Location Description and History

The old Savador Armijo House, now "Maria Teresa" Restaurant , dates back to 1840, and has been occupied in one form or the other up to the present. It was built in 1783 by Salvador Armijo. Originally, it was a twelve-room hacienda enclosing a central patio. It faced south toward the Old Town Plaza and San Felipe de Neri church, which at the time was at the time was the heart and soul of Albuquerque. Although the structure has changed slightly over the years, for the most part you can see it much as it was originally built. To enter the building today, you walk under the shelter of the old porch. It's a one hundred-sixty year old house, and you really get a sense of that.

The Maria Teresa restaurant has a dubious distinction of being one of the New Mexico's most on the buildings. Wandering its rambling rooms are at least four specific ghosts, whose detailed visages have been recorded by both staff and patrons alike. Often as not, those reporting the events have never heard of the haunting of this century's old home. The accounts presented here are from employees of the restaurant and exerted from Adobe Angels: The ghosts of Albuquerque by Antonio R. Garcez.

The Armijo Room

One evening I was attending to the patrons in the Armijo room. After the plates have been cleared, I return to ask if anyone wanted desert or coffee. Arriving at their table, I was informed that a woman in a white dress had already taken their desert order. I had no extra help her that evening. Further, female staff wore maroon dresses. I did recall a conversation with a fellow waiter who had informed me of a similar situation involving her table. Apparently, the ghosts of a woman in a white dress had taken the meal order of her patrons. When I asked the people at my table what this woman looked like, they described her in great detail as a middle-aged, Hispanic woman who was about 50 years old with dark hair with streaks of gray running through it. Her full-length white dress was decorated with small white beads about the collar and bosom. Apparently , the woman in the white dress also frequents another dining room named the Wine Press. I have been informed issues typically seen by busboys in the area outside of the restrooms. The busboys described a fleeting image of a woman dressed in white, which is followed by a chilling gust of air.
Another type of activity also occurs in Armijo Room. A waitress describes the following;

A couple times I've been alone in the house and have set up place settings. After rechecking all the dining rooms for the night, I discovered that the flatware on the tables in the Armijo room has been moved, usually in one large pile upon the table. Alone in the restaurant, a night manager heard the antique candle playing in the Armijo room. Suspecting a burglar, he quickly, but quietly, made his way to the rear of the restaurant and locked the door to enclose anyone in the house. Then he called the police. With flashlights and weapons drawn the police completely explored every room in the house. No one was found in everything was as it should have been. Another reported sighting……..

I was alone in the lobby area when I heard soft piano music originating from the Armijo room. I may no way through the house, reaching blindly into each dining room to turn on the lights. What I reached into the room to turn on the lights, the music stopped. I turned on the lights and the room was empty. I was terrified.

The Waiter Hater
I clearly recall one employee who didn't like working in the Armijo room. In the room hangs a small portrait of one of the members of the Armijo family. The woman has light-colored eyes. Well, this waiter for some personal reason is like the dining room and especially the portrait of this woman. He at times made rude comments about the woman, including some off-color jokes. An obvious pattern began to develop. Soon after he said something negative about the portrait, he would have a mishap of some kind. This waiter was usually quite capable, but he dropped trays of food, tipped over glasses of water, ect. These accidents took place directly in front of the portrait, in a dining room filled with guests. Eventually, to no ones surprise, this waiter left his employment at the restaurant.

