Church at Arroyo Seco (New Mexico)

Esther Bruton

This impression depicts The Church of the Most Holy Trinity which was established there and completed by the 1834. The building itself was built in a style similar to that of the earlier mission churches of New Mexico with a single nave with a choir loft over the front entrance and a square sacristy off to the right of the sanctuary. The original building had a flat roof and a dirt floor. Its current pitched roof and wooden floor were added circa 1915. The graves of those buried under the floor were repatriated outside of the church building and the bones of the faithful now rest in the churchyard.

Arroyo Seco is now a picturesque place almost equidistant between the villages of Taos and Taos Ski Valley. Just 7 miles north of Taos, Arroyo Seco was begun when its people acquired rights to the lands under a grant made by Joaquín Codallos y Rabal, dated October 7, 1745.