O'Rielly, J. H., House

The O'Rielly House is the best of three remaining turn-of-the-century residences in the block north of Albuquerque's Robinson Park between Eighth and Ninth Streets. Albuquerque's second city park (the first, the Depot Park, no longer exists), Robinson Park is a triangle of greenery created by the northward bend of Central Avenue (then Railroad Avenue), the road connecting the new railroad town with the adobe houses of Old Town, the original Albuquerque. Laid out in the early 1880s and named after a President of the Santa Fe Railroad, Robinson Park was bordered by a group of Victorian cottages as early as 1886, and the area became known as "Honeymoon Row."

The area between Old Town and New Town, the railroad center, developed slowly during the years between 1880 and 1910, reaching its peak as a residential area around 1910 when it became, and for long remained the city's most affluent and desirable neighborhood. The O'Rielly House, built during a period of considerable growth in the area, is a fine "gentleman's residence," and a good example of late Queen Anne styling.

The lots on which the house stands, part of the New Mexico Town Company holdings, were first sold to W.S. Strickler in 1893. Strickler, at that time Vice President and cashier of the Bank of Commerce, was later to build an important downtown commercial structure, the Luna-Strickler building (now demolished).

In 1903 Strickler sold the lots for $1200 to H.H. Tilton, a notary public and employee of the Citizen newspaper. Tilton came to New Mexico in 1895 and invested in real estate, building many cottages on Railroad Avenue (Central). He also owned the first warehouse used exclusively for storage in New Mexico. The O'Rielly House would appear to have been one of Tilton's building projects; it was built between 1903 when Tilton bought the property, and 1906, when the City Directory lists Joseph H. O'Rielly (spelling is correct) as the house's first resident, O'Rielly did not buy the property until 1909, but Tilton may have built it specifically for him and his family. Joseph H, O'Rielly was an important and influential citizen of Albuquerque. He owned the J.H. O'Rielly Company, at the corner of Second and Gold downtown, billed in newspaper advertisements as "The Busiest Drug Store Between Denver and Los Angeles." Operating as both wholesale and retail druggists, the O'Rielly Company advertised the latest compounds for diabetes and liver complaints and solicited mail orders. During the period of his residence at 220 9th N.W., however, O'Rielly left his business to the management of H.E. Fox, while he assumed the position of Secretary and General Manager of the Occidental Life Insurance Company. A June 1907 article in The Albuquerque Morning Journal refers to him as the "well-known insurance man" in a story about his "miraculous" escape from a carriage accident in Bear Canyon (in the Sandia Mountains east of the town), a report carried next to an advertisement for the J.H. O'Rielly Drug Store.

The Occidental Life Insurance Company, founded in 1906 with Joshua Raynolds as the President, was an important local institution. According to the Albuquerque Morning Journal in June 1907, "Manager Joseph H. O'Rielly returned yesterday from an extended business trip through Arizona in the interest of the Occidental Life Insurance Company, the young home organization which in a few months has become a formidable rival of the old line companies which have been doing business in the territory for years. The success of the company, Mr. O'Rielly attributes to the fact that it has a board of officers and directors comprising the leading and most substantial and successful businessmen in New Mexico and Arizona. The fact that it is absolutely a home company and keeps territorial money in the territories has made it a popular concern from the first." Occidental Life was responsible for two of Albuquerque's most handsome commercial buildings. The old Occidental Building, a handsome brick expression of Chicago School architecture, is now demolished, and the Occidental Life Building, a Trost and Trost adaptation of the Doge's Palace in Venice to downtown Albuquerque (National Register, 1-30-78).

In 1917, O'Rielly sold the house to E.D. Sisk, who lived there a year, and then sold it to Theresa and Emmett Vaughey, Vaughey, who was Vice President of the Stockmen's Guaranty Loan and Secretary-Treasurer and Manager of the Albuquerque Investment Company, died in 1919. His family continued to live in the house until 1926 when Theresa Vaughey sold the property to Frank and Florence May Stortz.

Stortz was manager of the Elks Club when he purchased the property; later he worked for the State Highway Department, He and his family lived in the O'Rielly House until 1950, and presumably were responsible for the remodeling in the late 1920s which added the south bay and the east frame addition, as well as the bookcases and staircase in the entry hall.

In 1950, the house was sold to Fred Perro, a carpenter, who sold it almost immediately to William and Alice Brennan, William Brennan, a bookkeeper for the State Department of Public Welfare, and Alice, office manager for the Albuquerque Bus Company, raised their family in the house, but later moved out and subdivided it into apartments. In 1978, the house was purchased from the Brennans by Prof. Hal Rhodes, a teacher of political science at the University of New Mexico who has been involved in neighborhood revitalization efforts. Prof. Rhodes, who has been studying rehabilitation techniques, plans a gradual and complete rehabilitation of the deteriorated O'Rielly House and a return of the main house to single-family occupancy.

The O'Rielly House is most significant as a good example of architectural style in Albuquerque's finest residential district shortly after the turn of the century. The planned rehabilitation should restore to this fine residence its early distinction.