Zoie - Meeting The Pig/Setting

Central Avenue: Old Town Plaza (900 West)

Old Town proper is a maze of cobbled courtyards and walkways which lead to innumerable hidden patios, gardens and galleries. Adobe buildings, many of which have been refurbished in Pueblo Revival style in the 1950s, focus around the tree-shaded Old Town Plaza, created originally in 1780. Pueblo and Navajo artisans often display their pottery, blankets and silver jewelry along the sidewalks lining the plaza. The buildings of Old Town once served as mercantile shops, grocery stores and government offices.

The first and probably most famous of the structures still standing today is the Church of San Felipe de Neri, facing the plaza on its north side. This house of worship has been in continuous use for more than 300 years and has been reconstructed and subsequently expanded several times. One can also find in the maze of private walks and cobbled paths the Jesu Romero Store built with its Territorial and Queen Anne structural features, and a banker's two story adobe dwelling with combination Italianate and Queen Anne architecture.

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Rosa del Desierto - Courtyard - Albuquerque

The front courtyard of the old adobe mansion has seen better days, the rosy beige paver stones cracked and a little scattered as they lead the way to the front door. An empty three tier fountain sits at the center, cleaned up but not functioning at the moment. The garden went wild over the years; hedges and bushes took over large portions of the yard and along with the untrimmed trees have made a natural maze. During the warmer times of year the courtyard is a sea of colors. All of the assorted roses and flowers bloom, wild vines climbing up the sides of the home and around windows and gutters as well as over the entry archway.

The house is a grand affair, or at least it was in its youth; time has taken the rose colored adobe, expensive woods and windows and dulled them, settling the house into elegant old age. The wide wooden porch that runs the front arches out in a semi-circle near the two large doors that lead inside; creating room for several to stand together under the shelter of the roof that curves to match. Two matching benches made of wrought iron are pushed up against the side of the house nearby, missing their cushions.

Windows with cloudy glass have fresh new curtains hung in them all along the first floor, as do the balcony doors up on the second floor. The balconies look to have remained sturdy through the passage of time, made of stone and more iron wrought. It's easy to see why the front gate bears the name Rosa del Desierto, twined within its metal.