https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/NM-01-001-0089 La Glorieta has seen a lot of history. Albuquerque’s only surviving example of a Spanish Colonial hacienda, it was later owned by one of people who helped transform the town from a sleepy village to a railroad town.
In 1662, a soldier from Mexico City named Diego de Trujillo established a hacienda near what would later become Albuquerque’s Old Town. The house was damaged in 1680, when the Pueblo Revolt forced its occupants to flee the territory. The owners returned after 1692, during the period called the Reconquista, and rebuilt their home. The north and east wings of the twelve room, one-story adobe building that still stands might possibly date from this period.
In 1662, a soldier from Mexico City named Diego de Trujillo established a hacienda near what would later become Albuquerque’s Old Town. The house was damaged in 1680, when the Pueblo Revolt forced its occupants to flee the territory. The owners returned after 1692, during the period called the Reconquista, and rebuilt their home. The north and east wings of the twelve room, one-story adobe building that still stands might possibly date from this period.
In 1861, Franz Huning, a German immigrant who had opened a mercantile in Albuquerque’s Old Town, bought the property from the Franciscans. In addition to the eight-room hacienda, which Huning named La Glorieta, Spanish for arbor, the property included 700 acres of fields on which Huning grew crops. He added south and west wings to the house, creating a fully enclosed patio at its center. He also built a sawmill and a gristmill on the property.
Huning’s mercantile business depended on goods that he brought in along the Santa Fe Trail from Missouri. He was in St. Louis on business when, in 1862, the retreating Confederate Army of New Mexico, under the command of Major General Henry Hopkins Sibley, occupied La Glorieta. The officers lived in the home while the enlisted men camped in the nearby fields. The Confederates fired their cannons from the grounds of the gristmill during the artillery duel that became known as the Battle of Albuquerque.
Huning’s mercantile business depended on goods that he brought in along the Santa Fe Trail from Missouri. He was in St. Louis on business when, in 1862, the retreating Confederate Army of New Mexico, under the command of Major General Henry Hopkins Sibley, occupied La Glorieta. The officers lived in the home while the enlisted men camped in the nearby fields. The Confederates fired their cannons from the grounds of the gristmill during the artillery duel that became known as the Battle of Albuquerque.
https://www.albuqhistsoc.org/programs/ahs-2014-2015-programs/postwar-transformation-albuquerque-1945-1972/erna-fergusson/ Huning returned to Albuquerque in 1864 with a new wife, Ernestine Franke. They lived in La Glorieta for nineteen years, until 1883, when he built a new mansion, Castle Huning, down the street. In 1887 he deeded La Glorieta to his eldest daughter Clara as a wedding present when she married a local attorney named Harvey Butler Fergusson. They raised four children, including author Erna Fergusson, who has an Albuquerque Public Library named after her.
In 1940, Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms, a former Illinois congresswoman, bought
In 1940, Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms, a former Illinois congresswoman, bought
La Glorieta to house Manzano Day School, a private elementary school that she had started two years earlier. She had moved to Albuquerque after marrying local businessman and former New Mexico congressman, Albert Gallatin Simms, and established the school to provide an education for her daughter and the children of other prominent families.
Today, La Glorieta houses the administrative offices of the school. It is closed to the public, but tours and visits can be arranged by appointment
Today, La Glorieta houses the administrative offices of the school. It is closed to the public, but tours and visits can be arranged by appointment
Jennifer Bohnhoff is an author and educator who lives in the mountains east of Albuquerque. She is presently working on The Famished Country, the third book in Rebels Along the Rio Grande, a trilogy of middle grade historical novels set in New Mexico during the Civil War. Where Duty Calls, the first book in the series, was published by Artemesia Press, and was published in May 2022. The second book, The Worst Enemy, was published in 2023. Both were finalists for Western Writers of America's spur award, and the first has also won the NM Book Award and the EVVY.
