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| Huning Castle Addition 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. |