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Buyers Advantage Real Estate Guide For |
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| Albuquerque
History |
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| The
city was founded in 1706 as the Spanish colonial outpost
of Alburquerque; present-day Albuquerque retains much
of the Spanish cultural and historical heritage.
Alburquerque was a farming community and strategically
located military outpost along the Camino Real. The
town of Alburquerque was built in the traditional Spanish
village pattern: a central plaza surrounded by government
buildings, homes, and a church. This central plaza area
has been preserved and is open to the public as a museum,
cultural area, and center of commerce. It is referred
to as "Old Town Albuquerque" or simply "Old
Town."
The village was named by the provincial governor Don
Francisco Cuervo y Valdes in honour of Don Francisco
Fernández de la Cueva, Duke of Alburquerque,
viceroy of New Spain from 1653 to 1660. The first "r"
in "Alburquerque" was dropped at some point
in the 19th century, supposedly by an Anglo-American
railroad station-master unable to correctly pronounce
the city's name. Some New Mexicans still prefer the
spelling Alburquerque; see for example the book by that
name by Rudolfo Anaya. In the 1990s, the Central Avenue
Trolley Buses were emblazoned with the name Alburquerque
(with the extra "r") in honor of the city's
historic name.
During the Civil War Albuquerque was occupied in February
1862 by Confederate troops under General Henry Hopkins
Sibley, who soon afterwards advanced with his main body
into northern New Mexico. During his retreat from Union
troops into Texas he made a stand on April 8, 1862 at
Albuquerque. A day-long engagement at long range led
to few casualties against a detachment of Union soldiers
commanded by Colonel Edward R. S. Canby.
When the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad arrived
in 1880, it bypassed the Plaza, locating the passenger
depot and railyards about 2 miles (3 km) east in what
quickly became known as New Albuquerque or New Town.
Old Town remained a separate community until the 1920s
when it was absorbed by the City of Albuquerque, which
had been incorporated in 1891. Albuquerque High School,
the city's first public high school, was established
in 1879.
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| Early
20th Century |
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| New Albuquerque
quickly became a tidy southwestern town which by 1900
boasted a population of 8,000 inhabitants and all the
modern amenities including an electric street railway
connecting Old Town, New Town, and the recently established
UNM campus on the East Mesa. In 1902 the famous Alvarado
Hotel was built adjacent to the new passenger depot and
remained a symbol of the city until it was torn down in
1970 to make room for a parking lot. In 2002, the Alvarado
Transportation Center was built on the site in a manner
resembling the old landmark. The large metro station functions
as the downtown headquarters for the city's transit department,
and serves as an intermodal hub for local buses, Greyhound
buses, Amtrak passenger trains, and the Rail Runner commuter
rail line.
New Mexico's dry climate brought many tuberculosis
patients to the city in search of a cure during the
early 1900s, and several sanitaria sprang up on the
West Mesa to serve them. Presbyterian Hospital and St.
Joseph Hospital, two of the largest hospitals in the
Southwest, had their beginnings during this period.
Influential New Deal-era governor Clyde Tingley and
famed southwestern architect John Gaw Meem were among
those brought to New Mexico by tuberculosis.
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| Decades
of growth |
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first travelers on Route 66 appeared in Albuquerque in
1926, and before long dozens of motels, restaurants, and
gift shops had sprung up along the roadside to serve them.
Route 66 originally ran through the city on a north-south
alignment along Fourth Street, but in 1937 it was realigned
along Central Avenue, a more direct east-west route. The
intersection of Fourth and Central downtown was the principal
crossroads of the city for decades. The majority of the
surviving structures from the Route 66 era are on Central,
though there are also some on Fourth. Signs between Bernalillo
and Los Lunas along the old route now have brown, historical
highway markers denoting it as Pre-1937 Route 66.
The establishment of Kirtland Air Force Base in 1939,
Sandia Base in the early 1940s, and Sandia National
Laboratories in 1949, would make Albuquerque a key player
of the Atomic Age. Meanwhile, the city continued to
expand outward onto the West Mesa, reaching a population
of 200,000 by 1960.
As Albuquerque spread outward, the downtown area fell
into a decline. Many historic buildings were razed in
the 1960s and 1970s to make way for new plazas, high-rises,
and parking lots as part of the city's urban renewal
project. Only recently has downtown come to regain much
of its urban character, mainly through the construction
of many new loft apartment buildings and the renovation
of historic structures like the KiMo Theater.
During the 21st century, the Albuquerque population
has continued to grow rapidly. The population of the
city proper is estimated at 494,236 in 2005, up from
448,607 in the 2000 census, and is projected to reach
540,279 in 2010. The metropolitan area population is
estimated at 799,260 in 2006, up from 712,738 in the
2000 census, and is projected to reach 883,295 in 2010,
and surpass 1 million by 2020.During 2005 and 2006,
the city celebrated its tricentennial with a diverse
program of cultural events.
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