the roof, the dismantling of the walls at the north end of the church could begin. Working from the scaffolding, the masons pried the stones apart, loaded them into baskets or tubs, and lowered them to the ground for stockpiling. The walls of the apse and the shoulders of the church, between the apse and the side walls of the nave, were all taken down in this way. They were removed to a level slightly below the floor of the first church so that when a new floor was laid within the new sanctuary the old wall stubs would be covered. On the east side of the church, the stone of the northeast corner was also removed. On the west side, the work crews dismantled the northern fifteen feet of the nave wall.

At this point, the masons began a series of alterations inside the nave of the first church. They removed the facing stone from the inner corners of the two facade towers, which projected into the interior of the church, and began the process of refacing the area so that the inner corners of the nave were square. On the east side of the nave, the masons cut a second hole through the wall at a height of about twelve feet, inserted another lintel at about nineteen feet, and began refacing the edges of the opening to make a doorway from the choir loft to the stairwell just completed outside the east wall of the church.

At the same height, the masons cut an opening for a new, larger east nave window. It was located twenty-six feet north of the choir loft main viga, and was four feet wide and nine feet high on the interior. It was splayed toward the exterior, making its outside width 6 1/2 feet. The old nave windows on the east and west walls were filled at this time.

At ground level on the east side of the nave, the crews began the task of closing the old sacristy doorway into the ambulatorio from the church. They removed the jambs, sill and lintel, and then the facing stone of the opening. They filled the hole with rubble and covered it with a smooth, seamless facing of stone, leaving only a small break in the facing above the foundation on the ambulatorio side of the wall. [26] This careful rebuilding of the nave wall was apparently done so as to minimize the chance of the wall cracking there under the greater weight of the new, higher stonework and roof.

When these alterations were completed, the first church was ready to receive its additions. At this point the church was roofless, with the side walls of the nave flat along the tops and ready for the installation of beams along their edges to support the corbels and vigas. These beams were to act as bearing beams, spreading the force of the weight of the corbels, vigas, and roofing along the wall tops. This scheme of weight distribution may have been prompted by a concern that the walls, originally designed for a lower, lighter roof, were a little too thin for the new, heavier roof, even with the new buttresses against the outside of the west wall.

The north end of the church had been removed down to floor level, and the foundations of the new walls completed outside the old apse to the north. At the south end of the church, the facade remained virtually unchanged, but the inside corners of the facade towers had been removed from floor level to the tops of the towers. The choir loft was left in place, but the flooring was removed so that the inside corners of the facade towers could be removed. Changes were made in the choir loft flooring vigas so that the old stairway opening through the floor could be filled. On the west side, the buttresses supporting the walls and the upper scaffolding remained in place. The baptistry was complete, and the doorway from the church into the baptistry had been finished. On the east side, the convento room added against the outside of the nave was complete, while the new sacristy was finished to its roof line but awaited its roofing. The choir loft stairwell was finished, as were the two doors, one opening onto the roof of the convento and the other into the choir loft. The doorway that had originally opened from the old sanctuary into the ambulatorio had been filled.

The masons began the construction of the side chapels, sanctuary and apse walls about 1647. [27] By 1649 the tops of the new additions were even with the tops of the existing nave walls. At this point the crews on shear legs lifted large bearing beams, about 40 feet long, 9 1/2 inches high, and 12 inches wide, to the tops of the nave walls. [28] The masons set these along the inner edge of the walls, then built up the tops of the walls around the beams until they were flush with upper surface of the beams. More beams were lifted and set along the inner and outer edges of the three-foot-wide walls, the outside edge of the fifteen-foot thickened section of the west nave wall, and along the face of the south wall of the east side-chapel. The masons built up the stonework between the beams until it was again flush with the tops of the beams. [29] The masons built the west wall bearing plate so that it was about a foot lower than the east wall. This ensured that the roof would slope down to the west so that rain and snow melt would drain properly. [30]

With the bearing beams in place, the shear-legs crew began raising the corbels. The masons set them in place in pairs along the wall tops, bracing them with supports against the scaffolding. They probably began the corbelling at the north end of the nave, because delays here would slow down and complicate the job of constructing the higher walls of the side chapels, sanctuary, and apse. The lowest corbels rested on the bearing beams and on the upper surfaces of the stonework between the beams.

