Hodgin Hall
a.k.a. University Hall
University of New Mexico campus, Albuquerque Mountain, NMIn educational terms Hodgin Hall is important to New Mexico as the first public preparatory school building in the Territory as well as the first structure erected for the University of New Mexico. It symbolizes the dreams for the future of New Mexico citizens when the University was established in 1889, even before the Territory had a system of public high schools.
The architectural importance of the Hodgin remodeling in 1908 is unmistakable, for it inaugurated the Spanish-Pueblo Revival in New Mexico. Also known as the Santa Fe style, this movement represents the first awareness of and pride in the unique architectural heritage of this region. In a sense it parallels the development of the Taos and Santa Fe schools of painting and comparable literary movements. It is important to emphasize that this pioneer monument on the UNM campus precedes comparable landmarks in Santa Fe (the remodeled Palace of the Governors, 1909-11, and the Museum of New Mexico and the School for the Deaf, both 1915) by a substantial term.
In the forefront of this pioneer movement was William George Tight, third President of the University. Even before the remodeling of Hodgin Hall, he had built four modest campus buildings of puebloid design: the original Heating Plant (1905), the Estufa (1906), and two dormitories (1906). Further, he had stimulated student interest in regional architecture, and with their assistance he had erected a temporary, movie set type building in the Pueblo manner on the grounds of the Territorial Fair in 1908. Indeed, this structure seems to have been a mock-up of the remodeled Hodgin Hall. President Tight deserves recognition as the first New Mexican to envision the Spanish-Pueblo tradition as a fitting architectural expression for this region.
The documentation for Hodgin Hall is unusually complete for a New Mexican building. The original architect was Jesse Wheelock, who designed numerous buildings in Albuquerque and Las Vegas, few of which remain. The general contract for $26,196 was let to G. Palladino and Carlo Digneo, but Charles E. Lembke was also connected with the masonry work. Architect for the remodeling was Edward Buxton Christy, who might be called Albuquerque's first architect. Few of Christy's buildings remain, but the discovery that he collaborated with Tight, visiting and photographing pueblos with him, making the working drawings, and supervising the remodeling of Hodgin Hall, constitutes an important milestone in the early history of New Mexican architecture. A.W. Hayden was the contractor for the remodeling.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
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.