Shalit, Samuel, House
5209 4th St., NW, Albuquerque, NMSlightly less than fifty years old, the Samuel Shalit House is exceptionally significant in the state as an uncommonly well-crafted example of the English Cottage/Period Revival style. The house features a copper roof installed to resemble the rounded lines of a thatched roof and uniquely-textured brick. These are not found anywhere else in the city and probably not in the state since this style is rarely found outside Albuquerque. The English Cottage style, in startling contrast to the north valley's prevalent southwestern residential styles, was a foretaste of the large "imported" style houses which have been built in the valley during the last twenty years.
The house was built by local craftsman Ben Chavez and it was probably designed by Mr. Shalit. Shalit's career in Albuquerque was similar to that of other 20th-century immigrants who settled in New Mexico: he had come to Albuquerque in 1919, worked first as a cowboy and sheep herder, and later entered the clothing store business. Like many other Anglos, he began buying land in the north Valley during the depression of the 1930s. The property on which the house stands used to run west almost to Guadalupe Trail and Shalit raised sheep in the fields behind the house. He later subdivided the property into the Sunvale Addition in 1959.
After a playroom was added on the back in 1938, the house remained as it was built, all interior and exterior detailing intact and well-maintained.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
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.