Acevedo's plan called for a massive roof structure (see the section drawing of the church in figure 7). The corbels and vigas were set in pairs, each pair consisting of two shorter lower corbels, two longer upper corbels, and two vigas, set side-by-side on the wall tops so that the pairs consisted of six units, two wide and three high. The pairs were set at intervals, center to center, of nine feet. The corbels and vigas were squared timbers, their surfaces decorated with carving and probably painting. Each timber was twelve inches square. The lower corbels averaged six feet in length, of which about 2 1/2 feet were inside the walls. The upper corbels averaged 9 1/2 feet in length with the same average inset, and the vigas were about thirty feet long. [31] As the corbels and vigas were set in place, the masons built up the stonework between them to lock them in position.

After the shear-legs crew lifted the vigas into place, the carpenter crews began laying the ceiling above them. The ceiling was formed of boards laid at right angles to the vigas. Each board was about 3.5 inches thick and eleven inches wide. These planks were probably saw cut from squared timbers, using a two-handed saw. The planks, each nine feet long, extended from viga to viga. The carpenter crews laid them edge to edge and end to end. Above the planks the roofing crew laid juniper and pinon boughs, and on this poured a layer of adobe about eight inches thick. At the southeast corner of the church, they also set the ceiling beams for the roof of the choir loft stairwell. [32]

Above the top of the roof the masons constructed a parapet. At intervals of about ten feet, the masons set canales into the parapet for drainage of the roof. The carpenters carved each canal from a single piece of wood. Each canal was 3.5 feet long, 7.5 inches wide, and 6.5 inches high, with a U-shaped trough cut into the upper side. [33]

The parapet extended above the roof about four feet. The parapet was crenelated with each notch about four feet wide at the top and about three feet wide at the bottom, and a step of about six inches in each side about halfway up the notch. [34] The width of each crenel varied from place to place on the wall top, but averaged perhaps four feet across. The crenelations gave the church an intricate Moorish appearance, unlike the typical straight-edged lines of Spanish buildings in New Mexico. The crenels are set at approximately the intervals of the vigas. In addition to their decorative function, they may have been intended to act as additional mass on the outer ends of the vigas to reduce deflection over the center of the nave.

The Northern Addition to the Church

At the north end of the church, construction on the walls of the side chapels, sanctuary, apse, and sacristy progressed steadily. Early in the construction of the apse, the construction crew had built the retaining wall forming the front of the high altar platform. At its east and west corners they set two large beams vertically into the stonework, forming the edges of the mouth of the apse. The two beams were about twelve inches square and thirty-two feet long, and would eventually extend up to the cross-viga that supported the roofing vigas above the mouth of the apse, when this was put in place later. [35]

When the masons had raised the walls to about nine feet, they built the roof of the sacristy. First they set bearing plate timbers on the inside edges of the east and west walls of the sacristy. Each of these beams was 0.8 feet by 0.6 feet in cross-section, with the short dimension set horizontally. On this they set corbels and vigas with the same dimensions. The vigas and corbels were spaced at 1 1/3 foot intervals, center to center. The corbels were set into the wall a distance of 2.0 feet, while the vigas were set in 2.6 feet. The carpenters decorated the vigas and corbels with carving similar to that used at Quarai and later in San Buenaventura at Las Humanas, circular designs enclosing six-pointed floral patterns. As at San Buenaventura, the circular design may have alternated with a diamond-shaped design enclosing four-pointed floral patterns.

When the construction crew finished the stonework at the thirteen foot level of the completed sacristy roof, they began work on two large windows on the east side of the church (see the east elevation of the church in figure 9). These were the same size as the window inserted into the east nave wall, measuring about 6 1/2 feet wide on the exterior, and nine feet high. Each was splayed so that the interior width was four feet. One window was placed in the center of the east wall of the side chapel, and the other in the center of the east wall of the sanctuary, or transept-like area. The window opening into the east side chapel area also served as a doorway from the roof of the sacristy onto the tribune in the chapel. The masons built two steps into the sill of the window/door, each with a nine inch riser and seventeen inch tread, allowing the friars to climb from the thirteen foot level of the sacristy roof to the sixteen foot level of the tribunes inside the church. [36]

At fourteen feet the masons and carpenters began setting the corbels and vigas that acted as supports for the joists of the tribunes. They placed the corbels of the joists for the floor of the tribunes at 14 1/2 feet, and the joists themselves at fifteen feet. The flooring of the tribunes was set into place at 15 1/2 feet with its upper surface at sixteen feet. When the walls rose above 17 1/2 feet, the masons set in the lower rail of the tribune railing, and at twenty feet the carpenters assembled the vertical position of the railing, probably lathe-turned posts, and the upper rail. At the same height the masons set into place the first set of beams that spanned the width of the sanctuary.