The Sarachino Room

On the day before Thanksgiving holiday in 1993, only the bartender was in the house aside for myself. I was in the kitchen placing a meal order for a young couple seated in the Sarachino Room. On my return I distinctly heard a woman's voice asked me, “can you help me sir? I need your help”. I turned to face the direction of the voice and look around. No one was in the room. Involuntarily, the hair on the back of my neck stood up! I instantly knew that something was going on, something weird. I decided to continue my walk back to the young couples table. The woman began waving her hand at me excitedly, saying, “Did you see her? Did you see her?” I got a strong whiff of the flowery perfume. The smell reminded me of the sweet rows or lilac scent. The couple described me a middle-aged, Hispanic woman with light colored eyes and dark hair, wearing a red dress, who had appeared at the doorway leading into the dining room. She paused and just stared at them. Then the woman turned away from them and faced the direction of my approach. As I walked closer towards the dining room, the woman disappeared into thin air. Apparently we get past each other in the doorway. Other members of the wait staff have also seen the woman in the red dress. We believe she might be one of the daughters of Mr. Armijo, the original owner of the house.

The Chacon Room
I was tending a table of customers in the room adjacent to the Chacon room. What I entered the corridor toward the kitchen, I was strangely compelled to look into the adjacent Chacon room. There in the empty room, I looked at one of the walls at a large mirror. To my amazement, assault the reflection of the figure of a man in the dark suit, seated at the table! The room was more than adequately lit. I was surprised to see how clearly he appeared in the mirror. I can see his white shirt collar and his full head of dark gray hair. I can see his image in the mirror, but this image was not visible at the table. To my knowledge, the ghost of the man in the dark suit has a history of appearing only to people in the Chacon room. Very soon I found out that most of the employees here had encountered the ghost at one time or another. None of the witnesses has ever seen the complete figure of this ghost. He keeps his arms to his side, he never makes a move, and he says quietly, as if awaiting someone to join him.

The Zamora Room

Three weeks after my first day of employment I was taking dinner orders in the Zamora room for table of 6 who were seated directly below a large antique mirror. After taking the orders, I made my way to the kitchen. Suddenly, one of the patrons got up and ran after me. She was excitedly sane to me, “come here, come here! How do you do that? This is great.” Bewildered, I answered, “how do we do what?” She asked me to follow her back to the dining room, and pointed to the large mirror, saying, “That, look”. Everyone seated at the table was happily smiling. Reflected in the mirror, seated between two of the patrons, was a clear figure of a woman. Everyone assumed that was a special effect provided by the restaurant. I decided to play along. She had a poise and was obviously a woman of refinement. She had long black hair and was wearing a white dress with long sleeves and no jewelry. Her faceless lender and her eyes were a clear hazel. I venture to say that her age somewhere in her early 30s. She had a healthy color to her face and was not overly pale as I might imagine a ghost would look. Although she appeared to be seated between two of the patrons, she did not use a chair. She was very curious as she examined each plate of food presented to the patrons. I saw her lean over the dinner plates closest to her and inspect each dish with a critical eye. Apparently she liked what she saw, because she nodded her head with approval. I remember her as very animated, moving her hands and arms regularly. Overall, she was very pleasant continually concerned about how the patrons were being served and cared for. At one point our eyes met and she fixed her gaze on me. I looked away, filled with apprehension. For about our and half, the ghost remained seated during the meal. When it came time for me to offer desert, one of the patrons said, “Look” and I watched as she slowly disappeared.

The Bar
In 1993 the water pipes underneath the floor of the bar needed replacing. A crew of plumbers came in and proceeded to remove the floor-boards in the bar for access to the pipes below. When the boards were dismantled and the bare ground underneath exposed, the work crew began the grubby task of digging down through the dirt. Very soon they came upon some old bones. The bones were various sizes and from their timeworn appearance, must've been in the ground for many, many years. An employee, who was in anthropology major at UMN gathered the bones in a box and took them to her professor who examined the bones. The evaluated them to be of a large animal, perhaps a horse. Mixed in with these bones were also human bones. Are these possibly the remains of the restaurants restless occupants?
On Wednesday October 20th, 2000 a guest seated at a table in the barroom saw a man in chaps and a vest standing in the doorway. His wife was unable to see the spirit. The barroom cowboy was also spotted in the same doorway from the same table 2 years ago. Neither guest knew that the restaurant is haunted.

