Silver Hill Historic District

The Silver Hill district is the best-preserved example of Albuquerque's first suburban subdivisions built up on the mesa just after the First World War. As such, it initiated the move up from the Rio Grande valley toward the east which was to be the prevailing direction of the city's development until 1980. The district's houses are the most visible manifestation of the shared values of the first residents, who were uniformly middle-class, Anglo-American, and newcomers to the city. The long rows of regularly spaced buildings, the repeated similar house plans, and the manicured lawns reveal a desire for respectability and conformity. The freestanding, self-contained nature of the houses, the variety of architectural styles, and their further elaboration with ornament reveal a contrasting desire to maintain a sense of individuality and freedom. The district's duplexes, which are among the city's earliest, show the early evolution of the type, in particular, an attempt to retain aspects of the single-family house. The growing identification of new residents with the Southwest is apparent in the sequence of architectural styles used, from the nationally-popular Bungalow style to the regional evocation of the Mediterranean style and Southwest Vernacular, and finally to the specifically New Mexican Pueblo style. The numerous, self-employed craftsmen who built the neighborhood developed individual styles of detailing structures most notable in their inventive stepping parapet profiles. The popularity of the recently available automobile accounts for a large number of garages. Those in the district show the evolution of the type and its integration with the house. Finally, the Silver Avenue median is one of three landscaped parkways developed in the city in the late 1920s. It accounts for the distinction and preservation of the Silver Hill district over other similar neighborhoods.