These were two 12-inch-square beams, supported by corbels of the same size, extending across the mouth of the sanctuary north of the side chapels to support the catwalk from the east tribune to the west tribune. The first beam, about forty-seven feet long, extended from within a few inches of the outside west face of the west chapel to just inside the east face of the east side chapel, and was set into the north face of the side chapel walls. The two corbels supporting it, one on each end, were each almost thirteen feet long. At the same height and about seven feet north of the first transverse beam, a second set of beams and corbels were set into the walls, parallel to the first. The carpenters floored the catwalk with thick planks. Thus the catwalk was suspended about the sanctuary at a height of twenty-two feet. Carpenters added the short wooden stair or ladder at each side of the sanctuary which would allow access from the catwalk down to the tribunes, 5 1/2 feet below. Eventually, the masons and carpenters would set thick wooden railing into place above at a height of three and 6 1/2 feet above the catwalk. The boards forming the side of the stairway from the catwalk to the tribune apparently were decorated with a carved spiral design. [37]

Figure 6. The upper level of Abó about 1652. The tribunes and catwalk are shown on this plan, as well as the large windows in the east walls of the nave and the east transept. The doorway and stairs from the roof of the sacristy to the east tribune opens through the east side chapel wall at this level. (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

Meanwhile, at 16 1/2 feet in the west side chapel the construction crews began work on the stairway through the southwest corner. This was a flight of three steps up to a stone landing opening out onto a wooden platform built between the thickened section of the west wall of the nave and the corner buttress on the side chapel. The landing and platform were constructed at a height of 20 1/2 feet. [38] On this platform the sacristan would stand to ring the big bell that summoned the pueblo of Abó to mass. The bell hung from a beam set into the walls above the platform, at a height of about 27 1/2 feet. But before the bell-support beam could be set into the rising walls, some of the most critical structures would have to be built.

The Clerestory Window

Constructing a clerestory window always taxed the skills of masons and carpenters, as well as the shear-legs crew. The beams forming the upper and lower edges of this window were among the largest in any church, and the upper beams were among the highest. The task of lifting these beams to heights of twenty-six to thirty-five feet was probably always a time of great tension, and to set them into place without accident or injury to workers or to the fabric of the church was cause for relief and rejoicing.

Figure 7. Hypothetical section down the nave of the church of San Gregorio de Abó as completed about 1652. The details shown in heavy outline are not conjectural. They are taken from standing walls, photographs, and drawings. The probable section of the church as it looked at the time of its completion is shown by fine lines. The tribunes and catwalk can be seen in the side chapel and transept areas, as well as the lower and upper clerestory beams, the beams supporting the roof in the transept, and the beams supporting the roof in the sanctuary and apse. The probable structure of the main altar, altar platform, and stairs are shown. Compare this section to the photograph of the altars at Hawikuh, shown in figure 5. (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

In San Gregorio II, the four main vigas were each about forty-six feet long and twelve inches square. Each of them weighed about 1,700 pounds. Sixteen corbels of the same size as those beneath the vigas of the nave supported them, two at each end of each viga. The shear-legs crew lifted the lower vigas and the construction crews guided them as they were lowered into place. Then the masons built up the towers at the south corners of the side chapels, adding supporting beams to form the ceiling of the staircase through the southwest tower to the bell-platform. At the same time they built up the other walls of the side chapels, sanctuary, and apse.

When they had raised the walls to a height of thirty-four feet, the construction crews carefully levelled the wall tops. Using the nivel de albañil, the mason's level, Acevedo and the mayordomo checked to insure that the west walls were about twelve inches lower than the east walls, so that when the vigas were set into place the roof would slope down to the west for proper drainage.

Next, the shear-legs crew began lifting the timbers for the supporting structure of the high roof. The largest of these were the upper clerestory vigas and the other crossbeams that reached from the east to the west walls. The construction crews set the upper clerestory corbels in place and braced them against the scaffolding, placed the corbels for the crossbeams at the mouth of the sanctuary and the mouth of the apse in the same way, and then began laying beams along the wall tops.

