National Register Listing
As well as a technologically and architecturally innovative structure, the Rosenwald Building is an expression of the commercial enterprise of one of New Mexico's central mercantile families, the Rosenwalds, and its history recapitulates in concrete that of Albuquerque's downtown, both in its days of greatest prominence and in its current decay.
The four Rosenwald brothers, Emanuel, Joseph, Aron, and Edward were born in Dietenhofen, Bavaria; Emanuel and Joseph were the first to come to the United States in 1853, and made their way from enterprise to enterprise until they arrived in Trinidad, Colorado in 1861 and Las Vegas, New Mexico in 1863, where they set up a successful mercantile firm. The two younger brothers, Aron and Edward, who were to run the Albuquerque enterprise, came to this country in 1866-67 and organized a gas company in Trinidad. In 1878 they moved to Albuquerque, where they established a store on the plaza in what is now Old Town. In 1880, with the coming of the railroad, they moved to a one-story adobe building at the northeast corner of Third Street and Central Avenue. By 1896 they billed themselves as Rosenwald Brothers at that location, though actual incorporation did not take place until 1908, after the death of both brothers.
Aron and his family (wife Elise, children Amanda, David S., Sidney U., and Jetty) lived on West Copper, an attractive tree-lined street at the edge of downtown, with Edward and his family (wife Helena, children Alma, Regina, and David M.) next door. Edward died in 1903, Aron in September 1908, leaving to their children the continuation and expansion of the family business.
In November 1907, shortly before Aron's death, he and Edward's widow Helena bought the land where the Rosenwald Building now stands from James G. Darden; until this point the land was vacant. New Town in 1908 was just growing beyond its original area between the railroad tracks and Third Street; brick buildings had replaced the original frame and adobe of the 1880 railroad town; the foundations had been laid for a new federal Post Office one block away at Fourth and Gold; a few brick buildings had begun to appear beyond Third. Clearly, the Fourth and Central location was one of the most strategic plots still empty.
Three months after Aron's death in September 1908, Rosenwald Brothers first incorporated; plans for the store must have been already underway. Aron's son, David S., was the first president of the new corporation, and the first enterprise was the building and stocking of the Rosenwald Building. The Rosenwald's apparently chose as architects the El Paso firm of Trost and Trost, whose logo is superimposed on the building in a 1924 advertisement in the City Directory. The general contractor was Anders Anson, who also supervised the building of the U.S. Post Office; problems of flooding in the Rosenwald Building's basement and changes in contract specifications for the Post Office drove him into bankruptcy.
The Rosenwald Building and other Prairie School-influenced structures built in Albuquerque at this time (including the now demolished Ilfield Warehouse, 1911, NR 6-10-75, and the Berthold Spitz House, 1908, NR 12-22-77), respond to new prosperity in the city that came on the heels of the completion of the Santa Fe Railroad's Belen Cutoff in 1908. This rail line from Texas tied into the Santa Fe lines a little south of Albuquerque and furnished the eastern arm of the east-west, a north-south grid that centered on the city, confirming Albuquerque's commercial preeminence in the Territory. The Rosenwald Building is a clear expression of the city's growing self-confidence and prosperity as the "Dedication" published in the Albuquerque Morning Journal on opening day, October 1, 1910, makes clear:
Rosenwald Building
320 Central Ave., SW, Albuquerque, NMBuilt as the culminating endeavor of successful merchant brothers, the Rosenwald Building stands massive and gray at the main crossroads of Albuquerque, New Mexico's central business district. At the time of its construction in 1910 New Mexico was anticipating statehood with the opening of the constitutional convention; the Rosenwald Building, Albuquerque's first department store, expressed the confidence of the Rosenwald family in the healthy commercial future of the city and soon-to-be state. With its use of the new technology of reinforced concrete and a strong and simplified facade influenced by the Prairie School, the structure was a forward-looking, progressive monument to the family who built it, and to the expansive hopes of the growing Territory of New Mexico.
With its square and still imposing facade, the Rosenwald Building aims to impress, and it certainly succeeded with the Albuquerque Morning Journal reporter who reviewed it on October 2, 1910, the day after its opening:
With the opening of the Rosenwald Brothers' store, at the corner of Fourth Street and Central Avenue, yesterday afternoon, Albuquerque gained the distinction of having within its boundaries the handsomest, most up-to-date, and most complete department store in the southwest. "In the southwest" covers quite an expanse of territory and includes El Paso and Denver. But the statement is made without fear of contradiction that not a department store in Denver, El Paso, or any other city of prominence in the Rocky Mountain region, nor in the valleys where the land begins to slope to the seas, is housed in a better building, nor houses a more complete and up to date stock of merchandise within its walls than the house of Rosenwald.
