SALINAS "In the Midst of a Loneliness": The Architectural History of the Salinas Missions

STABILIZATION AT ABO (continued)

State Stabilization, 1940-1900

After the completion of Toulouse's initial stabilization in October, 1939, very little structural maintenance work was carried out over the next seventeen years. In the first half of 1956 the Museum of New Mexico became aware that the high side-chapel wall had developed serious structural problems since 1939, and was threatening a major collapse. On July 9, at the request of the Museum, Charles Steen of the National Park Service and Stewart Peckham of the New Mexico Highway Department Archaeological Salvage Division carried out an initial evaluation of the deterioration. In a written report dated July 10, Peckham reported that the restored veneer on the north face of the tower above the replacement beams installed by Toulouse was separating from the core of the masonry. The cause seemed to be the shifting of the northern of the two top beams. At the same time Peckham noted that the fireplace in the southwest corner of the convento ambulatory had been destroyed by vandals, the southwest area of the wall of the kiva had collapsed, partially filling the kiva, and the steps up from the campo santo to the front terrace of the church were deteriorated and unstable.

In August, Gordon Vivian of the Southwest Monuments Association conducted a second appraisal of the condition of Abó at the request of the Museum. His findings corroborated those of Peckham and Steen. Vivian decided that the upper portion of the "tower" above the bell platform had been rebuilt by Toulouse in 1938 or 1939, and should be removed to lower the stress on the original sections of the walls. [5] Based on the unanimous findings of the structural experts, the Museum decided that repairs must be carried out on the high walls.

A lack of funds delayed the project until 1958, but in that year the repair of the "tower" began under the supervision of Albert Ely. Ely removed the sagging replacement veneer and took out the top two beams of the six placed in the walls by Toulouse. He rebuilt the veneer a second time, resting on the second pair of beams. While at the mission, Ely repaired a few other deteriorating areas. For example, he removed the remains of the fireplace in the south corridor, rebuilt the southwest wall of the kiva, and reconstructed the side chapel altars in masonry, replacing the altars found by Toulouse with new versions built of masonry. Ely seems to have changed the shape of several doorways along the south row of rooms during this work, apparently because their original plan could not be determined from the surviving deteriorated walls.

Another thirteen years of little structural maintenance ensued. In late 1971 the Museum again noticed the development of major cracks in the high walls above Toulouse's beams. Charles Steen stripped off the higher portions of the new veneer above the beams during an emergency project in March, 1972, leaving the lower three feet of the 1958 stonework in place. This stopped further sagging until a major reconstruction could be conducted.

The Museum began a complete re-stabilization of the high walls in July, 1973. David Kayser supervised the work under the direction of Thomas J. Caperton of the Museum of New Mexico. After an appraisal of the condition of the surviving walls, the Museum decided to remove the top five feet of the "tower," thereby reducing the weight on the lower sections of wall. All involved seemed to agree that the upper fifteen feet or so of the "tower" had been rebuilt by Toulouse, so original fabric would not be affected by the removal they believed. On July 24 the crew began disassembling the stonework, and by July 27 had reduced the height of the walls by five feet to a height of 37 feet 10 inches. On the shortened wall Kayser later roughly reconstructed the features that had been on the original wall top so that the profile of the wall as seen from the ground would look about the same as before the removal. This reconstruction raised the wall to the present height of 38 feet 10 inches above the floor of the nave.

Kayser and the crew filled the cracks in the "tower" with stone and a soil and cement mixture. Inside the cracks, Kayser used a mixture of 4 1/2 parts screened soil to two parts cement. As a grout between stones and for setting veneer into place on the exterior surfaces of the walls, he used a mixture of nine parts soil to one part cement. All repaired surfaces were coated with a concrete adhesive mixed with portland cement and clean soil. A similar coating painted the concrete capping on the top of the shortened "tower." In areas where the new stonework was poorly supported, the crew tied it to the older work with 3/8-inch iron reinforcing rods.

Major stabilization work on the high walls was completed by August 1, and Kayser began replacing the veneer on that day. After the new veneer had reached a height of about four feet, funding ran out and the work stopped. The remainder of the unveneered surface was finished with a soil-cement mixture and left as an irregular surface.

While carrying out the repair to the "tower," the main purpose of the stabilization, Kayser patched and repaired several other areas of the mission, using crewmembers with nothing else to do during slack workperiods. Most of the work consisted of the rebuilding of corners of doorways and replacing loose or fallen stone into holes in the walls. Kayser finished the stabilization project on August 22.

Although the emergency work saved the high walls of the "tower" in a sense, by preventing further collapse, the ruins of Abó were far from stabilized. The deterioration of lower walls continued, and the State was never able to acquire sufficient funding to conduct a thorough, complete stabilization and an ongoing maintenance program. As the stones loosened they began to fall, and posed an increasing threat to visitors. Finally, the State closed the National Monument in 1975, enclosing the ruins in a six-foot-high chain-link fence to keep visitors from entering the collapsing walls. The deterioration and the inability of the State to fund sufficient maintenance was a powerful factor in favor of putting the ruins of Abó under the management of the National Park Service as part of Salinas National Monument.

Figure 59. Abó as it appears today. The bell tower area is about 5 feet lower in this picture than in the previous photograhs, but its top has been reconstructed to have the same general appearance as it had before the removal of the upper masonry. This demolition and remodelling occurred in 1972. The lower four viga stubs set in the north face of the tower by Toulouse are still in place, as are the viga sections in the east face of the west wall and under the sacristy roofbeam sockets, but the upper pair of viga stubs in the tower are gone, removed in 1958. The wall for the first four feet above the surviving viga stubs is refaced, the result of the work of 1972. Courtesy National Park Service.