Acevedo's plan for the high, relatively thin walls of his addition to San Gregorio demonstrated that he wanted to be sure the structure had more strength than stone walls alone would give him. He worked out a method that would tie together all the walls at their upper edges, giving them resistance to wind pressures and the strains introduced by foundation shifts and settlement. He used the same system as in the nave, with two 12-inch-square beams laid along the inner edges of the wall tops. Here in the side chapels and sanctuary, however, he did not use them as bearing plates, but as bond beams. The ends of the corbels and crossbeams interlocked with these bond beams in the upper corners of the side chapels and transepts, so that when the entire set of beams was in place it formed a series of box frames around the tops of the walls, bracing them against the effects of side pressures and shifting foundations. All the beams were either enclosed within stonework and plaster or beneath the roof of the church, protecting them from the decaying effects of the weather.

Once the lower network of corbels and bond-beams was in place, the shear-legs crew began lifting the upper layer of timbers. They lifted the upper clerestory viga and the construction crews guided it into place, while at the same time setting two upright posts between the upper and lower vigas, dividing the window opening into three equal sections. The clerestory window was not only a means of illuminating the sanctuary, but was also a critical part of the support structure for the transept roof. The beams over a transept ran lengthwise down a church, resting on the upper clerestory beams at one end. Therefore clerestory beams were required to support the weight of a number of corbels and vigas, as well as the latillas, matting, puddled adobe covering, and plastered surface of the transept roof. In order to support such a weight, the friars doubled the clerestory vigas, so that the lower set absorbed about half of the forces applied to the upper set. Without such an arrangement, it would have been impossible to construct a transept roof. The clerestory window itself was nothing more than a space between the upper and lower transept crossbeams, and may have been a later development after the invention of the transept crossbeams themselves. When and where this invention occurred is unknown.

The shear-legs crew began lifting the two vigas for the north end of the side-chapel crossing. These were the same size as the clerestory window vigas, but had to support almost twice as much weight. The vigas supporting the roof of both the side chapels and the sanctuary would rest on them. Acevedo, however, had thought of this. The massive pair of beams and corbels, acting as the south support of the catwalk at a height of twenty-two feet, also served as the lower set of supports for the sanctuary mouth beams. A series of square posts, 11 1/2 feet long, set vertically on the catwalk beams, probably transferred some of the forces from the upper beams to the lower set. Functionally, the arrangement was almost identical to that of a standard clerestory window. Acevedo's creative imagination took this common structure and modified it to produce both a unique combination of spaces within a seventeenth century New Mexico church, and the unheard-of catwalk at the same level to allowing movement from one side of the church to the other high above the floor.

Finally, the shear-legs lifted the last of the large vigas into place at the north end of the sanctuary across the mouth of the apse. These vigas were shorter than the large, forty-six foot beams that spanned the entire width of the side chapels. They were only about thirty-six feet long, and each weighed about 1,300 pounds. These three sets of upper beams, the top clerestory, the sanctuary mouth, and the apse mouth beams, were the main supports for the high roof of the church. Once they were in place, the lifting crews raised the upper set of bond beams and the construction crews set them onto the ends of the vigas along the tops of the walls, locking the crossbeams into position. The final roofing could now begin.

The High Roof

The construction crews installed the massive crossbeams for the specific purpose of supporting the vigas of the high roof over the empty spaces of the church. Most of the roofing vigas were smaller in cross section and weighed less than the nave vigas. Because they were thinner, the crews had to space them closer together to support the weight of the roof.

The roofing vigas ran lengthwise down the church, at right angles to the crossbeams. Over the side chapels and crossing the crew set twenty-four vigas, each measuring about ten inches high and eight inches wide, at intervals of slightly more than twelve inches. Six of the vigas over the side chapels were twenty-four feet long and set into the north and south walls. The other eighteen vigas were about forty-eight feet long, the longest beams in the church. They extended from the upper clerestory vigas on the south, across the sanctuary mouth vigas at about twenty-four feet, all the way to the wall above the side altars and the apse mouth viga on the north. Beneath each viga the crews placed a corbel of the same cross-section. [39] Between the vigas and the crossbeams over the sanctuary mouth, the construction crews placed two-ended corbels. These supported the centers of the long vigas. In order to place these corbels, as well as the catwalk across the mouth of the sanctuary and the vertical posts supporting the crossbeam, the carpenters had to construct scaffolding across the church at this point. The high roof sloped downward to the west like the nave roof. [40]

Over the apse, the vigas and corbels ran east-west. They were approximately the same cross-section as the vigas over the side chapels and sanctuary, and set at the same height. These vigas had the same slope downward to the west as the rest of the high roof. [41]

When the construction crews had built up the stonework above the bond beams on the east and west walls and the ends of the vigas and corbels on the north and south walls, the carpenters began laying roof latillas and matting of juniper and pinon branches. Once these materials were in place, the construction crews hauled buckets of clay mortar to the roof and spread them over the surface. The masons continued work on the parapets, setting the canales in place along the west edge of the roof and then building crenelations over them as on the nave walls. When the crenelations were built, the major construction on the new church was complete. All that remained were the plastering of the exterior and the finishing of the interior.

