- the Public Library
- LibGuides
- Subject Guides - 25/50/25
- From New Town to the Nuclear Age
- 1920-1929: a Self-guided Tour
From New Town to the Nuclear Age
A brief chronology of the decade with recommended resources and some links to photos.
Standard Sources
Standard Sources
Albuquerque by Publication Date: 1982New Mexico’s biggest metro area deserves a book all its own. And what a book it is! Simmons gives a rich, detailed, and colorful history of the area from its beginnings in Old Town, the emergence of New Town, to the rise of the military bases.- Albuquerque : 100 Years in Pictures byPublication Date: 1975In 1975, retired New Mexico Magazine editor George Fitzpatrick and photo illustrator Harvey Caplin collaborated on a beautiful photo review of Albuquerque's history.
- Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, Resources and Reseach CollectionsPublication Date: 2006Jan Dodson Barnhart's update to Albuquerque Bibliography: a Guide to Published and Archival Materials.
- Albuquerque Progress byPublication Date: 1934-1965Published by Albuquerque National Bank from 1934 through 1964, Albuquerque Progress chronicles Albuquerque's growth and development and includes black and white photos of residential, commercial, and community buildings.
Albuquerque Remembered by Publication Date: 2006An informative and entertaining history of 'The Duke City'. Under the flags of Spain, Mexico, the United States, and for a brief period, the Confederate States, Albuquerque grew from a small farm and ranch village in the northern reaches of New Spain to the thirty-fifth largest city in the United States. Howard Bryan devotes special attention to some of the colourful characters who have populated the city's history, and also includes business and civic leaders who helped shape the city's growth and character. Humorous episodes and anecdotes, as related in early newspapers, are scattered throughout the text to balance some of the dramatic and often violent events that occurred in Albuquerque over the years.
Albuquerque Then and Now by Publication Date: 2006Side-by-side then-and-now photographs showcase landmarks like Kistler's department store (now demolished), the Old Bernalillo County Courthouse (rumored to be haunted), and the beautiful California Mission-style Alvarado Hotel, considered the finest railroad hotel of its time. From Old Town across the tracks to New Town, you'll discover a thriving, modern city filled with remarkable architecture and culture.
Atrisco to Zena Lona: a Snappy Survey of Selected Albuquerque Street Names by Publication Date: 2012A recent update of Judy Nickell's essential reference guide to how Albuquerque streets got their names.- Historic Albuquerque Today: an Overview Survey of Historic Buildings and Districts byPublication Date: 1978A compilation of the work of the Historic Landmark Survey in Albuquerque from 1975-1978. Includes overview histories as well as illustrations and brief descriptions of residential, public, and commercial buildings.
Albuquerque: a city at the end of the world by ISBN: 0826330975Publication Date: 2003-04-18This impassioned book, both a loving description and a critique, defines urban values in a milieu that is rarely recognised as a city. Updated over ten years after its initial publication, it is more relevant than ever to Albuquerque's future. A new chapter describes Albuquerque's recent development, placing it in the context of urban growth in the West.
A Brief Chronology: 1920-1929
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1920 |
Population 15,157 (data appears to include Old and New Town) |
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1920 |
St. Francis Summer College opens in St. Anthony Home for Boys |
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1920 |
Clyde Tingley elected to the City Commission |
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1922 |
Drs. Lovelace and Lassetter form a medical partnership |
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1922 |
Washington Junior High School completed; opens 1923 |
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1922 |
First National Bank Building, city's first skyscraper, completed at Third and Central |
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1923 |
Hotel Franciscan opens |
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1923 |
Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (MRGCD) is created |
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1923 |
Fire in Raynolds building prompts demolition and rebuilding of Public Library. |
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1923/1924 |
Sunshine Building goes up at 1st and Central |
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1924 |
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1925 |
Clyde Tingley elected chair of the City Commission |
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1925 |
Public library at Edith and Central reopens as pueblo revival style building. |
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1926 |
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1926 |
U.S. 66 designated |
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1927 |
KiMo Theater opens |
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1927 |
Longfellow Elementary School established at 519 East Grand Ave. [Martin Luther King, Jr.] |
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1928 |
Albuquerque Bus Company begins service |
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1928 |
KGGM goes on the air as Albuquerque’s first radio station |
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1928 |
Oxnard Field established as one of two private air fields in Albuquerque |
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1928 |
Madonna of the Trail monument unveiled in McLellan Park |
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1929 |
MRGCD issues bonds to finance construction |
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1929 |
New Mexico Art League established |
Albuquerque Newspapers
Early Albuquerque Newspapers
The Library of Congress' Chronicling America website has fully searchable digitized newspapers published in Albuquerque before 1923. These papers include:
The Evening Herald, 1914-1922
- Chronicling AmericaDigitized historic newspapers published before 1923.
