Hacienda de Las Hermanas, Northside, Santa Fe, NM – SOLD

About the property

Hacienda de Las Hermanas is an 8,100 square foot Classical Mexican Colonial hacienda on 5.8 acres in Tesuque Ridge Ranch, a gated community on Circle Drive about 2.5 miles north of the Santa Fe Plaza. The residence was completed in 2006 to a design by DeWindt Architects. The plan organizes around a central courtyard with portales on all four sides, opens to a swimming pool and outdoor kitchen on the south, and reads the long views west to the Jemez Mountains, north to San Antonio Peak, and east to the Sangre de Cristos.

The interior carries the Mexican Colonial vocabulary in earnest: hand-troweled plaster, ceilings carried on heavy vigas and carved corbels, antique doors set into adobe-thickness walls, and floor tile and stonework specified to the era. The kitchen and primary-suite scale read to the size of the residence; the proportions do not feel inflated. The site planning is the quietly impressive part: the house sits in conversation with the ridge, not on top of it.

Architecture and history

DeWindt Architects, the Santa Fe practice with a long portfolio of Mexican Colonial and hacienda-tradition residences, drew the plan. Classical Mexican Colonial as a style sits adjacent to but distinct from the Spanish-Pueblo Revival vocabulary more often associated with Santa Fe. The Pueblo Revival tradition, codified by John Gaw Meem and others in the early twentieth century, draws from the indigenous adobe village. The Mexican Colonial tradition draws instead from the courtyard haciendas of central Mexico, with their stone-flagged portales, carved wooden columns, antique door programs, and an interior register that runs more formal than the New Mexican vernacular. Both traditions belong here. Hacienda de Las Hermanas is the second.

The 2006 build year places the residence among the last large Tesuque Ridge homes completed before the cycle turned in 2008. The construction is concrete masonry with full adobe-thickness wall finishes, structural steel where the spans required it, and an infrastructure program (mechanical, water, fire suppression) sized to the property’s altitude and isolation.

The neighborhood

Tesuque Ridge Ranch is a gated community on the ridge above the village of Tesuque, north of Santa Fe along Bishops Lodge Road and Circle Drive. The ranch sits at an elevation high enough to read the full sweep of mountains in three directions; the lots are large, the road network is private, and the build-out is roughly half-century-old at its earliest and current at its newest. The village of Tesuque, two minutes down the hill, holds Tesuque Village Market, the Shidoni gallery and former foundry (also a past Webster Estates sale), and the bridge crossing the Rio Tesuque.

The Plaza is 2.5 miles by Bishops Lodge Road. The Santa Fe Opera grounds sit just north of the village. The Tesuque-Pojoaque corridor opens northward to Los Alamos, Abiquiu, and the upper Rio Grande. For the village context and the broader Tesuque market, see our Tesuque village guide.

About the transaction

The Webster Estates team handled the sale of Hacienda de Las Hermanas at $4,450,000 in 2014. The property had been listed under the Webster banner through its marketing run; closing was through our office at 54½ Lincoln Avenue. Tesuque Ridge Ranch transactions at this scale are uncommon by structural fact (the ranch is small and the inventory turns slowly); this sale, with the architecture and the acreage, set a marker for the Ridge that has held in subsequent cycles.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Who designed Hacienda de Las Hermanas? A: DeWindt Architects, a Santa Fe practice with a long portfolio of Mexican Colonial and hacienda-tradition residences, completed the design. The residence was built in 2006.

Q: What is Tesuque Ridge Ranch? A: Tesuque Ridge Ranch is a gated community on the ridge above the village of Tesuque, north of Santa Fe along Bishops Lodge Road. The lots are large, the road network is private, and the residences read views to the Sangres, the Jemez, and San Antonio Peak.

Q: What is Classical Mexican Colonial architecture? A: Classical Mexican Colonial draws from the courtyard haciendas of central Mexico: stone-flagged portales, carved wooden columns, antique doors, hand-troweled plaster, and a more formal interior register than the New Mexican vernacular. It is related to but distinct from the Spanish-Pueblo Revival vocabulary more often seen in Santa Fe.

Q: How far is Tesuque Ridge Ranch from the Santa Fe Plaza? A: Roughly 2.5 miles, by Bishops Lodge Road through the village of Tesuque.

Q: When was Hacienda de Las Hermanas built? A: 2006, by DeWindt Architects.

Q: What did Hacienda de Las Hermanas sell for? A: The property sold for $4,450,000 in 2014, handled by the Webster Estates team.

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The Webster Estates Team handled this transaction. Chris Webster, Patti Webster, Christopher Webster III, and Paisley Mason Webster, Associate Brokers at Sotheby’s International Realty, operating from 54½ Lincoln Avenue on The Plaza since 1976.