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By Jane Mahoney photography by Kirk GittingsBuilder: Rutledge Homes

oug and Mamie Collister could be regarded as guardians of history.

Amid the cholla and desert marigolds of the Sandia Mountain foothills,

the couple's home rises near the confluence of two arroyos once part of

a Spanish land grant dating to 1694. Inside the home, located in

Albuquerque's tony High Desert district, furnishings lovingly passed

down through the generations are nearly as old.So when it came time to build their dream home, it's little surprise that the

Collisters favored the historic Territorial style from New Mexico's pre-statehood days.

While the home's location was never a question-Doug Collister is president of the

High Desert Investment Corporation-the challenges came in modernizing a classic

style while retaining its formal, elegant charm. Mter three years in the planning

stages and nearly a year under construction by Rutledge Homes, this house succeeds

admirably on all counts.s u CAS A WINTER 432 004I

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"We wanted a traditional Southwestern home," says Doug, a third-gen-

eration New Mexican whose grandfather, Oscar Huber, once owned the

coal mine in Madrid, N.M., along the historic Turquoise Trail. His paternal

grandfather, James Collister, founded the store Kistler Collister in 1909.

Mamie Collister comes from Chicago roots although her parents moved to

Albuquerque when she was a child. Both families shared a love for antiques,

art, and history. Many family antiques have been passed down to Doug and

Mamie, and the couple has added to the collection during their 40-year

marnage.

There's the 1950s Walter Gilbert Ironworks chandelier over the dining

room table; the fanciful bedroom suite painted with the folk art of north-

ern New Mexico commissioned in the 1930s by Doug's grandparents; the

safe from Marnie's father's office; and the lovely set of blue china passed

down by Marnie's grandmother. Outdoors is the iron garden gate given to

the couple in the first year of their marriage by Mamie's mother, a simple

reminder of a successful partnership. "We knew where many of these pieces

would go as we planned the house," Mamie recalls.

"Eclecticism is an art in itself, and here it works well," says interior

The Collister residence maintains the formal boxiness of classic Territorial style. The roofline seems tomirror Sandia Crest. Inside, the off-angle room shapes break up the space in contemporary ways.

designer Patti Hoech of Patrician Design. Hoech had the formidable task of bringing together

furnishings ranging from a 17th-century Spanish Colonial bench to a 150-year-old clock res-

cued from a stable in England. Colorful painted transom windows salvaged from the dining

room of the Alvarado Hotel blend beautifully with a game table inherited from Mamie's grand-

parents. "When a family has such a sense of history, it brings a tremendous amount of soul

to the home," says Hoech.

Revered New Mexico architect John Gaw Meem updated traditional Territorial style during

the 1920s, but the Collisters knew their design would need to accommodate site challenges and

to exploit new building technology and stunning panoramas. Within 5,000 square feet, the home

needed intimate areas for family, formal entertaining centers inside and outside, a private guest

wing, and expanses of wall and lighting to highlight the Collisters' art and antique collection.

Home designer Jim Beverly worked with the Collisters to come up with the design. "The

Collisters recognized that the Territorial style has survived the test of time in New Mexico,"

Beverly says. "It remains crisp, has a certain formality that Pueblo or contemporary styles lack, yet

its gracious portals keep it ever human in scale. They also appreciated the importance of under-

stating ornamentation and the correctness of proportion necessary to properly execute this style."

During the home-building process, Doug enjoyed

researching the architectural history of New Mexico's

territorial beginnings. He learned that the arrival of

saw mills, brick kilns, and eventually the railroad has-

tened the building of a new style of residences thatreferenced Victorian homes back East but added a

unique New Mexico flavor. By the late 1800s, lum-

ber, once hand-hewn, could be mass produced local-

ly and used in square vigas and window and door

trim. Glass, still a precious commodity, opened up

dark interiors. Brick coping defined flat roofs and

slowed the deterioration of adobe, as well as provided

a new flooring material. White trim inside and out

brought a crispness to Territorial style.