Finishing the Church

The finishing crews went to work, covering the outside of the church and sacristy with a coating of clay mortar. [42] On the inside they poured a smooth clay floor over the old floor in the south half of the church and over the packed dirt fill inside the new foundations in the north section. They covered the interior walls with white plaster and painted dados and other decorative patterns along the lower portions in colors of red, blue, and black. [43]

The masons and carpenters built five altars in the sanctuary and side chapels at the north end of the church (see the plan of the second church in figure 4). The main altar stood within the apse on a packed clay platform edged by a stone retaining wall across the mouth of the apse. The top of the main altar platform was about 3 1/2 feet above the floor of the church. On the main platform the carpenters probably built one or two wooden steps, forming another platform seven or eight inches high on which the alter itself stood. On the wall behind the altar, Acevedo probably laid out a retablo design on the plaster, and the painters added the necessary details and colors. Eventually this flat retablo-like design would be covered by a large wooden retablo from Mexico City, but for the present a simple painted retablo would suffice. The construction crew built a staircase, probably of adobe bricks with wooden beams forming the nose of each step, running from the front of the altar platform down to the edge of the platform extending across the width of the sanctuary at the mouth of the apse. The staircase had about five steps. It probably had a railing along each side, running up to a short section of railing attached to the vertical beam forming the two edges of the apse opening. The colaterales, or side altars, stood against the north wall on either side of the apse. Each extended out from the wall about two feet and had a board inset in the top against the wall. A painted retablo design probably covered the wall above each side altar. The sanctuary platform on which the side altars stood was about 7 1/2 feet across. It was covered with flagstone, and a large beam running from the east wall to the west wall of the sanctuary formed a step of about five inches from the floor of the church to the platform. [44]

The side chapels received similar arrangements. Each had a low platform about five inches high edged with wooden beams. The surface of each platform was covered with flagstone and supported an altar with a rubble stone core faced with adobe bricks. The carpenters set vertical posts into sockets cut into the edging beam along the front of the altar platform to support a partition screen. The screen, about eight feet high, ran across the mouth of each side chapel on the line of the nave walls, turning at the north corners back to the side walls of the sanctuary area, 2 1/2 feet wider at each side. It consisted of two rails, one about 3 1/2 feet above the ground and the second about eight feet high. The supporting posts were about 6 1/2 and thirteen feet from the south wall, with a third post at the north corners. At the south edge of the side chapels the rails were set into the corner of the wall, and into the side wall of the sanctuary on the north. The rails probably supported a decorative latticework or turned poles that might have extended all the way up to the edge of the tribune overhead. The screen apparently had an opening between the two middle posts, about 6 1/2 feet wide. Above the altars the finishing crew painted decorative designs in black and possibly other colors, creating a retablo-like design here as over the other altars. [45]

When they were completed, the side altar screens continued the walls of the nave across the mouth of the side chapels. Not until the north edge of the side chapels did the nave widen out to form a transept-like space in front of the side altars at the head of the church. The clerestory window, instead of being situated at the south edge of the transept, was at the south edge of the side chapels, about twenty-one feet farther south. This arrangement of space appears to have been unique to Abó among the missions of New Mexico.

Finishing the Sacristy

The finishing crews then turned to the sacristy. The carpenters laid two beams onto the packed earth fill along the north side of the sacristy, and then poured a clay floor. They plastered the walls of the sacristy and probably added painted decoration in the form of a dado. Using the beams set into the floor on the north side, they built a low platform supporting an altar. Along the east wall the carpenters probably installed a large cabinet to hold the vestments and vessels for the mass. [46]

When the crews completed work on the sacristy about 1651, the remodeling of San Gregorio de Abó was complete. In a period of about six years, Fray Francisco Acevedo had changed San Gregorio from a small, commonplace church to one of the most striking and unusual buildings on the northern frontier. Within a few years, however, he would again fill the air around the church with dust and the sound of hammering. In the last few years of the 1650s Acevedo would decide that the convento was too small for such a large, handsome church, and would again embark on a planned program of demolition and reconstruction. For a few years, though, peace and quiet returned to Abó.

