History of Albuquerque, New Mexico
Gradually, these nomadic people adopted a more settled, agricultural lifestyle and began to build multi-story stone or adobe dwellings now known as pueblos by 750 CE.
In 1706, the recently appointed governor of New Mexico, Francisco Cuervo y Valdés, officially designated the community as a royally chartered town and named it Alburquerque.
In 1880 the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway reached Albuquerque, but the establishment of the depot some distance from the plaza led to the creation of a rival "New Town" that quickly outstripped the older community.
The city grew rapidly in the early 20th century, spurred in part by the tuberculosis treatment industry, and then even faster after World War II when it became a major scientific and military hub.
Archaeological sites in the Albuquerque area show evidence of Paleo-Indian cultures dating back up to 12,000 years, including Folsom points and mastodon remains found at Sandia Cave.
[1]: 4 Gradually, the nomadic hunter-gatherers who roamed the area began to adopt a more settled, agrarian lifestyle, coinciding with the introduction of cultivated maize from Mexico during the Early Basketmaker II Era (1500 BCE–50 CE).
The Navajo, Apache and Comanche peoples are also likely to have visited the Albuquerque area, as there is evidence of trade and cultural exchange between the different Native American groups going back centuries before European conquest.
A small party led by Hernando de Alvarado reached the central Rio Grande valley in September 1540, followed later by Coronado himself.
"[4] The Spanish were welcomed at first, but relations became more hostile after Coronado's men commandeered one of the Tiwa pueblos for their winter quarters, forcing the inhabitants out without any supplies.
[2] The first colonizing expedition into New Mexico was led by Juan de Oñate in 1598, after which settlers began to trickle into the middle Rio Grande valley along the Camino Real.
The Spanish demanded tribute from each Pueblo household in the form of corn and blankets or hides, often seizing the goods by force,[9] and Native laborers were conscripted into all manner of projects, often on an extralegal, unpaid basis.
Cuervo chose a good site on the Camino Real, near a ford of the river, and stationed a detachment of soldiers there in order to encourage settlers to move in.
In his report, Cuervo asserted that the new villa had 35 families with 252 residents and that the plaza and streets had been laid out, houses built, and the church was finished, thereby meeting the requirements.
The citizens are of all classes and walks of life as in the other places I have mentioned, and they speak the local Spanish.Frequent Apache and Navajo raids compelled the settlers to consolidate their scattered dwellings into a series of outlying plazas, which were easier to defend.
Three local businessmen, Franz Huning, Elias S. Stover, and William Hazeldine, formed the New Mexico Town Company to buy up land for the railroad and related development.
Civil engineer Walter G. Marmon was hired to lay out the town, creating an orderly grid with numbered streets like those in the Midwest.
Where at that time there was but one business street, lined with an inferior class of buildings, and scattering houses dotted here and there over the level fields, outlining the anatomy of the town that was to be, the skeleton had become clothed with good solid urban flesh, or to speak more literally, with brick, stone, adobe, and timber.
By 1916, the streetcar system had 7 miles (11 km) of track with multiple lines connecting Old Town, the railroad depot, Barelas, the sawmill, the Highland Addition, and the university.
In order to attract more riders, the streetcar company developed Traction Park in Old Town, which hosted horse racing and baseball as well as the Territorial Fair.
An advocate for active city government, Tingley was responsible for a wide range of civic improvements including parks, roads, landscaping, and other projects.
Over the next several decades, the road brought a steady stream of travelers through town, and dozens of motels, diners, and gas stations were built to accommodate them.
During the Great Depression in the 1930s, Albuquerque saw a wide variety of public works projects thanks to the New Deal programs enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Built by local developer Dale Bellamah starting in 1954, the neighborhood epitomized 1950s suburban living so well that one of its houses was replicated in a Smithsonian exhibit in 1994.
[23] Although Albuquerque did not have a strong tradition of institutionalized racism,[25] many of the postwar suburban developments were racially segregated with covenants prohibiting black or Asian people from buying property there.
Contiguous subdivisions gave way to even greater urban sprawl as far-flung developments like Paradise Hills and Rio Rancho started to appear on the West Side.
The prevailing urban planning philosophies of the day, which drew on the ideas of Le Corbusier, favored a top-down, monumental approach rather than more organic development.
[36] At the same time, activism was on the rise, including Chicano groups like the Brown Berets and La Alianza as well as anti-Vietnam War protests, African American civil rights, and other causes.
[38] In 1971, a confrontation between police and a large crowd at Roosevelt Park devolved into a full-blown riot, with violence and looting in several parts of the city.
[43] The city has also paid more attention to historic preservation, including purchasing buildings like the De Anza Motor Lodge and El Vado Auto Court to keep them from demolition.
Criticism intensified even more after the shooting of James Boyd in early 2014, which sparked protests and vigils after lapel camera footage of the incident was made public.
