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09 · American Vernacular & Regional

Spanish Colonial

c. 1600–1940

White stucco walls, red clay tile roofs, arcades, courtyards, and wrought iron grilles.

Look for

Stucco wall Red tile roof Arcade
Mission San Xavier del Bac, Tucson, Arizona: an example of Spanish Colonial architecture
Mission San Xavier del Bac, Tucson, Arizona. Photo: Keyany, CC BY-SA 4.0
The Alamo, San Antonio, Texas
The Alamo San Antonio, Texas · Daniel Schwen, CC BY-SA 4.0
Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral, Mexico City, Mexico
Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral Mexico City, Mexico · Ulisesmorales, CC BY-SA 3.0
Palace of the Governors, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Palace of the Governors Santa Fe, New Mexico · unknown, CC BY-SA 3.0
Mission Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California
Mission Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, California · Hayden Soloviev, CC BY 4.0

what it is

Spanish Colonial buildings have thick walls of adobe (sun-dried mud brick) or stone, finished in white or pale stucco, under low-pitched roofs of red clay tile or, in dry regions, flat roofs. Rooms open onto an interior courtyard, often lined by an arcade, a row of arches on columns. Windows are small and set deep in the walls, often behind wrought iron grilles. The 20th-century revival kept the stucco, tile and arches and added terracotta or cast concrete ornament.

The Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, New Mexico (begun about 1610), is a long adobe building that housed New Mexico's government until 1901. The Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, Florida (1672-1695), is built of coquina, a stone of compacted shells, and is the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States. Mission San Xavier del Bac near Tucson, Arizona (1783-1797), is a white stuccoed Baroque church. The Santa Barbara County Courthouse in California (1929) is a revival example.

how to spot one

Stucco wall A wall coated with stucco, a plaster of cement or lime, sand and water, finished smooth or textured. It is common on Spanish Colonial Revival, Mission Revival and Mediterranean Revival buildings. Red tile roof A roof covered in overlapping rows of half-round clay tiles, called barrel tiles, usually orange-red in color. It is used on Spanish Colonial, Mission Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival and Mediterranean Revival buildings. Arcade A row of arches carried on columns or piers (thick square supports), often forming a covered walkway along a building. Arcades are common on Roman, Romanesque, Renaissance and Spanish Colonial buildings.

Also look for

CourtyardRound archWrought-iron balconyCurved parapet gable

history

Spain founded St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565 and Santa Fe, New Mexico, around 1610. Over the following two centuries it built churches, missions, forts and town houses from Florida to California and across Mexico and Central and South America, in towns laid out on a grid of streets around a central plaza. In Mexico City the Metropolitan Cathedral was built between 1563 and 1813.

A revival began in the late 1800s. Henry Flagler's Hotel Ponce de Leon in St. Augustine, designed by Carrère and Hastings and opened in 1888, was built of poured concrete with coquina in the mix. California's Mission Revival drew attention at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The 1915 Panama-California Exposition in San Diego, with buildings by Bertram Goodhue, spread the more ornate Spanish Colonial Revival nationally. After an earthquake damaged downtown Santa Barbara in 1925, the city rebuilt in the style. In Florida, George Merrick's Coral Gables, laid out in the 1920s, required Mediterranean-style buildings in its original plan. The revival was most popular between 1915 and 1931.

where to find it

Santa Barbara and San Diego in California, St. Augustine in Florida, and colonial city centers across Latin America.

easy to confuse with

Mission Inn, an example of Mission Revival Mission Revival Curved gable-top walls, white stucco, arcades, and red tile roofs borrowed from Spanish missions. Oia, an example of Mediterranean Vernacular Mediterranean Vernacular Whitewashed cube-shaped houses with thick walls, shuttered windows, flat or low tile roofs, and courtyards. Court of the Lions, Alhambra, an example of Moorish / Mudéjar Moorish / Mudéjar Spain's Islamic tradition: horseshoe arches, carved stucco, glazed tilework, and patterned brick.