Figure 8. Plan of the second reconstruction of Abó, about 1658. During this construction, most of the remainder of the convento was changed to its present form. The residence hall and row of suites, each consisting of a cell and alcove, were added along the south side of the convento, and the front porch and portería reached their final plan. However, the convento would be changed once more before it was abandoned. (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

THE THIRD CONVENTO AND LATER CHANGES

Between the completion of the church about 1651 and the abandonment of the mission about 1673, the Franciscans carried out several additional construction projects within the mission. In the church, Joseph Toulouse found indications of several remodelings. These largely involved additions and changes to the altars. The alterations resemble those carried out at other missions during the seventeenth century. [47]

The remodeling of the side altars added masonry along their fronts to extend them about 1 foot south. This was similar to changes seen at Awatovi and to the high altars at Awatovi and Hawikuh. The Abó high altar may have been added to several times over the years from 1651 to the 1670s, if the pattern followed at other missions happened here, but the destruction of the altar wiped out any record of change. [48]

In the convento, the projects included another major reconstruction and two episodes of remodeling. The care and planning of the reconstruction suggests that Fray Francisco de Acevedo was responsible for this work, in which case it occurred between 1651 and 1659. The characteristics of the remodelling jobs indicate that they were probably done later. For example, the addition of a latrine on the north side of the convento and the alterations of adjoining rooms used adobe bricks to construct three major walls. The design and the areas selected to receive the adobe indicate that the bricks were used because they were quick and easy, and the walls were not going to be exposed to weathering or structural stress. However, Acevedo probably would not have used adobe brick as the major material in wall construction. His planning and construction demonstrate that he was not interested in short cuts or easy answers, but in workmanship. Therefore, these changes probably happened after Acevedo left Abó in 1659, perhaps during the tenure of his successor, Fray Antonio Aguado. Alterations in the storage rooms echo similar changes in the other Salinas missions, and therefore probably occurred about the same time, during the famine that lasted from 1667 to sometime after 1672.

The Second Reconstruction of the Convento

After he had completed the construction of the new, larger church of San Gregorio de Abó, Acevedo again turned his attention to the convento. Against the great mass of the church, the convento looked shrunken and shabby. The rooms were small and the plan was awkward. After some thought, Acevedo worked out a new plan that incorporated some of the innovations made by Fray Juan Gutiérrez de la Chica in the convento of Quarai. This plan called for the removal of the rather random distribution of cell rooms and the addition of a residence hallway with a row of cells along it, the rooms numbered 2, 3, 5-9, and 19.

Figure 9. Elevation of the east side of the church of Abó about 1670. As in the section drawing, figure 7, the details from surviving structure, photographs, and drawings are shown in heavy outline, while the conjectural original appearance is shown in fine line. Also shown in section are the portería, patio, and sacristy. (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

As the first step in the reconstruction, Acevedo had the eastern two rows of rooms demolished down to somewhat below the level of the upper floor within the convento. The work crews removed the roofing, doors, and any reusable hardware, and began dismantling the walls, but left the east wall of the eastern row standing to the height of the bases of the vigas. They filled the floor of the easternmost row of rooms with dirt and rubble to bring it up to the level of the rest of the convento. The masons filled the lower portions of the eastern windows in order to raise the sills to the appropriate height for the new floor level. [49] At the southeast corner of the eastern row, the masons removed the corners of the alcove of the stairway leading down to the second courtyard, and sealed the alcove with stone. The stairwell itself was filled with dirt and stone rubble.

In the patio, the work crews prepared the area for a new arrangement of walls. They dismantled the roofs of the ambulatorio on the north, east, and south sides. At the same time they removed the roofs of the stairwell going to the choir loft and the portería. Then they dismantled the north, east, and south walls of the patio, the south wall of the convento, and the walls of the portería down to a level somewhat below the floor of the convento.

While the dismantling of the old convento walls was progressing, other work crews were excavating foundation trenches along the lines of the new walls. The north wall of the residence hallway would be formed from the original corral wall, but the south side of the hall and the new south front of the convento all required new foundations.

Since the residence hallway would block the drainage of the second courtyard, the construction crew built a covered drain across the line of the new construction, using flat stone slabs for the base, sides, and top. The masons raised the foundation walls to the level of the floor of the convento. At this height, other crews began hauling fill dirt to pack within the walls in order to create floors at the appropriate level within the new rooms. The carpenters assembled scaffolding and the masons continued to build the walls of the new convento rooms.

