Old Town in Albuquerque, NM

Old Town is the original Albuquerque settlement, founded in 1706 around a plaza that still anchors the neighborhood. It sits west of downtown, roughly bounded by Mountain Road on the north, Central Avenue on the south, 19th Street on the east and Rio Grande Boulevard on the west. San Felipe de Neri Church has stood on the plaza's north side since 1793. Adobe walls, Territorial trim and Pueblo Revival lines set the look of the older blocks, and city historic zoning controls what owners may alter. Shops, galleries and restaurants ring the plaza, with residential streets running behind the commercial frontage.

The village was the whole of Albuquerque until the railroad arrived in 1880 and pulled business east to a new downtown, which left the plaza quiet for decades. The city annexed the area in 1949. New Mexico lists the core on its State Register of Cultural Properties as the Old Albuquerque Historic District.

Change here is regulated. The HPO-5 Historic Old Town overlay caps building height at 26 feet and treats the Spanish Colonial, Territorial and Western Victorian styles of its oldest structures as the character new work should match. Most exterior projects need a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Landmarks Commission before anything starts, which is why the streetscape has shifted so little.

One sub-community sits beneath it. Historic Old Town covers the platted blocks at the center, the part the overlay zone watches most closely.

The Albuquerque Rail Trail, a seven-mile loop being built in segments, will tie the area to Downtown, the Sawmill District, the Rail Yards and the Bosque. Its first finished stretch runs through Sawmill toward Tiguex Park at the north edge, giving the neighborhood a walking and cycling link to the rest of the greater downtown area.