"We wanted something with these formal touches,

yet a home adapted to contemporary materials and

shapes," says Doug. Foremost, the family wanted a

home that captured the expansive views afforded by the

High Desert location. Indeed, most rooms offer views in

multiple directions, be they of Sandia Crest, Bear

Canyon, Pino Canyon, or the lights of the city with

Mount Taylor in the distance. "It's like looking out at aContinued on page 70

48 s u CAS A / WINTER 2 004

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~@ 2002 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Inc. All rights reserved.

70 s u WINTER 2 0 0 4CAS A I

Time-tested TerritorialContinued from page 48

picture," says Mamie, standing at the

kitchen sink in front of an expansive view

of Sandia Crest. In keeping with

Territorial style's emphasis on proportion,

the Collisters opted for multiple divided

and varying-sized windows trimmed in

white rather than large picture windows."We tried to keep things in the ver-

nacular of the period," says Doug, "but

we didn't go to extremes to be realistic."

That statement perhaps best sums up the

Collisters' approach to their home's

design. For example, a traditional

Territorial home is built in rectangular

forms, but the Collisters' building site

lent itself to views on angles. "Many of

our rooms are at 45-degree angles to the

windows," Doug explains. "The spine of

the house was changed without it being

too apparent on the exterior. Inside, wethink it adds some interest to the rooms."

The flooring material signaled anoth-

er departure from traditional Territorial

style. Rather than brick, the Collisters

chose a volcanic, igneous stone from

Mexico known as porphyry. Interior

designer Hoech describes it as "similar to

brick in feel but more like granite in

nature." She particularly admires the

stone's rusty red and gold-buff colors-

"very rich, elegant, and rustic at the same

time," she says. The porphyry floor

extends outdoors to portales and the front

courtyard in keeping with the owners'desire for flow from room to room.

Builder Kyle Rutledge dealt with the

"very tricky" challenges of installing

stone pieces that varied as much as aninch in thickness.

Selecting warm interior hues, the

Collisters veered away from yet another

mainstay of Territorial style: white walls.

"We've been married 40 years and I'd

never had anything but a white wall,"Mamie comments. The interior walls of

the Collisters' new home boast mostly

yellow or peach tones accented in white

trim and crown molding. Hoech notes

that the gold tones "complement the

golden tones in the beams, the struc-

tural woodwork, and the antiques,too."

The Collister home has public areasand private ones. Some spaces welcomeboth family and visitors.The front dooropens to a collection of paintingsagainst simple plastered walls, exquis-itely lighted. Continue straight into aformal dining room and living room,reminiscent of the traditional sala with

its cast stone and concrete fireplace. Orturn through hand-painted glass doorsinto the intimate family room andkitchen where the warm-toned, dis-

tressed knotty alder cabinetry by ErnestThompson melds effortlessly withhigh-tech, stainless steel appliances.That same cabinetry takes on a darkfinish in the master suite bathroom in

striking contrast to the honed Carraramarble vanity tops. "This is somethingyou might see in a tum-of-the-centuryhouse in New Mexico," says Doug.

Both Mamie and Doug are seriouscooks and enjoy entertaining. "Four orfive people can be in the kitchen cook-ing with us and there's room for every-one," says Doug. Guests can easily spilloutside to generous-sizedportales.Withan eye toward water management, rainrunoff first waters a tiny grassy plot (aconcession to toddler grandchildren),then spills down cobblestones to nur-ture a wildflower garden.

Interior designer Hoech admires theCollister home because "you don't dis-cover everything at the front door. Thishouse has mystery, intimacy, and ahuman scale," she notes. Approachingthe house through the courtyard, thefront door is not directly in front ofyou, but slightly off to the side. Theslow approach helps to maintain priva-cy and control on the part of the home-owner, says Hoech. Best of all, "It feelslike a real home." III

Jane Mahoney is an Albuquerque ftee-

lance writer and ftequent features con-

tributor to the Albuquerque Journal and

New Mexico Journey.

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