When Chicago broadcasting executive Karen Schmidt inherited her grandmother’s Tesuque, New Mexico, home in 1989, she had no idea what hidden treasures awaited her discovery. The 1922 rambling adobe, designed by artist-architect William Penhallow Henderson, had nine rooms, including a spacious portal, and seven fireplaces, one of them a kiva fireplace in the living room. Fruit trees planted by her grandfather and watered by the Tesuque Pueblo acequia still bore apples and apricots, cherries and plums.

Schmidt’s grandmother, Marjorie Schmidt, lived in the home until her death at age 98. “She told me she was leaving me the house, and much as I enjoyed Chicago, I was ready to get out of the big city to a less harried lifestyle,” Schmidt says.

The house retained a vintage feel with its viga-beamed planked ceilings, built-in bookcases and cabinetry, hand-adzed woodwork, oak floors, and simple, well-proportioned rectangular rooms. Nevertheless, it presented a formidable challenge because, as Marjorie aged, she had been unable to keep up with repairs. By the time Schmidt inherited the home, it required her full attention to prevent further deterioration. She oversaw the re-roofing (the original had been insulated with dirt), re-stuccoed the front, and replaced the glass of the enclosed portal. Storm windows, painting, and refinishing the floors followed.

Schmidt aimed to restore the house to the condition it enjoyed during the heyday of the Santa Fe and Taos art colonies, when her grandparents threw a big party once a year for all the artists. Although she knew her grandfather had enjoyed painting, she was completely surprised to discover, one month after taking up residence, 637 Albert Schmidt oils, pastels, and watercolors stashed in the stone garage. “What a mess they were in,” Schmidt recalls. “They were all crammed in there, very dusty, but thanks to the dry climate, they survived quite well.”

 

Over the next two years, Schmidt dedicated herself to researching her grandfather’s artistic biography and the provenance of the lovely paintings. Done in the style of the Santa Fe moderns, they were local and natural scenes—old churches, villages, and northern New Mexico and Arizona desert landscapes. She brought them to the attention of the Gerald Peters Gallery in Santa Fe, where, to date, Albert Schmidt’s work has enjoyed three shows.

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