Every year the Downtown Neighborhoods Association (DNA) in Albuquerque puts on a Historic Home Tour in the historic district between Old Town and Downtown. The DNA also sponsors the Downtown Growers Market - open from June to October. I found out about it through the Yahoo Meetup Group - ABQ neighborhoods. We met in Mary Fox Park - the start of the tour - to pick up tickets at Will Call.
I was truly surprised to find myself in an old neighborhood filled with Craftsman style bungalows and adobe house - most built starting in 1900. They were built to house sawmill employees. The streets are lined with huge trees. The houses have green lawns, and lush gardens - lots of wisteria, honeysuckle, flowers of all kinds. I could almost have been back home - except for the adobe houses with desert landscaping every here and there. I'm still unfamiliar with a lot of the vegetation here. We passed the shrub below several times - Desert Broom. It smells heavenly - sweet, like honeysuckle.
It's a great, quiet neighborhood - but pricey. The cheapest houses go for $200,000 and most sell closer to 1/2 a million. As we walked past one house hidden behind an unassuming white wall - one of our group pointed it out as being the home of Antoine Predock - a famous architect. Several homes in the area are on the National Historic Register. One of the last houses we visited was built by Architect Henry Trost, a contemporary of Frank Lloyd Wright. I loved the windows in the house, the generous dark woodwork and Frank Lloyd Wright lamps throughout. Most of the houses were small in footprint, but redesigned to make full use of the small space - enclosing porches, expanding out and remodeling attics for living space. Surprisingly several of the homes had basements. Basements are not something usually found in Albuquerque. However, it was common practice in the area to mine the actual lot for clay for the adobe bricks to build the house - which left the room for a basement.
One of the most common features of the houses were beautiful garden nooks and outdoor living areas. Many had fountains and shaded seating areas. One of the houses had a beautiful old tree in the back with a whimsical tiny door at the base - complete with "landscaped yard" and bench - see this one just below.
I fell in love with the wide tile floors, the large porches with ceiling fans, the hidden garden benches near burbling fountains, the window seat nook with deep, white cotton cushions and pillows next to antique glass windows - hmmmm....I also really enjoyed the green foliage and flowers. Guess I'm missing home. I wonder how long it will take for this place to feel like home. Or will I just complete my 2 year contract and actually go home? Hmmm. Someday I'm gonna find a place to really call home and never move again.
I was truly surprised to find myself in an old neighborhood filled with Craftsman style bungalows and adobe house - most built starting in 1900. They were built to house sawmill employees. The streets are lined with huge trees. The houses have green lawns, and lush gardens - lots of wisteria, honeysuckle, flowers of all kinds. I could almost have been back home - except for the adobe houses with desert landscaping every here and there. I'm still unfamiliar with a lot of the vegetation here. We passed the shrub below several times - Desert Broom. It smells heavenly - sweet, like honeysuckle.
It's a great, quiet neighborhood - but pricey. The cheapest houses go for $200,000 and most sell closer to 1/2 a million. As we walked past one house hidden behind an unassuming white wall - one of our group pointed it out as being the home of Antoine Predock - a famous architect. Several homes in the area are on the National Historic Register. One of the last houses we visited was built by Architect Henry Trost, a contemporary of Frank Lloyd Wright. I loved the windows in the house, the generous dark woodwork and Frank Lloyd Wright lamps throughout. Most of the houses were small in footprint, but redesigned to make full use of the small space - enclosing porches, expanding out and remodeling attics for living space. Surprisingly several of the homes had basements. Basements are not something usually found in Albuquerque. However, it was common practice in the area to mine the actual lot for clay for the adobe bricks to build the house - which left the room for a basement.
One of the most common features of the houses were beautiful garden nooks and outdoor living areas. Many had fountains and shaded seating areas. One of the houses had a beautiful old tree in the back with a whimsical tiny door at the base - complete with "landscaped yard" and bench - see this one just below.
I fell in love with the wide tile floors, the large porches with ceiling fans, the hidden garden benches near burbling fountains, the window seat nook with deep, white cotton cushions and pillows next to antique glass windows - hmmmm....I also really enjoyed the green foliage and flowers. Guess I'm missing home. I wonder how long it will take for this place to feel like home. Or will I just complete my 2 year contract and actually go home? Hmmm. Someday I'm gonna find a place to really call home and never move again.
No comments:
Post a Comment