At the entrance to the plaza, a layout typical of Spanish colonial design reveals a center of home life built near agriculture fields and the acequia, with enclosed walls, a storeroom, chicken coop, stable, kitchen garden, root cellar, and patio. Adobe and terrones, sod blocks cut from the river's edge, were the principal building materials. Within this sheltered space, children played games such as hoops and marbles, servants carried out daily chores, and visitors were entertained. Low walls east of the plaza outline the foundation of the mercantile, dated circa 1868-1929, and a connected warehouse added in the 19th century; local residents depended on the mercantile for trade, goods, and foreign materials, and it served as the base of the family's trading business. A portal typical of territorial homes opened to the plaza, helping keep the house cool and providing a place for gathering and relaxation, where residents might hear traditional stories or songs on summer nights after family chores and servants' labor. At the south end of the ramada, hornos built in the Isleta Pueblo style used lava rock insulation within adobe plaster and baked bread and other traditional foods throughout New Mexico. The ramada represents historical structures that once stood there, including the chicken coop and storerooms, and oral histories recall that its northern end had high walls and a gun port for defense.