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Saturday, August 6, 2005
Albuquerque High Grew Along With City
By Russell Contreras
Journal Staff Writer
Saloons. Gambling houses. Stage holdups.
That's the world that gave birth to downtown's Albuquerque High School, "Old Main."
Built in 1914, the brick building on Central Avenue was the Duke City's first stable high school 23 years after the city's school district formed. Before, Albuquerque High had bounced among temporary homes.
Albuquerque had about 12,000 residents when the "Old Main" was completed. Still, residents complained that the new building was a waste of money. They didn't believe the school would ever reach its capacity of 500 students.
Photos from the school's first year show a tall building surrounded by dirt roads, stagecoaches and wooden shacks.
According to E.R. Harrington, a Albuquerque High teacher during those early years, residents routinely dug around campus looking for a rumored buried treasure. Sometimes, rival gangs used school property to settle disputes, Harrington wrote.
By 1927, a growing enrollment forced school officials to build another building. Others followed and by 1950, Albuquerque High consisted of five buildings.
For more than 30 years, it was the city's only high school.
In 1974, the district moved the school from its downtown location, abandoning "Old Main" and its sister buildings.
The years that followed saw a number of fruitless attempts to redevelop the site. With none getting off the ground, the site fell into disrepair, serving as a home for pigeons and the vagrants homeless.
In 1999, a local developer and the city moved to transformed the historical school into loft-style apartments.
After four years, "Old Main" was made over into 43 apartments, with most of the building's interior refurbished to keep its original character. For example, the front hallway has the same white tile from the days when students roamed the place.
All the units in "Old Main" have been leased, according to Robert H. Dickson, owner of Paradigm & Co., the campus' developer. The leased lofts will go for sale in 2008, Dickson said.
Paradigm is working on fixing up three of the other buildings for apartments, including the one that once housed the school gym.
A fifth building on the east side of campus is owned by another party. That building has not been developed.