Huning Castle in Albuquerque, NM

Huning Castle is a residential neighborhood on the old Franz Huning estate, midway between Old Town and downtown Albuquerque along Central Avenue. A. R. Hebenstreit and Will Keleher bought the land in 1928 and platted the Huning Castle Addition, naming it for Huning's 1883 mansion; the Albuquerque Country Club moved to the edge of the new addition that same year. The Depression stalled building, so most of the houses on its shaded streets went up after World War II. Red-tile roofs, a long-running Christmas Eve luminaria display and an active neighborhood association give the area its character.

Before the lots went on the market the ground held marshland and a pig farm, and the newly formed Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District was draining the bottomland as the addition was drawn up. Castle Huning stood at the center of the old estate until it was torn down in 1955.

Plat covenants bound the lots to single-family use, and the neighborhood association has spent decades in zoning arguments over apartment projects proposed at the edge of the addition; a sector development plan adopted in 1981 for Huning Castle and the Raynolds Addition framed those disputes. The association has since asked the city for a small-area plan that would lower the building height limit from thirty feet to twenty-six and widen setbacks.

Tingley Beach, the ABQ BioPark zoo and the Albuquerque Little Theatre are a few blocks away on the flats toward the Rio Grande.