the east wall of the south room, and a small stoop-like structure, over what may have been a
low door, jutted out from the east chapel wall. If a door was originally in this location, the
altar must have been freestanding.
residence was a showplace. In his lush valley retreat along the Little Tesuque, an abundance
of water was supplied by the acequia madre ("mother ditch"), from which smaller ditches
were dug for irrigation. The old acequia that fed them can still be followed from below the
chapel to where the ditch meets the stream farther up the canyon. Lamy set out shrubs
and fruit trees (apricot, apple, peach, and pear), many of which he imported from France.
Some are still bearing fruit. There may actually have been a few apricot and peach trees on
the property when he bought it. One account speaks of a wagonload of peaches from his
land taken to Santa Fe in 1873. He also planted gardens and flowers. A pond, or perhaps
two, stocked with German carp, which he also had sent to him, was undoubtedly a treat
for his visitors.
the academies, clergy, and other friends to picnic, enjoy the landscape and
pick fruit. Biographer Paul Horgan writes in Lamy of Santa Fe, that he "liked
to share what he had -- perhaps most of all the freeing outlook and closeness
to nature of his little ranch in the Tesuque Canyon." It might be said that a