Another Haunted Room is the Baca Room. Flatware and tables have been moved and unseen voices have been heard within this area. A busboy quit after coming across a whole roomful of spirits in the Board Room.

We arrived on site at 1420 hours and began with sweeps of the outside of the building, heading towards the front door. Here Buck encountered a few small EMF Fields, but nothing to really justify as being paranormal. More than likely, these fields were caused by electrical wiring for the lighting above. They appeared to be quite old, so we assumed the wiring was old also, thus giving us the weak fields. We then proceeded into the courtyard towards the entrance of the site. The restaurant is composed of several small dining areas, located throughout the building giving it a different style and atmosphere.

The courtyard lies at the entrance to the restaurant. Decorated with a sculpted antique fountain, there are several iron tables here for outdoor dining. Once again we picked up some minor readings on the EMF detector, but we ruled them to be of natural origin. The running water in the fountain causes a slight variation in the EMF field, and there are several other possible natural causes for the fields. Most of this area is lit by sunlight and candles are used at night .

We arrived just after lunch and the restaurant was only serving brunch. It was mostly void of customers and the management gave us permission to look around the place. We started in the Zamora Room, where the ghost of a unknown woman has been seen in the mirrors which lie on the north and east walls. Odin performed a full sweep of the area with an EMF detector but nothing unusual turned up. We then began a random search of the other adjoining rooms of the restaurant.

The first room that we came to was the Salvador Room, named for the builder of the place. Pictures of family members adorn the walls of this room and some employees have had the feeling of being watched by a unseen presence. We picked up a good reading on the EMF of about 8 milligauss at 40Hz, but it quickly vanished. Once the pictures were developed, it was noticed that odd light patterns are on the walls, but none of the team members recall these patterns while in the restaurant.

This is a expensive place to dine, and all of the dining areas are kept immaculate, including the walls. The paint was in good condition, and the drapes were closed on the window, so it is difficult to determine how these light patterns, if that is what they are, were formed. It is possible that light reflected off the mirrors by the flash could explain some of them, but the spread of the patterns and their locations makes this a mystery.

The Armijo room was next. Buck performed a sweep and didn't find much at first. We started to move on into a adjoining hallway, when Cody thought that he heard the piano play two notes. He returned to the room, but nothing else happened. He took a picture just for good measure, then proceeded to catch back up to Buck who was really done
with the hallway and proceeding towards the bar. The image captured on film was not visible to the naked eye and shows a likely "suspect" target for a spectral energy source of some type.

By the time Cody caught back up to Buck, he had already gotten permission from the management to open up the Board room, which is located back outside in the courtyard. Access is through another door on the north side just as you enter the courtyard itself. This was the room where a busboy quit after encountering a room full of spirits.
There was lots of activity here. Several strong EMF fields, particularly by a set of chairs in the northwest corner of the room. Cold spots could also be easily felt moving about through this area. At Buck's bidding Cody took several photos of the room.

After leaving the Board Room, we went back to the bar. We were interested in the section of the bar where plumbers had discovered a cache of human and animal bones a couple of years ago. Once again we got some suspect readings, but there was allot of possibilities with natural causes for them.

After developing the pictures, we noticed an odd form of light in the upper right hand corner of one of the photos. The view is to the north, going into the Chacon Room (the door is labeled "Wine Press"). This could be another globule or a small pair of vortexes, but is uncertain, and quite difficult to know for sure.

We then went into the last room of the restaurant, the Chacon Room. Several customers and employees have reported seeing the ghost of a man in a dark double breasted suit here. Buck picked up a steady EMF field near a picture on the west wall.

Photographs

Click the thumbnail to view the larger image

Several customers and employees have reported seeing the ghost of a man in a dark double breasted suit here. Buck picked up a steady EMF field near a picture on the west wall. The EM reading was a steady 8 milligauss, D/C at 40Hz. Initially the field seemed to be originating from the portrait but it shifted positions twice and then vanished completely. The photograph was taken with a 35mm camera using Fuji film, 400 speed.