Estufa

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Estufa
U.S. National Register of Historic Places

Location:	Southeast corner of University Boulevard and Dr. Martin Luther king Boulevard, Albuquerque, NM
Coordinates:	35°5′1.77″N 106°37′31.27″W / 35.083825, -106.6253528Coordinates: 35°5′1.77″N 106°37′31.27″W / 35.083825, -106.6253528
Built/Founded:	1908
Architect:	Charles Lembke (Tri-Alpha member): University President William G. Tight: members of the Alpha Alpha Alpha Fraternity
Architectural style(s):	Mission/Spanish Revival, Pueblo, Other
Added to NRHP:	September 22, 1988
NRHP Reference#:	88001542 ^[1]
MPS:	New Mexico Campus Buildings Built 1906--1937 TR
Governing body:	State

The Estufa is a historic structure on the University of New Mexico campus in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was built between 1906 and 1908 as a meeting room for the local social fraternity Alpha Alpha Alpha, which in 1915 became the Beta Delta chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha. The project received support from university president William G. Tight, who was seeking to establish Pueblo architecture as a campus-wide style. The Estufa was one of the first buildings in the country to employ the Pueblo Style.

The building was loosely modeled after a kiva at Santo Domingo Pueblo.^[1] It is roughly circular, with adobe walls 14 inches (36 cm) thick. The interior of the Estufa has been described as a pit with seating around the edge.^[2]

The Estufa continues to serve in its original role as a fraternity meeting place, with the Pi Kappa Alphas holding their weekly chapter meetings there. The building is veiled in secrecy: non-members are not allowed inside, and according to legend no woman has ever seen its interior.^[3] There have been many reports of items mysteriously disappearing into the Estufa.^[4]^[5]

The Estufa was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

An estufa [Sp., a stove, a warm room. Cf. Stove] is an assembly room in a dwelling of the Pueblo Indians [ie, a kiva], per Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1998.

[edit] Notes

^ National Register Information System. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2007-01-23).

[edit] References

Historic estufa (kiva), probably at Taos Pueblo, late 19th century?

^ Casaus, Phill (October 28, 1995). "It's dumpy and frumpy, but UNM's Estufa packs a lot of history." Albuquerque Journal.
^ History of UNM campus tour
^ Casaus (1995).
^ Hooker, Van Dorn (2000). Only in New Mexico: An Architectural History of the University of New Mexico, the First Century 1889-1989. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, p. 27. ISBN 0-8263-2135-6
^ Uyttebrouck, Olivier (February 23, 2002). "Frat Items Stolen Long Ago Resurface at UNM." Albuquerque Journal.