The rooms of Spruce Tree House are divided into two groups by a court or
street running from the front to the back of the cave, at a point just
south of the center of the village. The majority of the rooms are north
of this street, and some of the walls show the finest work in the entire
structure. The stones were well shaped and smoothed; the mud mortar was
carefully worked into the crevices and compressed with thin stone wedges.
Over many of the walls was spread a thin coat of reddish plaster, often
decorated with paintings. These rooms, standing as when they were
constructed 700 years ago, are mute evidence of the cleverness of the
masons who built them.
Spruce Tree House has more walls that reach the top of the cave than any
other ruin in the park. All through the central part the walls were three
stories high and the top of the cave served as the roof of the upper
rooms. The first- and second-story rooms, however, had their own
ceilings. Heavy rafters, running lengthwise of the rooms, were covered
with a crosswise layer of small poles and withes, and these in turn were
covered with a 3-inch layer of mud. Very often a small hatchway was left
in one corner of the ceiling and a short ladder leaning in the corner of
the lower room gave access to the room above.
Very few of the houses were equipped with fire pits. Most of the cooking
was done in the open courts and the small fire pits can be found along
the walls and in the corners of the courts and passageways.