Gustave Baumann built the adobe home and studio in front of you at 409 Camino de Las Animas in 1923. Imagine Baumann not only living here but designing this place himself, then handing his ideas to architect Charles Gaastra to be translated into formal plans. The thick adobe walls you see were chosen for comfort and craft; they shelter a remarkable interior detail — a windowless room with steel doors, built as a fireproof vault to protect wood blocks, prints, and valuable papers.
This practical, careful heart of the house speaks to the life of a working artist who needed a secure place for fragile creations. In 2012 the property was recognized on the National Register of Historic Places as the Jane and Gustave Baumann House and Studio; the listing notes two contributing buildings, a contributing structure, and a contributing object, reminding you this is more than a single house, it’s a small complex of creative spaces. Notice the windowless vault behind steel doors, built to keep Baumann's wood blocks and prints safe from fire.