The Highland Hotel, also known as the Hudson Hotel, is a historic

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

building in the

Huning Highlands Huning Highlands, also known as EDo or East Downtown, is an inner-city neighborhood in Albuquerque, New Mexico, directly east of Downtown. It is a mostly residential area known for its high concentration of Victorian and early 20th-century houses ...

neighborhood of

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

. It was built in 1906 and operated as a hotel until the 1970s. The building was restored and converted to office space in 1983–84. It is notable as one of the few surviving examples of early-20th-century

Commercial Style Chicago's architecture is famous throughout the world and one style is referred to as the Chicago School. Much of its early work is also known as Commercial Style. In the history of architecture, the first Chicago School was a school of architec ...

architecture in the city, which was once common. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

as a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...

in the

Huning Highlands Historic District The Huning Highlands Historic District is a historic district in Albuquerque, New Mexico which encompasses the entirety of the Huning Highlands neighborhood. The district is bounded by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue to the north, Locust Street ...

in 1978 with and has been designated an Albuquerque historic landmark.

History

The Highland Hotel was built in 1906 by Joshua Raynolds, replacing an earlier hotel of the same name that burned down in 1903. The ''Albuquerque Citizen'' reported in November 1905, Raynolds also built the neighboring Occidental Life Insurance Building, which was demolished in 1978. The two buildings were stylistically similar but the Occidental Building was one story taller. The new Highland Hotel had commercial storefronts on the first floor, and hotel rooms on the second and third floors. It was renamed the Hudson Hotel in 1922 and remained in operation under that name as late as 1976. By the 1980s, the building was vacant and infested with bats. In 1983-84, the hotel was restored and converted to office space as part of the Union Square redevelopment. The project was completed by Hutchinson, Brown & Partners.

Architecture

The Highland Hotel is a three-story brick building exhibiting relatively simple Chicago School or Commercial style architecture. It has a symmetrical 12-bay front elevation, with each bay topped by a Romanesque arch except for the two central bays, which share a single, larger arch. The second and third floors are separated by recessed

spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...

s and the ground floor has a symmetrical glass

storefront A storefront or shopfront is the facade or entryway of a retail store located on the ground floor or street level of a commercial building, typically including one or more display windows. A storefront functions to attract visual attention to a bu ...

with three entrances. The building is topped by a

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

and

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

with modest ornamental brickwork.

References

{{reflist Landmarks in Albuquerque, New Mexico Hotels in Albuquerque, New Mexico Defunct hotels in the United States Hotel buildings completed in 1906 Chicago school architecture in the United States 1906 establishments in New Mexico Territory