The building in this month’s photograph was the object of the Corrales Historic Preservation Committee’s first effort to save a historic building.  It was a failed effort.

The Nicolls House, named for the family who built it, sat on Corrales Road near the south end of Corrales in a large field and scattered cottonwoods. Built of distinctive white-painted basalt rock and often referred to as “the rock house,”  it stood alone and was very visible.  

The land it stood on had been sold in 1994 to the Albuquerque Publishing Company and a  high-end subdivision was planned for the large property. The area is now known as the Las Brisas subdivision and a large new home stands approximately where the Nicolls House once stood. 

In 1994 the Preservation Committee had just been organized and approved by the Village. We were “gobsmacked” by almost immediately being confronted by the potential demolition of a house that was considered by many a local landmark. We knew very little about it except that it was very noticeable. Luckily, George Nicolls, a son of the builders, was living in Rio Rancho and happy to talk about the house.

He told us that it was built in 1935 by Lewis and Marion Nicolls. Lewis Nicolls was from Illinois and Marion was from Minneapolis.  They had come to Albuquerque in 1928, built a house on south Dartmouth Street and ran the local Nash dealership. They wanted to farm however and looked for cheap land, finding it in Corrales.

They bought 37 acres from Guy Wright, a pressman for the Albuquerque Publishing Company; in the 1933 Albuquerque  telephone directory he is listed as “Guy Wright - ranch in Sandoval.”

George recalled that while the house was being built his parents lived in a tent on the property and Marion cooked for the builders, who were rock masons hired through a WPA labor pool.  George, who was only three at the time,  had been sent to Minneapolis to stay with his grandmother while the house was being built.

The building was a pretty basic structure, a simple rectangular two-story house  The eight-foot high lower story was placed four feet below ground and was used for storage. Above it was the Nicolls’ living quarters: living room, three bedrooms, kitchen, dining room and pantry.  Its most noticeable feature was that it was built of local basalt rock.

Along the back (east) wall was a screened porch and on the front an entry porch. The living room was anchored by a large basalt rock fireplace —the chimney is clearly visible in the photo.   Also to be seen in the photo is the small building to the north which was the chicken coop. This was later redone as a house for the grandparents.

George Nicolls remembered that the entire property was bosque with many cottonwoods. His father cleared most of the land, leaving some of the cottonwoods around  the house and by the corral and barns east of the house. They raised cattle which were run with those of George Tenorio. North of the house was the hayfield. 

He reported that after World War II the area was hit by drought and his family could not get sufficient irrigation water. His father tried mining to earn a living, but that didn’t work out. They sold the house in 1947 to the Harold Christ family who enlarged the house and painted it white. It is this iteration of the house and the Christ family which most Corrales long-time residents remember, although the Nicolls name lives on in the Nicolls ditch at the south end of the village.

The Corrales Historic Preservation Committee asked  the head of the company that owned the property, Tom Lang, in August 1994 to postpone demolition at least for a period of time in which the committee would seek to find a buyer that would preserve the building. Lang finally agreed in October but said if a buyer was not found by the new year, he would take it down.  

The Corrales Planning and Zoning Commission tried to save the building, but  there was no legal basis in Village ordinances that would permit a stay of demolition. There still are no laws safeguarding historic buildings in most of Corrales. The recently approved anti-demolition ordinance only applies in the commercial area. Something to think about.

That fall an article in the Corrales Comment and one in a Santa Fe publication New Mexico Designer/Builder elicited a number of calls from interested buyers, but a serious buyer did not emerge. The period of time in which demolition was delayed was extended  by Lang to the end of March 1995. On March 27, 1995 Corrales resident Tim Hagaman offered to buy it for a somewhat lower price than was being asked.  His offer was not accepted and the building was torn down. 

Even if the Nicolls House had been listed on the state historic register it could have been demolished. Only local laws prevent demolition of historic buildings and even they don’t always save them —the building’s condition and/or no owner or buyer committed to saving it can lead to demolition. 

Mr. Lang was apparently not very  interested in saving the house;  plans had already been prepared to use some of the rocks from the house to build two entry lights for the subdivision. They now flank the subdivision’s road, all that’s left of  a landmark structure that compellingly reflected the hard work and ingenuity characteristic of  Corrales owner-builders.