Dietz Farms in Albuquerque, NM

Dietz Farms is a mid-century subdivision in Albuquerque's North Valley, laid out along Rio Grande Boulevard just north of the old Los Griegos plaza and south of the Los Poblanos ranch. The ground was a working farm first: Robert Dietz bought more than 60 acres here in 1913 and raised crops and dairy cattle on both sides of what was then a dirt road. The family sold in the 1940s to Dale Bellamah, the developer behind much of postwar Albuquerque, who kept the open land and platted the subdivision that carries the name. The 1914 Dietz farmhouse still stands within it, on the National Register since 1984.

Much of the land came from the Borradaile Ranch, an Armijo family holding, when Dietz assembled the property in 1913. Bellamah sold the farmhouse itself to Dr. Albert Simms and held the surrounding acreage for houses.

Bellamah built across Albuquerque from about 1950 into the early 1970s, and his houses of that era ran to cinder block in a ranch style, with shallow rooflines, small raised entry porches and carports. Rio Grande Boulevard, the valley's main north-south route along the west side, runs past the neighborhood.