As well as a technologically and architecturally innovative structure, the Rosenwald Building is an expression of the commercial enterprise of one of New Mexico's central mercantile families, the Rosenwalds, and its history recapitulates in concrete that of Albuquerque's downtown, both in its days of greatest prominence and in its current decay.
The four Rosenwald brothers, Emanuel, Joseph, Aron, and Edward were born in Dietenhofen, Bavaria; Emanuel and Joseph were the first to come to the United States in 1853, and made their way from enterprise to enterprise until they arrived in Trinidad, Colorado in 1861 and Las Vegas, New Mexico in 1863, where they set up a successful mercantile firm. The two younger brothers, Aron and Edward, who were to run the Albuquerque enterprise, came to this country in 1866-67 and organized a gas company in Trinidad. In 1878 they moved to Albuquerque, where they established a store on the plaza in what is now Old Town. In 1880, with the coming of the railroad, they moved to a one-story adobe building at the northeast corner of Third Street and Central Avenue. By 1896 they billed themselves as Rosenwald Brothers at that location, though actual incorporation did not take place until 1908, after the death of both brothers.
Aron and his family (wife Elise, children Amanda, David S., Sidney U., and Jetty) lived on West Copper, an attractive tree-lined street at the edge of downtown, with Edward and his family (wife Helena, children Alma, Regina, and David M.) next door. Edward died in 1903, Aron in September 1908, leaving to their children the continuation and expansion of the family business.
In November 1907, shortly before Aron's death, he and Edward's widow Helena bought the land where the Rosenwald Building now stands from James G. Darden; until this point the land was vacant. New Town in 1908 was just growing beyond its original area between the railroad tracks and Third Street; brick buildings had replaced the original frame and adobe of the 1880 railroad town; the foundations had been laid for a new federal Post Office one block away at Fourth and Gold; a few brick buildings had begun to appear beyond Third. Clearly, the Fourth and Central location was one of the most strategic plots still empty.
Three months after Aron's death in September 1908, Rosenwald Brothers first incorporated; plans for the store must have been already underway. Aron's son, David S., was the first president of the new corporation, and the first enterprise was the building and stocking of the Rosenwald Building. The Rosenwald's apparently chose as architects the El Paso firm of Trost and Trost, whose logo is superimposed on the building in a 1924 advertisement in the City Directory. The general contractor was Anders Anson, who also supervised the building of the U.S. Post Office; problems of flooding in the Rosenwald Building's basement and changes in contract specifications for the Post Office drove him into bankruptcy.
The Rosenwald Building and other Prairie School-influenced structures built in Albuquerque at this time (including the now demolished Ilfield Warehouse, 1911, NR 6-10-75, and the Berthold Spitz House, 1908, NR 12-22-77), respond to new prosperity in the city that came on the heels of the completion of the Santa Fe Railroad's Belen Cutoff in 1908. This rail line from Texas tied into the Santa Fe lines a little south of Albuquerque and furnished the eastern arm of the east-west, a north-south grid that centered on the city, confirming Albuquerque's commercial preeminence in the Territory. The Rosenwald Building is a clear expression of the city's growing self-confidence and prosperity as the "Dedication" published in the Albuquerque Morning Journal on opening day, October 1, 1910, makes clear:
The mind of man, almost infinite in possibility, is continually groping, always seeking new means of expression. In the World of Commerce is this especially true? Compare, for instance, the stories of our forefathers with those of today. Yet the people themselves are the direct cause of this wonderful progress. It is you, the shopping public, who have made this store possible, who have made it a reality of the dreams of years.
The Rosenwald Brothers' store billed itself through most of the 1920s as Albuquerque's "only department store"; the expense of renovations after the 1921 fire may have played a part in Rosenwald Brothers' decision to lease most of the ground floor to McLellan Stores Company in 1927, with Sidney Rosenwald keeping a store on the second floor. A second 1927 agreement leased the corner space at Fourth and Central to Albuquerque Pharmacy which went bankrupt in 1931, during the Depression. Subsequent agreements leased increased space to McLellan's, which took over the entire building in 1950.
As business along Central Avenue declined in the 1960s, many stores began to transfer from the central business district to space in the shopping centers of the new northeastern districts of the city. McLellan's was one of the few remaining general stores in the area until the end of 1977 when they closed their Albuquerque operation. For the past ten years, the upper floors have been vacant, the merchandise increasingly shabby, a sign of the commercial decay of the Downtown area.
A lease with the option to buy is now held on the building by an Albuquerque developer, whose plans involve the Rosenwald Building's use for small shops and restaurants, with offices on the upper floors. He plans restoration of the facade, and remodeling of the interior for contemporary uses.
Both architecturally, as the expression of new technologies and styles, and historically as a focal building in Albuquerque's history as a commercial center, the Rosenwald Building merits sympathetic re-use and recognition as a key structure in Albuquerque's historic downtown core. Local significance of the building:Commerce; Architecture
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1978.About National Register ListingsThe 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.