The small village of La Loma de San José consisted of a long, straight house building (casita) composed of 17 individual rooms.  Each room  housed one family.   Wall construction used 14 inch adobe bricks without stone foundations.  Vigas and latillas provided traditional roofing materials.  River silt mixed with sheep or goat blood packed into a glossed, durable floor.  Corner style fireplaces provided heat and cooking fires for each living unit. Two rooms within the long casita probably  served as a trading post and storeroom separated by an interior log wall.

    The village adhered to a cordilleran (corridor) settlement plan.  East of the casita, the founders constructed a small log and mud chapel (jacal).  Technically, the terms jacal and morada  indicate construction methods.  Within the San Luis Valley, jacal (built with vertical logs) also identifies a regular chapel while morada (built with horizontal logs) identifies a Penitente  structure. A wide lane with three circles of stones marking locations of transplanted trees separated the east and west structures.   Corrals, stock sheds, and kitchen middens marked the southeast corner of the village.

    Farther up the hillside  stood the cemetery.  Grave markers include basalt boulders, locally quarried volcanic tuff, and simple wooden crosses.  An adobe wall surrounded the cemetery.  An opening faced  north toward the village.  The national register of historic cemeteries includes La Loma de San José.