There's no substitute for a strong, steep-angled home frame when building for cold winters and heavy snowfall. That's why Santa Fe, with its desert highland climate, and frequent icy spells in January, is one of the few major southwest cities where high mountain pitched roof style architecture is common. While the form isn't native to Santa Fe, it became very popular during the city's settlement period, and has since become a key part of the local real estate landscape.

While pitched roof architecture was developed early in Santa Fe, it architects in the northeastern U.S. also influenced the style. Early examples of the construction method can be found in New York State's Adirondack Mountains, where many of the nation's prominent families built summer retreats. To last year-round, these homes required a more solid building style than Victorian and Tudor architecture, which defined most other buildings from that era. These families used their financial resources to develop a new architectural style that afforded comfort and style through the long winter months, but was still practical in summer.

The primary elements of early high mountain homes and lodges were un peeled log walls, steep angled pitched roofs, and stone fireplaces, often accompanied by rustic decorative tree trunks and branches used as structural beams throughout the house. The style quickly became popular, and in 1916 was adopted for lodges by the National Park Service, exposing it to people across the nation.

Meanwhile, builders in Santa Fe and northern New Mexico had developed a pitched roof style that incorporated adobe as well as wood frame construction. As with traditional homes, adobe and brick was typically used in the floors of these buildings, while roofs were made with thatched wood.

Modern high mountain homes in Santa Fe replace thatched wood with metal raised-ridge roofing, often in bright colors. Central cooling also makes the high, pointed shape of these homes practical throughout the year, where as settlement-era pitched roof homes were valued mainly for their protection from snow in the winter. Most modern examples of this attractive building style in Santa Fe are seen on homes, rather than commercial and public buildings.