Franklin Granden MacFie was born in New Jersey on Nov 13, 1937 to John Macfie, a Scottish sea captain,and Isabella Romero, a Portuguese woman who lived in Trinidad when his father met her. He was the youngest of 10 children, and spent his childhood in New York City. He studied the performing arts (music, art, dance and drama) and made several films in the US. He lived a very colorful life, residing on the east and west coasts of the USA as well as in NM, and in France, Portugal, and Morocco. He spent many years living in a seaside cave in the small fishing village of Aglou, Morocco, where he was “adopted” by the Ahchouch family and became fluent in the local Berber language.

He moved to New Mexico in the early 70’s, purchasing 25 acres from Reynal Maestas in 1969 (??) where he built the ferrocement building we call the Hobbit Hut. According to a memorial blog dedicated to his life (franklinmacfie.wordpress.com) he started out with the idea of a geodesic dome, but the frame wasn’t reinforced enough and he ended up with a sculpted free form that blended organically into the hillside. The influence of Moroccan architecture and the caves can also be seen in the contours of the Hobbit Hut.

The Hobbit Hut and the next door “Castle” built by his partner Jean Michel Belluc became a small cheese factory at one point, producing Camembert cheese from their Guernsey cows and selling it to Santa Fe restaurants.

Franklin was always active in the community; during the late 70’s he organized the Espanola Valley Theater with regular meetings in the Hernandez Community Center. He was also a member of the Cabaret Musical Theater group, involving local teens, acting in a production of “Bye Bye Birdie” held at the underground theater at the Inn of the Governors in Santa Fe in March 1978. He was a prolific artist, working with photography, creating wire sculptures, as well as carving wooden crosses in the traditional santos style but with his own eclectic “spin”