Gladding, James N., House
a.k.a. Kenneth Adams House
643 Cedar St., NE, Albuquerque, NMThe Gladding House is particularly significant for its architecture, a fine rendering of the Spanish-Pueblo Revival motifs, and for its importance in the Country Club Addition as the home of James Gladding, the developer and primary architect of this handsome neighborhood, now known as Spruce Park. Situated between the historic downtown core with its early neighborhoods and the University of New Mexico campus on the sand hills that run east to the Sandia Mountains, Spruce Park is not able for its fine houses in Mediterranean and Spanish-Pueblo Revival styles, and for its beautiful landscaping.
Gladding developed the neighborhood as President of Southwestern Construction Company while maintaining his architectural and engineering firm (Gladding and Gladding in 1922; Glaastra and Gladding by 1926, the date of his house). The development was restricted; deed covenants allowed no sales to people of African or Oriental descent, also required approval from Southwestern Construction's architect for all houses.
The 1926 Building Permit shows Southwestern Homes as contractor and owner of the $6,000 adobe building, which served as the model home for the subdivision until 1928, when Gladding moved in. As the model home, it emphasized the importance of southwestern styles in the new subdivision, which is now largely composed of buildings in the Spanish-Pueblo Revival and Mediterranean styles.
Gladding lived in the house until 1934. Most later owners and tenants of the building were connected in some way with the nearby University of New Mexico. They include the novelist Conrad Richter, who lived there for a year in 1938, and long-time owner Keneth Adams, a well-known artist who built the studio to the west, lived and painted in the house from 1945 until his death in 1966. During that time he also taught as a professor of art at the University.
The Bardacke family, who bought the Gladding House in 1972, added the two-story wing which connects the studio with the main house and the back-yard swimming pool. They sold the house to Paul Young in 1978, who in turned sold it to Mr. and Mrs. George Lugar a few months ago. The Lugars plan a careful rehabilitation of the building.
The Gladding House is important as the model home for a subdivision which has become one of Albuquerque's most attractive and coherent neighborhoods. Handsome on its own, it is even more significant as a key building for the Spruce Park neighborhood.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.