Historic house museum and home of frontiersman Kit Carson, is a good example of Spanish Colonial architecture, and serves as a museum dedicated to Carson's life
7am to 6pm
Summer Park Hours
May 31 to September 6
7am to 9pm
Fall to Spring Hours
September 8 to May 27
9am to 5pm
Accepts America The Beautiful Pass.
Overview
The Kit Carson House is a historic house museum in central Taos, New Mexico. Built in 1825, it was from 1843 until his death the home of frontiersman Kit Carson (1809-1868). A good example of Spanish Colonial architecture, it is now owned by the local Masonic fraternity, and serves as a museum dedicated to Carson's life. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1963.
The Kit Carson House stands a short way east of Taos's central plaza, on the north side of Kit Carson Road. It is a modest single-story adobe structure, built in 1825, that is an east-facing U shape with a central courtyard. The oldest portion of the house consists of the front three rooms, and the next room to the north. The interior of these rooms has been furnished in the Spanish Colonial and Territorial styles of the Carson period, while other rooms house museum offices and displays.
Kit Carson grew up in the frontier west, and became renowned as a fur trapper and guide on numerous United States Army expeditions against Native Americans and also during the American Civil War. In 1843 he married Josefa Jarmillo, who was from a leading Taos family, and purchased this house. It remained the couple's principal home until 1868. They were away from it 1851-54 and 1866–67, when Carson was stationed elsewhere. In early 1868 the family moved to the Colorado Territory, where both died.
In 1952, the house was acquired by Taos's Bent Masonic Lodge #42, AF & AM. It is owned by the Lodge, though the museum is operated by the Kit Carson Memorial Foundation. It is open daily and an admission is charged to finance the foundation.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Kit Carson House", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0
