Back in the days of the Great Depression, the US National Parks Service was persuaded by Charles E. Peterson, a young Park Service landscape architect, to create a new programme to generate work for jobless architects, draughtsmen and photographers.

And so the the Historic American Buildings Survey was born, its’ mission: “documenting a representative sampling of America’s architectural heritage“.

Now I love American history and love the access the web gives to search these historic databases. My first search turned up several treasures (I use the word loosely) in the city of Holbrook, Arizona, the city some 10 miles southwest of Cowboy Country.

Holbrook has a rich western history and an interesting mix of characters who were active during the second half of the nineteenth century when cattlemen and sheep ranchers roamed the vast lands around the soon-to-be Navajo County seat.

The HABS database has an entry for the Armijo House located at 301 Montano Street, Holbrook. Although it wasn’t built until 1915, the simple adobe style construction and freestanding water tower make it the most interesting building in the CF Perkins subdivision south of the Little Colorado River:

Armijo House Holbrook (Copyright HABS 1993)

The house was originally built by the Armijo family “a pioneer group of Hispanic northern Arizona farmers and ranchers”. To learn more about the history and view another dozen black and white photos check out the report written by historian Robert G Graham on the HABS database.

I only wish I’d had the opportunity to know about this house and the other features of the city before my visit in January this year. If you are passing through and are able to send a photo or report of the location (16 years after the report was drafted) then I’d love to find out if the house is still standing.

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