The Houses · H-09
Lantern House
Socorro County, New Mexico · Established 2006 · Limited public program
Lantern House was named for the ordinance it spent four years helping to draft, and not for anything more interesting than that.
- Region
- North America
- Residential places
- 13
- Residential periods
- Thirteen places. Residential periods of five to twelve days; hospice volunteers are asked for a longer commitment.
- Public gathering
- Public lighting clinic, monthly. Open Table twice a year.
- Arrival
- An hour and a half from Albuquerque. There is no public transport for the last forty miles.
- Access
- Step-free throughout. Summer heat is a real constraint; visits are not arranged in July.
- Correspondence
- Write to the steward at Lantern House.
The house
The house was established in 2006 in a low adobe building on the edge of the town, with the practical aim of housing volunteers for the county hospice, which had none.
Night-sky work followed from the location and from an astronomer resident who pointed out that the town's lighting was both wasteful and illegal under an ordinance nobody had enforced. The house drafted a replacement with the county, and it passed in 2012. The house now audits fixtures on request and lends shields at cost.
Desert restoration is done with a tribal environment department and a state agency; the house holds neither the expertise nor the authority, and its residents work under direction.
The work
- Night-sky preservation: lighting audits, shield loans, and enforcement support for the county ordinance.
- Hospice volunteering: sitting, respite for families, and overnight cover, all under the hospice's training and rota.
- Desert restoration: erosion control and revegetation, under the direction of the agencies that hold the land.
Observance kept here
A kept silence
The hour after the evening meal is kept in silence. Residents returning from an overnight sit are excused it, and usually take it anyway.
The shared forms, here
- The Repair Table
- Fixtures, shades, and shielding, worked at the shield bench and logged against the county ordinance file.
- The Boundary Walk
- A night route through the streets nearest the house, recording failed and over-bright fixtures instead of fencing.
Local participation
- The summer water round, two mornings a week from May.
- Driving to appointments, from a list kept in the kitchen.
- Separation
- Notice once. Drivers in separation are removed from the list the same day so that nobody is waiting on a car that is not coming.
The steward
Delia Marquez
Retired civil servant · steward since 2019
Thirty-one years with the state land office. Drafted most of the ordinance and will tell you it was mostly other people.
Records
Other houses
- Orchard House — Yamhill County, Oregon
- Briar House — Albemarle County, Virginia
Entry H-09 · reviewed 11 February 2026