The Hacienda de los Martinez is one of the few northern New Mexico style, late Spanish Colonial period, "Great Houses" remaining.  Built in 1804 , this fortress-like building with massive adobe walls became an important trade center  and  was the final terminus for the Camino Real which connected northern New Mexico to Mexico City. 

Severino  Martinez raised six children in the Hacienda. Their eldest son was the famous Padre Antonio Martinez who battled the French Bishop Lamy to preserve the Hispanic character of the Catholic Church in the territory. Martínez appears as a character in Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop.