Fortune seems to smile on certain houses. One little house in Albuquerque’s North Valley has basked in fortune’s favor for a very long time. According to local lore, a portion of the home’s walls date back 200 years to the original Los Poblanos settlement north of Albuquerque.

During much of the 20th century, the house was known as the Dietz Casita, named for the Dietz family who lived just to the south. It crossed the path of literary fame when Erna Fergusson, the noted journalist and Southwest expert, lived there.

But by the 1960s, the little old house was near the point of dissolution. Luck came to the rescue when a couple named Miller bought the place. They stripped it down to its walls of terrone—blocks traditionally made by cutting and drying sod from swampland near the Rio Grande. The Millers poured a bond beam to stabilize the walls, raised the height of the ceilings, and built a new wing in adobe. But time passed on, as did the Millers, and the house once more fell into disrepair.