Princess Jeanne in Albuquerque, NM

Princess Jeanne is an early master-planned development in Albuquerque's Northeast Heights, bounded by Indian School Road NE to the north, Lomas Boulevard NE to the south, Juan Tabo Boulevard NE to the east and Eubank Boulevard NE to the west. Dale Bellamah began building here in 1954 and named the place for his wife, Jeanne. The plan set aside land for two public schools, a park, a swimming pool and a community center, and the Princess Jeanne Shopping Center opened nearby in 1964. Ranch houses with carports, cinder-block walls and steel-framed windows still set the tone along its streets.

Bellamah assembled 327 acres for the project and built out roughly 300 of them. The princess in the name was a double reference: his wife Jeanne, and a family connection to Lebanese royalty that he had recently traced.

Buyers picked from ten to fifteen model plans, sold under names like The Countess, The Baroness and The Lady, in styles that ran from flat-roofed modern to Pueblo Revival. Front-facing garages and lawns came standard, and the sales pitch leaned on what the company called wife-planned kitchens: electric ranges under vented hoods, built-in disposals, linoleum, Formica counters.

The Jeanne Bellamah Community Center sits beside an open park. Inside are a computer lab, a game room, an arts and crafts room, an indoor-outdoor pavilion and a fitness room that looks out on the grass. Membership is free, and after-school programming runs there for children and teenagers.

Residents won an ABQ NeighborWoods grant that put 200 trees into the neighborhood, half planted by volunteers and half handed out at Jeanne Bellamah Park. No homeowners association governs the streets.