The rooms under construction along the new south hallway were a series of four cells, each about 11 1/2 feet across. The first cell, at the west end next to the portería, was a suite of two large rooms for the guardian of Abó. It consisted of a main entrance room about twenty feet long and an alcove about twelve feet long. East of the guardian's cell were three standard cells, each consisting of a main room and an alcove. The friars who occupied these rooms on occasion probably used the larger room for an office and the smaller room as a bedroom. These three cells were almost the same size, with the larger room measuring about seventeen feet long and the alcove about eight feet long. [50] Later, the first two cells were converted to a single suite, with a new doorway between them. The construction crew added a doorway through the south wall of the second cell, and a formal porch against the exterior of the wall. This appears to have been a friar's entrance into the convento, separate from the portería designed to handle business with the pueblo.

Figure 10. Elevation of the front, or south side of the church of Abó about 1670. The same line weights as seen in the previous elevation and sections drawings are used here. The evidence suggests that San Gregorio II had no towers at the front of the church, and no roof over the choir porch. (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

At the east end of the residence hall, extending north into the corral area, the construction crew built a room about 12 1/2 feet by 17 1/2 feet. It probably served as the storeroom or despensa.

At the west end of the new residence hall, the crews constructed the new portería on the old front platform of the church. The carpenters assembled two posts and a railing along the front or south side of the portería, and the masons built stone benches against the side and back walls. The carpenters set wooden beams along the outside edges of the benches.

Into the old stairwell, now enlarged from fourteen feet to 24 1/2 feet in length, the masons built a new stairway of a somewhat different design. They closed the old doorway from the sacristy storeroom into the stairwell and then built up the stairway as a massive stone construction. [51] The entire area from the new south wall of the convento to the south wall of the sacristy storeroom within the southwest corner of the old ambulatorio was filled with rock. On this mass, the construction crews built a stone stairway with squared wooden beams forming the nose of each step. The staircase contained a total of twelve steps, each with a tread of about thirteen inches and a rise of eight inches. The masons built two of the steps in the wide entranceway from the ambulatorio to the stairwell. These led up to a landing next to the sacristy storeroom. From here, ten more steps climbed to a second landing at the level of the choir loft inside the church. [52] The masons enclosed the entire stairwell and two landings in a two-story room, roofed at a height of about twenty-five feet. In the west wall of the room they probably built a doorway opening onto the roof of the convento, and probably a window through the south wall to light the stairwell. [53]

On the platform left by the east row of rooms, the masons built the walls of the new kitchen and kitchen storeroom. In the kitchen, on the south, they constructed a stone workbench along the south wall above the filled stairwell of the first convento. This bench may have had a wooden slab top or a smooth clay surface. On the north side of the room they constructed a stone hearth for the cooking, resembling the hearth in the convento of Hawikuh. From the kitchen, the cooks would carry the prepared food to the refectory, probably room 26 at the north end of the east ambulatorio. This room was created by taking out the old cross wall between two rooms of the first convento. North of the kitchen the construction crews built a short hallway running east and west, connecting the east ambulatorio to the second courtyard by a door and earthen ramp. [54] On the north side of the small hallway was the kitchen storeroom, reached by a doorway into the short hall rather than into the ambulatorio. Here, among other things, the friars kept the delicacies and spices brought from Mexico by the supply trains.

On the north row, the reconstruction left rooms 13, 14, 15, 17, and 26 largely unchanged. The construction crew removed the wall between rooms 15 and 26, combining the two into a room about twenty-two feet long and thirteen feet wide. At the same time, the north wall of room 13 was taken down and a new wall built farther north, enlarging the room by three feet. For the most part, though, the north row of rooms remained unchanged from the first convento. Other than room 26, they probably continued to serve as rooms associated with the sacristy. The rebuilding of the convento was completed about 1657 or 1658.

The Third Reconstruction of the Convento

Soon after his arrival in 1659, Fray Antonio Aguado decided that the convento needed a little modernization. He began the alteration of rooms 13, 14, and 15 along the north side of the convento to make space for a latrine for the friars. [55]

The alterations had the general intent of separating the latrine from the other surrounding rooms, while communicating with the ambulatorio. The design removed the stone wall between rooms 14 and 15, and replaced it with an adobe wall about two feet farther east. The construction crew cut new doorways through the wall between rooms 14 and 17 and the wall between the ambulatorio and room 17 (two of the walls surviving from the first convento plan), and removed the wall between rooms 17 and 26. They then built in two adobe walls to create room 27, a short corridor from the ambulatorio to the latrine. The construction may have added a window through the north wall of the convento, if one had not been here before. Ventilation is important in a privy.

