Pueblo of Taos Central Portion

The central portion of the Pueblo of Taos comprises the two great multi-story house blocks, Hlauuma to the north of the Rio Pueblo de Taos and Hlaukwima to the south, that rise to four and five stories above the plaza. The blocks have been continuously inhabited by Tiwa-speaking Puebloan people for approximately a thousand years and represent one of the most complete surviving expressions of pre-contact Puebloan architecture in the Southwest.

Construction is a vernacular adobe tradition of hand-laid earthen masonry. Walls were built of coursed adobe set without forms, in some sections more than three feet thick at the base and stepped inward as they rise. Roofs are carried on vigas of pine and aspen overlaid with latillas, brush, and packed earth, and replastered by the women of the village with a wet mud finish on a recurring schedule. The terraced massing follows the slope of the ground and creates the stepped silhouette that has been documented since the earliest Spanish accounts. Doorways at the lower levels are a recent adaptation; original access was by removable ladders to roof openings, a defensive arrangement maintained well into the historical period.

The central portion was documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey in the twentieth century, producing measured drawings and photographs that remain a primary record of the structures. The blocks have been continuously occupied by Taos families who maintain ancestral rooms and participate in the seasonal cycle of ceremonies that the village has preserved against the pressures of colonial administration and modern development.

The Pueblo of Taos is governed by its traditional council and remains a sovereign Native community. The central blocks are accessible to visitors as part of a managed tour program operated by the pueblo, with restrictions on photography and entry into ceremonial areas. The site is a National Historic Landmark and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Within New Mexico's adobe tradition the central portion of Taos Pueblo is the canonical example of multi-story, multi-generational earthen architecture and the visual reference against which later Pueblo Revival work was consciously measured.