Date: Saturday, June 5 & Sunday, June 6, 2021

Time: 10am - 5pm

Location: Conejos, Colorado

Colorado Preservation Inc. is pleased to co-host, in partnership with property owner and architect Ronald Rael and instructor Joanna Keane Lopez a two-day Weekend Workshop for up to 20 people at the historic Lafayette Head Home and Ute Indian Agency (circa 1854) in Conejos, Colorado. The workshop will feature hands-on experience and learning opportunities involved with the preparation of adobe plaster mixtures (earth, straw, and water) and its application to walls by hand and with trowels under the supervision of Ronald Rael and adobera Joanna Keane Lopez, co-president of Adobe in Action, as well as an understanding of the complex history of this historic building and site. Additionally, some selective areas of work will involve removing non-historic windows and replacing adobes and rough openings/frames to match historic window dimensions. 

Lunch and water will be provided during the workshop. Participants are expected to arrange their lodging and to dress accordingly for work in the field under both potentially warm and cool conditions. Hats, gloves, and closed toed shoes are encouraged. Covid-19 safety protocols will also be observed.

The Lafayette Head Home & Ute Indian Agency was built by an early settler, businessman, Indian Agent, and former Lt. Governor Lafayette Head in 1855. He was appointed Special Agent to the Ute and Jicarilla Apache tribes, working especially with the Tabeguache Ute tribe and Chief Ouray. Head used his home and compound in Conejos as the agency headquarters for nine years, which was referred to as the Conejos Indian Agency. The Head Home itself is representative of Indo-Hispano, Native American, Territorial, and early Colorado architecture. Only a portion of the Head compound and Conejos Agency exists, which includes an adobe building (thought to be servant’s and slave quarters), the remains of one of the first grist mills in Colorado. Archaeological evidence reflective of various eras and cultures are present at the site. The site was listed on Colorado’s Most Endangered Places in February 2021, and a Preliminary Property Evaluation Form has been prepared to support possible listing on the State or National Register.

The property owner and long-term resident of the area Ronald Rael is Professor of Architecture and Eva Li Memorial Chair in Architecture at the University of California-Berkeley and is leading the effort to preserve the building and disseminate the complicated historical legacy of the site as a cultural resource to the local and regional community. He is an expert on earthen architecture and is the subject of an upcoming hour-long documentary produced by the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, which includes a segment about the Lafayette Head Home and Ute Indian Agency. 

Joanna Keane Lopez is the Co-President of Adobe in Action, a New Mexico-based 501c3 non-profit organization that supports owner builders with the planning and construction of their adobe homes through workshops and outreach. She is a multidisciplinary artist whose work blurs the boundaries between contemporary sculpture and architecture through the medium of adobe. 

The workshop is funded in part by a History Colorado State Historical Fund grant that supports Colorado’s Most Endangered Places Program. For information, please contact Kim Grant at 303-893-4260 x 222 or kgrant@coloradopreservation.org.

Lodging:

Narrow Gauge Railroad Inn

Steam Train Hotel

Indian Jones Bed and Breakfast