“An extraordinary piece of work. Deeply researched in primary as 
well as secondary sources, Professor Early’s new book is a model 
of organization and deft synthesis. Architectural history at its best. 
This will become the book for general readers to go to and for all 
scholars to start with.”—David Weber, author, The Spanish Frontier
in North America

    “Early presents the story of Spanish architectural resources
across today’s Sun Belt, the old Spanish empire in the United
States. This book should contribute to enlarging the role of
Spanish colonial architectural sources in our nation’s cultural
heritage. An encyclopedic work.”—Susan R. Parker, coauthor,
St. Johns County Historical, Architectural and Archaeological
Survey

    James Early’s new book is the first comprehensive account of 
Spanish architecture and urbanism in the United States. Lavishly 
illustrated, this volume covers the whole of the old Spanish 
borderlands—Florida, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona,
and California—and examines structures ranging from a great
stone fort in St. Augustine to the buildings which faced the plaza
in the French Quarter of New Orleans to the pueblo-style churches
of New Mexico and mason-designed stone churches of Texas,
Arizona, and California. Early provides not only meticulously
researched information on the architectural heritage of the
borderlands, but also provides its political, social, and economic
context in the period from when urbanism began with a town on
what became the Georgia coast in 1526 up to 1846 when American
troops took over Santa Fe and Los Angeles.

    “Well written and logically organized.”—Mardith Schuetz-Miller, 
author, Building and Builders in Hispanic California, 1769–1850

    “There has been no frontier-wide pragmatic assessment of
Spanish colonial architecture available. Early’s work is filling a
gap with a much-needed text.”—James E. Ivey, author, In the
Midst of a  Loneliness: The Structural History of the Salinas
Missions

_________________________________________________________

JAMES EARLY is professor emeritus of English at Southern 
Methodist University. His previous architectural works include 
Romanticism and American Architecture and The Colonial 
Architecture of Mexico. He is currently doing research for a book 
on the architecture of Benjamin Henry Latrobe.


Published in Cooperation with the William P. Clements Center for 
Southwest Studies



What people are saying about this book

“A valuable contribution to the historic cultural accomplishments
of the American Southwest. A work the reader will treasure! A
work that transcends generations of readers with the potential to 
survive.”—W. Eugene George, coauthor, San Antonio’s Monte 
Vista: Architecture and Society in a Gilded Age