The Pipe Shrine House kiva is larger than most at Far View. The low bench, high walls, and different ventilation system are characteristics of Chacoan kivas. The kiva was surrounded by rooms, and its flat roof served as a central courtyard inside the village. The only entrance to this courtyard and to the rooms of Pipe Shrine House is an entryway in the south wall of the pueblo. Excavators found burned timbers and roof debris, suggesting the roof burned and the kiva was never reused.
Archeologists believe that a tower stood beside the kiva.
Today the remains of this tower, larger than many in Mesa Verde, looks like a circular room within the village. South of the pueblo the villagers constructed a retaining wall to level the area before building. In the middle of the retaining wall is a recess with steps leading to the lower level. Fewkes said this recess contained another shrine in which he found a segment of a stone mountain lion. Other stone fetishes, possibly representing a bird and a bighorn sheep, were found in Pipe Shrine House.