Huning Highland in Albuquerque, NM

Franz Huning platted this ground in April 1880, the same month the railroad arrived. It was the first addition to Albuquerque's original townsite, and that timing explains everything about it. Look at Huning Highland homes for sale and you're looking at brick and wood frame, not adobe. The people who bought here came from back east, ordered house parts out of catalogs, and had them shipped in on the train they'd just followed west.

What the houses are actually like

Queen Anne, Italianate, folk Victorian, a run of 1920s bungalows, some Prairie School, a little Pueblo Revival mixed in later. Most of what stands went up between the 1880s and the 1920s. The Horner House on High Street dates to 1881 and is generally called the oldest in the district.

Lots are small and the grid is tight. Houses sit close to the sidewalk with real front porches, and a lot of them are served by an alley out back rather than a driveway. Garages are the exception. Ceilings run high, floors are usually wood, and the rooms are laid out the way rooms were laid out before open plans existed. Square footage tends to land well under what a Northeast Heights buyer expects, though a few of the big Victorians on Walter and Arno are substantial.

The stock isn't uniform. During World War II a number of the larger homes were carved into apartments, so you'll find single-family houses, duplexes and small multi-unit buildings on the same block. There are also loft condos in the 1914 Old Albuquerque High campus, which was converted years back. Nothing new is being built here in any real sense. The neighborhood filled in a century ago.

The historic overlay, and why it matters before you buy

This is the part people gloss over and then get frustrated by. The district went on the State Register in 1976 and the National Register in 1978, and the city layered a Historic Protection Overlay Zone on top around 1980. Inside that zone you cannot alter a structure's exterior, build new, or demolish anything without a Certificate of Appropriateness from the city. Windows, porches, siding, roof material, fences out front. Minor work gets an administrative sign-off. Bigger changes go to a Landmarks Commission hearing.

There's no HOA here and no dues. But don't read that as a free hand, because the overlay does more governing than most HOAs ever do. If you want to swap the wood sash for vinyl on a weekend, this is the wrong neighborhood. If you want confidence that the block will still look like this in twenty years, it's the right one. The city's own tracking showed properties classed as blighted or substandard dropping from roughly half the district in 1976 to under five percent by 2005, and the overlay is a large part of why.

Walking distance to more than you'd think

The neighborhood runs from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue on the north down to Coal, with the BNSF tracks on the west and Locust on the east. The historic district itself reaches one block further south, to Iron. All of it is 87102. Central Avenue splits it, and Central here is Route 66.

That Central frontage is why the area picked up the EDo nickname, short for East Downtown. Artichoke Cafe is the restaurant that started the turnaround and it's still going. Standard Diner sits in an old Route 66 filling station. The Grove is a couple of doors down. Highland Park, on the south side, is one of the oldest public parks in the city and functions as the neighborhood's back yard. Innovate ABQ occupies the old First Street campus ground to the north.

Getting around

I-25 access is immediate, with on-ramps at Central, Lead and Coal a few blocks east. I-40 is a short run north. The ART rapid transit line has an EDo stop on Central, so getting downtown or out to Nob Hill and UNM doesn't require moving the car. Presbyterian's main hospital campus is just east on Central, which matters to a fair number of buyers here. The city's Rail Trail loop, when the Central crossing segment opens, will connect this side of the tracks to Old Town and the Rail Yards on foot.

Who it suits

People who want to live in a walkable grid, in a house with a history, and who are honest with themselves about old-house maintenance. Knob-and-tube, swamp coolers, plaster, foundations that have been settling since Grover Cleveland. Freight trains run along the west edge and you'll hear them. It's an inner-city neighborhood next to a downtown, with the noise and the parking that implies.

What you get in exchange is a block of 1890s porches ten minutes from your office, and neighbors who chose it for the same reason. Public schools are Albuquerque Public Schools, generally Eugene Field or Longfellow Elementary, Jefferson Middle and Albuquerque High. Verify the assignment for a specific address with APS before you write an offer, since boundaries shift.

Turnover here is thin and the houses are all different, so it pays to watch the listings rather than wait for the right one to find you. Browse what's currently available in Huning Highland below, and reach out if you'd like to walk a block or two before you decide.