Dearest friends and supporters, we want to share exciting news and project updates with you. Please read on to learn about what Cornerstones has been up to lately. Happy Autumn!
MainStreet Frames Preservation:
Photo Exhibit
The Main Street photo opening was a success, featuring projects in Ruidoso, Moro, Truth or Consequences, Alamogordo, Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Grants, Farmington, Los Alamos, and Tucumcari.
Created by the New Mexico State Legislature in 1985, New Mexico MainStreet helps communities revitalize their downtowns, support local businesses, create jobs, and encourage investment.
Cornerstones and MainStreet share a commitment to strengthening New Mexico communities. MainStreet focuses on downtown revitalization, while Cornerstones brings expertise in historic preservation and traditional building. Together, they connect preservation with economic development and help keep historic places active and useful.
Trinidad Museum Horno Workshop and Firing Celebration
Earlier this summer, Cornerstones Staff Members Issac Logsdon and Isaiah Romo led a 2-day horno building workshop at the Trinidad Museum in Trinidad, Colorado. Members of the Trinidad community were able to sign up for this multi-phase workshop to learn about adobe making, horno base and dome construction, and earthen plastering. Following the completion of the horno at the museum, a firing celebration took place during which Cornerstones Staff Member, Kateri Lopez, discussed cooking techniques and firing safety. Approximately 30 community members gathered and collectively roasted corn, made homemade tortillas, cooked beans, and concluded with an horno-baked peach cobbler. As attendees gathered around the table to eat their meals, memories were exchanged of relatives cooking in hornos – what was made, and the methods they used.
Thank you to all who attended, and thank you to the Trinidad Museum and History Colorado for having us!
Plastering at the Historic Gutiérrez-Hubbell House
This past summer, Cornerstones Community Partnerships led a 3-part, month-long plastering project at the historic Gutiérrez-Hubbell House in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Gutiérrez Hubbell House is a 5,700 sq. ft. adobe structure on the National Register of Historic Places that dates to the 1860’s, one of the original parajes (designated camp/rest stop along El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro) in what is now Albuquerque’s South Valley Neighborhood. The house sits on a ten-acre parcel of land that contains traditional gardens, walking trails, hornos, and a heritage garden, all along the acequia madre (mother ditch).
The first phase of the project was to remove railing plaster on the rancho’s entrance garden wall, and to replaster 3 coats of unamended earthen plaster. Volunteers joined daily, and an earthen plastering workshop took place during the second weekend of the project.
The second phase of the workshop focused on the repair and replastering of the museum’s hornos. Significant weathering and damage to the horno floors had prevented horno cooking workshops and firing to take place. Volunteers and Cornerstones Staff removed failing plasters, made repairs to the oven floors with unamended earthen plasters, and completed the project by applying 3 coats of plaster of the ovens, a base coat, a leveling coat, and a finish coat.
The third phase of the workshop focused on four large walls of the main building that had endured significant weathering over the years. Over the course of 2-3 weeks, Gutiérrez-Hubbell House staff, Cornerstones staff, and volunteers replastered all four walls during which participants learned about and discussed material selection, mixing techniques, scaffolding safety, and different plastering methods.
Earth USA
From September 18–21, 2026, Santa Fe welcomed architects, builders, preservationists, engineers, researchers, students, and homeowners from around the world for Earth USA 2026 at the Scottish Rite Temple. Hosted by Adobe in Action, the sold-out thirteenth international conference celebrated earthen architecture and its growing relevance to sustainable construction, climate resilience, energy efficiency, and affordable housing.
The three-day program featured presentations, posters, discussions, tours, and opportunities to connect with practitioners working with adobe, rammed earth, compressed earth block, cob, jacal, sod, and emerging technologies such as 3D-printed earth construction. Cornerstones Community Partnerships’ Executive Director,Jake Barrow, helped lead a historic tour of Santa Fe, highlighting the city’s remarkable earthen architecture and the living traditions that continue to shape its communities.
The conference also showcased New Mexico’s leadership in preserving and advancing earthen architecture through preservation, research, training, and contemporary design.
Lincoln Days
Cornerstones was honored to attend Old Lincoln Days, a three day festival commemorating the events of the Lincoln County Wars.The annual festivities included gunfight reenactments, historic walking tours, music, food and adobe making! A rededication and ribbon-cutting ceremony was held to unveil the newly replastered Torreon, completed in the summer as part of a collaboration between Cornerstones, the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, and The Rocky Mountain Youthcorps, along with local volunteers.
Luna Model Home Enjarradoras
Photos of Mora Enjarradoras volunteering to finish up mud plastering the adobe walls of the Luna Model Home in Las Vegas, NM.
Youth Training Supported
Cornerstones received $75,000 funding for Youth Training at Our Lady of Sorrows church in Bernalillo, a grant from the Northern New Mexico Youth Fund, a collaboration between the Northern New Mexico Pathways to Opportunity Strategy Table and the New Mexico Community Trust.
Annual Board Meeting
Welcome our new board member Bethany Tabor - multidisciplinary researcher, writer, and public engagement specialist based in New Mexico. Her work ranges from producing large-scale public events to facilitating panel conversations to project management to writing for arts-based publications.
We offer a heartfelt thank you to Loretta (Lori) Valencia, who has served so long and so well as Cornerstones Treasurer. Stepping up to fulfill this task and duty will be Jane Lewis, long time volunteer and former director of Villa Finale Museums and Gardens / the National trust for Historic Preservation in San Antonio.
Lori Valencia
Jane Lewis