- NewspaperARCHIVE
NewspaperARCHIVE Library Edition is an online database that provides searchable access to New Mexico newspapers. Every part of every page is searchable, including valuable local articles, advertisements, editorials, classified ads, and obituaries. The collection contains over 128 different newspapers from across New Mexico. The archives cover New Mexico history from 1847-2019 and allow you to further understand an ancestor's place within their local community to research your genealogy. Start your New Mexico ancestry search now and discover more about your ancestor's stories!
Recommended Resources
1920-1929
- Albuquerque City Clerk Scrapbooks byPublication Date: 1922-1974Collections of newspaper clippings documenting news, issues and events that involved Albuquerque City Government (1922-1974). Preservation and photocopy reproductions of the press clippings scrapbooks that were made possible by a grant awarded by the New Mexico Historical Records Advisory Board and by the support of the University Libraries, Center for Southwest Research, and Center for Regional Studies, Friends of the University of New Mexico Libraries, Inc., and the Albuquerque Historical Society. Permission to photocopy was granted by the Albuquerque Journal and Albuquerque Tribune.
Albuquerque Deco and Pueblo by Publication Date: 2012Albuquerque's response to Modernism--the architectural avant-garde of the first half of the 20th century, of which the Art Deco movement of the 1920s and 1930s is an important component--was complex and varied. The growing city looked to the new as well as the mythic past characterized by the Santa Fe style. The result was rarely restricted to one cultural tradition. Influences include forms and motifs from a variety of intermixed cultural and social collisions. The result can be sophisticated, as with the Albuquerque Indian Hospital, or homespun, like the Shaffer Hotel in Mountainair. This book celebrates the cultural mixing of various Native American, Hispanic, and 19th- and 20th-century Anglo American forms and motifs unique to Albuquerque during the first half of the 20th century.
Albuquerque's Huning Castle Neighborhood by Publication Date: 2013Huning's 700-acre estate, home to the once-legendary but now-demolished Castle Huning, fronted Albuquerque's main thoroughfare midway between Old Town and the bustling new downtown one mile east. It was a front-row seat to the city's development after the flood-prone Rio Grande was stabilized. Huning's former estate is now home to fine, diverse homes near the Albuquerque Country Club, as well as historic Route 66, Tingley Beach, the zoo, the Little Theatre, and a Christmas Eve luminaria tradition.- The Bachechi Amusement Company Takes Pride in Presenting to Albuquerqueans the New KiMo Theatre: the Only Playhouse of its Kind in the WorldPublication Date: 1927The opening program for the iconic theater.
- Exhibit "R3-a" Official Plan, Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District : to Accompany Exhibit "R3" Entitled Report on Ground Water Determination byPublication Date: 1927A series of graphs charting the depth to the water table from 1918 to 1927 in the individual regions of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District.
- History of the Albuquerque Airport, 1928 to 1942 byPublication Date: 1965Chronicles the development of the Albuquerque Airport from its inception to its purchase by the U.S. government to create an Air Depot and Training Command post.
- When Driven Back to Eden along Opportunity Trail, You Eventually Arrive at Al-bu-ker-key, the Gate of the Valley of Health and Prosperity byPublication Date: 1920"This booklet has been compiled to appeal to, interest and exploit our natural resources to four different classes of people -- the healthseeker, the tourist, the farmer, and the business man." -- Introduction
- Making the Most of It : Public Works in Albuquerque During the Great Depression, 1929-1942 byPublication Date: 1986Roosevelt Park, Conservancy (Tingley) Beach, Jefferson Junior High -- these are just three buildings Albuquerque owes to the WPA. Biebel chronicles how the Great Depression changed the face of Albuquerque.
