In the few square miles between the river, the freeways, and Bridge Street lies the "melting pot" of
Albuquerque, although "robust stew" is a more apt description. Here is the city's oldest building, San Felipe
Church, and the Botanical Gardens large, ranch-style homes and old three-room adobes, lumber
processing factories four blocks from the Albuquerque Museum, the city's oldest park, and the Biological
Park. Two-hundred-year-old barrios (neighborhoods) stand next to solid, turn-of-the-century Anglo
neighborhoods that, in turn, abut modern apartment buildings.

Downtown is surrounded by ten distinctive neighborhoods: Old Town, the Downtown Neighborhoods Area,
Sawmill/Wells Park, McClellan Park, Martineztown, Huning Highlands, South Broadway, Barelas, the
Raynolds Addition, and Huning Castle/Country Club. Each appeared on the stage of the city's history at its
appointed time; their homes and stores still embody the hopes and dreams of decades, even centuries ago.

Farther west lay the grounds of Castle Huning, an elaborate home built in 1883, marshlands, and a pig
farm. In 1928 plans to drain the swamps were under way by the newly formed Middle Rio Grande
Conservancy District when the land was bought from Franz Huning by A. R. Hebenstreit and Will Keleher.
Huning had built his fabulous home on Central (then Railroad Avenue) at the northern edge of the
swamps. The new addition was named the Huning Castle Addition in his honor. It was to be a prestige
area and the few picturesque homes built there before the great stock market crash of 1929 certainly
realized the developers' hopes. The Albuquerque Country Club moved to its current site the year the
addition was platted, and all appeared to be going well until the depression brought construction almost to
a halt. Most of the large and gracious homes that line the shady streets of what came to be known as the
Country Club area appeared after World War II. The neighborhood has kept its character and many
grandchildren of the original residents return to live there.