Featured home: Oasis Within an Oasis
Nov. 6—Among the many things Forrest Fenn treasured — and he treasured a lot, from Indian artifacts and history books to paintings (originals and fakes) to bronze sculptures to baskets and rugs and arrowheads and much, much more — he definitely had a penchant for ponds. Or water. Or water features. He had one at his first home-cum-gallery (or gallery-cum-home: both to his family and his employees it was often hard to tell where the divide was). That was the spread that's now the Nedra Matteucci Gallery (he more or less mentored her), the one on Acequia Madre. It's also the one where he would fish and let his alligators — yes, alligators — roam freely about. (Fenn also had a duck pond on the land he grew up on, outside Temple, Texas.)
And he had a pond dug when he created this Old Santa Fe Trail home, which he built for himself and his wife, Peggy. Significantly, and per Peggy's request, it was outfitted with only one bedroom. Even what is now the casita was originally Peggy's weaving studio, the top third of the south side being nothing but windows.
This pond, though, as with the pond before it, is the ultimate escape. It has fresh water pumped in from an onsite well (the house uses city water). The pond is nearly 16 feet deep in one spot, into which his grandkids used to jump from a rope swing attached to one of the nearby cottonwoods. It's also active with koi, bass, gar and perch, crawfish supplied when they're in season, plus frogs and turtles and ducks. The water comes in via a man-made stream from the underground well. With the flip of a switch, a spray of fresh water spouts up from the little hill of rocks above the pond. It makes it easy to forget you're in the high desert, given that the pond is surrounded by a back lawn of grass, fruit trees (apple, peach, pear, apricot and cherry) beyond the lawn, and flowers and other greenery all around.
The water isn't just a human amenity, though. It also brings in hawks, raccoons, bobcats, and, in early November when migrating birds make their annual trek south (with a stopover in the Bosque del Apache, just south of Socorro), blue heron can be seen off and on, using the pond as a way station for a couple months.
What's most impressive is that all of it was built — the pond, the house, the studio-now-casita, the walls encircling the nearly three acres and the many fruit trees, aspens and cottonwoods — in 1989. It's situated in the DeVargas Heights neighborhood, which has a smattering of chamisas and junipers.
"It's an oasis in the middle of town," says his daughter, Zoe Fenn Old, whose now adult children practically grew up here. (Fenn had two daughters and seven grandchildren, one of whom, Old's son, lived in the casita as a sort of caretaker, for almost ten years.)
The compound is even more of an oasis because a high adobe wall shields it from the passing traffic along Old Santa Fe Trail. And, yes, the trail is almost palpable: wagon ruts from centuries past can still be seen in the bridle path between the Fenn property and his neighbors.
Inside the home, it's even more of a refuge. Built in 1989 by Al Kaplan and James Parker, who'd also done the gallery house (the, the house has an airy aura of sanctuary, enhanced by the almost-20-foot-high, curved, nave-like entryway ceiling. The hideaway vibe was intentional.
Fenn was profiled in People magazine in 1986, just two years before being diagnosed with cancer that he was told was terminal. But he survived, built his new home and decided to leave a more lasting legacy, something more impactful than the $6 million a year he'd grossed selling art to the likes of Robert Redford, Steve Martin, Cher, Ethel Kennedy, Sam Shepard and Steven Spielberg, among other celebrities. Not bad for a former U.S. Air Force fighter pilot with no formal background in art. In 2010 he self-published a memoir, The Thrill of the Chase, in which he left clues to a literal treasure chest he said he'd hidden somewhere in the West. That created an instant fever, leading to an estimated 65,000 treasure seekers and, unfortunately, to five deaths, several rescues and a few arrests.
Someone eventually found Fenn's hidden treasure, but his home may be even more valuable. Aside from the pond, the other fabulous amenity has to be his library. There are built-in shelves, 15-foot-high ceilings with latillas, a fireplace and a walk-in vault that's plumbed, in case the new owner wants to convert it to a bathroom.
There are skylights in almost every room. There's an open-air kitchen that looks out into a dining area and an equally open living room, and windows that look out to a covered wraparound porch — with views, naturally, of the pond.
The bedroom is the only bedroom. ("Mom," explains Old, "had had it with people coming and staying with them at the Matteucci place, so she insisted on just one bedroom.") It features a fireplace, a vaulted ceiling and his-and-hers walk-in closets. Plus, there's a doggie door (dachshund-sized) leading to an enclosed outdoor area made just for dogs.
Off the entryway, a circular staircase leads to an upstairs area that Peggy used as her office, an area with unobstructed views to the north, south and east. And, because Fenn was a bit of a hoarder, there's a basement with plenty of storage space.
But really, the whole place was built to be lived in, experienced and savored, whether one was in the library or upstairs or sitting by the pond. "Even when he was in the Air Force, he liked to have pretty things displayed, to feel them and touch them," says Old. "So he knew exactly what he wanted to do here."
Featured home: 1021 Old Santa Fe Trail
