Last year around this time, volunteers from the Corrales Historical Society helped prepare and apply new mud plaster to the historic Martinez house in Corrales. Little did they know they celebrated the annual event of applying mud to the Martinez House for the last time. The owner of the Martinez House must have grown weary of the age old-tradition, and rare practice, of mud plaster after this past summer’s brutal storms, because on Saturday, the Martinez House got a new coat of cement plaster to join the ranks of the vast majority of adobe structures in New Mexico that are plastered and stuccoed.
The first photo shows the north side of the Martinez House with its new plaster, while the second photo shows a similar shot of the wall as it had been prepared for the new coat of mud plaster last year. The third photo shows the south and east side of the house with its new “brown” coat of plaster. The fourth photo, from last year, shows the south wall with the newly applied mud plaster and the east wall waiting for new mud. The last photo is a view of the freshly plastered east an north walls of the house.
After the “brown” coat of plaster dries completely, they should apply a color coat of stucco that I assume will be very close to the color of the mud they covered with cement plaster. The cement plaster and stucco will provide a much more durable and weatherproof covering than the mud plaster, but the old adobe blocks do not breath properly under cement plaster/stucco finishes, which is not good for the blocks. But the durability and protection of cement plaster has obviously become preferable to the cost and burden of applying mud plaster every year, a finish that offers little protection from severe storms like we had this past summer.
Off Center & Not Even 
Great – although sad – story you have documented with these wonderful photos. I do understand why they did what they did, however. Thanks for sharing the images!
Thanks, Susan. I thought you would especially appreciate the documentary;-)
This is all so interesting. Did you regularly mud plaster the buildings on your land before you had them demolished?
No they were plastered and stuccoed.
This makes me wonder what went on here in years gone by and why it is now left deserted? I wrote a poem about an old empty house I saw in London.
It’s not deserted. An artist lives in it. The Historical Society had pitched in every year to re-mud the house to keep it authentic, but after bad storms this summer, the owner is having it plastered, which is much less maintenance and a much better weather seal.
Well that serves me right for just looking at the photos and making snap decisions!!! 😉
Easy mistake, since a lot of occupied old adobes look they could be abandoned. However, there are plenty of abandoned old adobes in our neck of the woods: http://photoofthedayetc.com/2013/08/09/old-adobes/
When wondering about what went on in years gone by, we had an old historic hacienda from 1800, turned restaurant that burned in 2012. That building had shootouts, hangings and all kinds of wild, wild life through most of its history. I still think about the place and what went on in its past as I drive by the vacant land where is stood for over 200 years every day. http://photoofthedayetc.com/2012/07/23/burning-down-the-t-house/
Thanks for directing me to those two blogs… very interesting! …. We have a pub in the town that burnt down three times…. it changed ownership after the third time!!