Newlander Apartments

Typical of many of the early boarding houses and first apartments in New Albuquerque, the Newlander Apartment building, constructed around 1910, first served as a single-family residence. By 1916, however, the home had been converted into a four-unit apartment and continued to function as an apartment, with more units added incrementally through the 1940s, until by 1946 it contained a total of 14 apartments. One of the few boarding houses remaining on the southern periphery of the downtown commercial district, the building recalls the era prior to World War I in which much of the need for housing in the downtown "walkable" city was met by boarding houses. The building also recalls the location and construction practices associated with the growth of the early residential districts surrounding the downtown core. In light of its role in meeting Albuquerque's housing needs as a multi-unit dwelling and as one of the best remaining examples of early brick residential construction near the downtown.

Much of the town's development in its first three decades was concentrated near the depot and the railroad's shop and yards. A map of the city drawn in 1898 shows little development in the western portion of the city's southwestern quadrant, or Third Ward, south of Lead Avenue or west of Fifth Street. It does indicate, however, the Atlantic and Pacific Addition is located in the southern portion of the Third Ward and extends north to the south side of West Coal Avenue (Willits 1898). Similarly, Sanborn Fire Insurance maps as late as 1908 provide no coverage for the southwestern portion of the Third Ward. By the 1910s, however, as Albuquerque began to expand, residential construction occurred along West Lead and Coal Avenues all the way to Eighth Street and Barelas Road, marking the western boundary of the town. In 1910, the city directory listed John D. Emmons, a rancher and later a furniture and rug dealer, as living at 616 West Coal Avenue. Two years later Emmons had moved to the Huning-Highlands Addition, and the house was occupied by John Newlander and his family. In 1913, an updated fire insurance map showed two residences (the two that remain today) occupying the six hundred block of West Coal Avenue.

John Newlander had settled in Albuquerque as early as the turn of the century, and by 1902 owned an electric motor and planing mill at 403 South First Street. He continued to operate his business at that site until approximately 1912 at which point he purchased the house at 616 West Coal Avenue as well as the adjacent property at the rear of the lot, 619 West Iron Avenue, where he relocated his electrically-powered planing mill and lumber shed. City directories show Newlander, his wife, Lula, and, most likely, a son, Otto, who had been an apprentice at the planning mill in 1908, residing at the house through 1916. By 1916, however, John Newlander's name was no longer associated with the property, and Lula Newlander was listed as a resident as well as the proprietor of furnished rooms available at the house. Throughout the 1920s and continuing until 1932, 616 West Coal Avenue was listed as the Newlander Apartments. During this period, the number of housing units in the building increased from five to eight. A survey of listings of the apartments' residents indicates that many were employees of the Santa Fe Railroad, holding jobs such as boilermakers, claim clerks, and yardmen. Others worked as clerks, telegraph operators, bookkeepers, and waitresses, all in the walkable downtown area, while a few older female residents were simply listed as "widows."

This same pattern of occupations persisted through the 1930s after Myron and Effie Fifield purchased the building in 1932, renaming it the Fifield Apartments, a name that persisted through 1941 and increasing the number of apartments to 11. By 1946, the number of apartments had been increased to 14 as two additional units were opened, most likely those located in the gabled portions of the upper half-story. Unlike the vast majority of former single-family residences that were converted to modest apartment dwellings and then eventually ceased functioning as more modern apartment complexes appeared, these apartments continued to function into the early 1990s. Continuing as a multi-unit housing for over three-quarters of a century, the apartment building became increasingly marginal during its last decades, prompting the City of Albuquerque to close and then purchase the property.

As discussed in the multi-unit housing in Albuquerque's historic context, very few of the early apartments created from single-family dwellings remain in Albuquerque. The Newlander Apartment building is one of the best remaining examples of a property type that contributed to meeting the growing city's housing needs during the 1910s through the 1930s and then continued doing so for another half-century. Its location near the former Santa Fe Railroad yards and shops, its brick construction, its modest decorative details at the roof and porch cornices and the gable dormers, and its use of the Hipped Box Style recall siting and building practices common in Albuquerque during the period in which it emerged as New Mexico's leading urban center. So, too, do the sleeping porch additions at the rear, which were especially important to health-seekers convalescing in Albuquerque. By purchasing the building and seeking to resell it for rehabilitation and reuse, the city hopes to preserve the historic structure and use it as part of a downtown revitalization project that will encourage mid-density housing around the downtown core.