The design of the latrine strongly resembles the lower portions of latrines used at missions in Mexico in the sixteenth century. [56] Each of the five square openings was probably covered by a wooden cover and seat, and thin stone partition walls on the crossbeams divided the privy into five stalls. Measurements indicate that the southern wall may have been a lower step, with the seats about twenty inches higher. There was probably some method for periodically cleaning out the pit. It is possible that a stone-lined drain ran to and from the pit, to channel a stream of water for periodic clean-out. Such a setup seems to have been built at Mission San José in San Antonio, Texas, and a suspicious-looking arrangement of slab-lined channel and small rooms or cubicles suggests a latrine set-up at Pecos.

The latrine was called a "turkey pen" by Toulouse, based on the presence of eggshells, the fragments of shallow pottery "watering pans," and what he considered to be "bird droppings." [57] Toulouse indicates that the materials from the pit of the latrine had been analyzed by Volney H. Jones and the "droppings" positively identified as bird dung. However, in Appendix 2 of Toulouse's report, Volney Jones states that the "material from the turkey corrals consisted of lumps of light grey more or less porous material chiefly of organic origin. There seems to be little question that it was primarily turkey dung." This is hardly a positive identification. In fact it sounds like circular reasoning: Toulouse told Jones that the material was from a probable turkey pen, so Jones stated that the material was probably turkey dung, thereby proving to Toulouse that the pit was a turkey pen. There seems to have been no definitive test applied to the dung that proved it to have been the product of turkeys or any other bird. Field experience has shown that turkey dung tends to be a distinctive yellow-gray, while that of omnivorous mammals, including human beings, is usually a friable gray material in archeological contexts.

Materials found in the pit are typical of those found in any privy pit, and the appearance of the dung is consistent with what would be expected in a privy. The author therefore suggests that the "turkey pens" of Abó were in reality what they appear to be: the latrine for the friars of the convento. Similar privies are lacking at the other conventos in the Salinas area, and in fact at virtually every other mission on the Northern Frontier. This seems to be predominantly the result of chance. For example, privies are mentioned in the inventories of three eighteenth-century missions in San Antonio, Texas. One of the privy rooms was later converted to the kitchen of the rectory of the church, and is not available for excavation. No excavations have been conducted in the likely location of the second, and insufficient investigations at the third. A privy is mentioned in the convento at Acoma by Dominguez in 1776, but no investigations have been made here, either. Similar circumstances of a failure to recognize these simple structures or too limited investigation probably explain their lack in most cases. At Quarai, however, another alternative is suggested by the evidence. Here, the trusty chamberpot seems to have been the preferred method of handling this common necessity: see, for example, the largely complete chamberpot found in the debris filling the patio kiva and now on display in the small museum at the visitor's center. It is not identified to visitors as a chamberpot. [58]

Figure 11. Plan of the last changes to Abó about 1670. The addition of the latrine in room 14 occurred about 1660 to 1665, while rooms 1, 11a and A-3 were probably built during the famine of 1667-72. The changes to the rooms in the second courtyard were made after the completion of the main walls of these rooms, but the date cannot be estimated. (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

The Construction of 1667 to 1672

Late in the life of the convento, the Franciscans partitioned off a portion of the storeroom (room 11a), and at the same time built a small, massively-walled room next to the kitchen storeroom and extending into the second courtyard on the east (room A-3). This room probably communicated with the kitchen storeroom by way of a converted window. It could have been two stories high, with a stairway up through the converted window to the second story of A-3. Unfortunately, too little of the wall survived to confirm this, and insufficient archeology has been carried out in the area to determine if the traces of a wooden stairway might remain.

At the same time, the missionaries probably built room 1 at the end of the residence hallway. [59] Room 1 appears to have been built with its floor at ground level, and with a stairway up from the end of the hall to its roof level. It was apparently entered by a hatchway through the ceiling of the first floor. This sort of secure room was also built at the other two missions. The rooms usually had a second story and a hatchway entrance to the lower floor, and were usually built near the kitchen. They were probably constructed during the severe famine of 1667 to 1672, when food supplies were being shipped from missions with surplus food to the southern missions. The rooms seem to have been used to protect critical food and seed supplies from theft by the Pueblo Indians and raids by the Apache.