Albuquerque’s story did not begin in 1706. Pueblo people had lived in and cultivated the Rio Grande Valley for centuries.  They developed enduring traditions in farming, pottery, masonry, and other arts. Spanish settlers added their language, religion, and plaza-centered community. Trade and interaction linked cultures in ways that were sometimes cooperative and sometimes difficult. That fuller history makes this much more than a collection of picturesque adobe buildings.

Political borders changed around the people who called this area home. Spanish rule gave way to Mexican rule in 1821, and New Mexico became part of the United States following the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Later, the railroad shifted Albuquerque’s commercial center eastward, creating a newer downtown. The original settlement retained its identity. The railroad also introduced Victorian influences among the Pueblo-Spanish adobe forms still seen around the plaza.

The old community remained politically separate until Albuquerque annexed it in 1949. By then, preserving its buildings and traditions had become part of protecting the city’s identity. We were fascinated by the timeline, especially the thought of one plaza witnessing Spanish, Mexican, territorial, and modern American chapters. While we came here to shop, our minds wondered about those families from the past. They had shopped, worshiped, celebrated, and faced ordinary days here while the larger world kept changing around them.