MetroABQ Blog

Bungalows in New Mexico are an early 1900's architectural style that was popular until the late 1930's. In the MetroABQ, they are generally found in the Downtown neighborhoods & heading east, staying within a mile or so north & south of the Central Ave/Route 66 corridor.

Some of the neighborhoods along the way with prominent bungalow clusters include: the Downtown Neighborhoods, the Sawmill District, Raynolds Addition, Huning Castle, Barelas & into the South Valley, Wells Park, Martineztown, Huning Highlands, Spruce Park, the Sycamore Neighborhood, Silver Hills, University Heights, Victory Hills, & in a few of the Nob Hill Neighborhoods. The style became less-frequented around the mid-century; also, very few were built east of San Mateo Blvd.

The top image is two bungalows in the Huning Castle/Raynolds Addition, on a street with a great cluster of them. Just above is a home north of Downtown with classic tapered elephantine porch columns.  

Bungalows are small houses or cottages, generally single-story or one-&-a-half-story. We don't see very many two-or-more-story bungalows in Albuquerque, although they do exist, immediately below. Below that is a one-&-a-half story home Downtown on Luna Blvd, in the Fourth Ward Historic District. A great public art sculpture exhibition lives in that neighborhood. 

California Bungalows--the predominant style here in the Metro--have sloping roofs & eaves with unenclosed rafters, & typically feature a dormer window, or an attic vent designed to look like one over the main portion of the house--the vent is often the extra attic half story, seen two images above. Ideally, bungalows are horizontal in massing, and are integrated with the earth by use of local materials and transitional plantings. This helps create the signature look most people associate with the California bungalow, two examples just below, from Silver Ave in the Silver Hills historic neighborhood.

Bungalows commonly have wood shingle, horizontal siding or stucco exteriors, as well as brick or stone exterior chimneys & a deep front porch. Larger bungalows might have asymmetrical "L" shaped porches. The porches were often enclosed at a later date, in response to the desire for increased privacy. 

What sets bungalows apart is the low-pitched roof lines on a gabled or hipped roof, deeply overhanging eaves, exposed rafters or decorative brackets under the eaves, seen below, & a front porch beneath an extension of the main roof. Two examples of gables & decorative brackets are below. Other examples of these MetroABQ Arts & Crafts style bungalows are below that.

Immediately below, the home in the Silver Hills neighborhood has unique brackets; below that is a home being remodeled just south of Nob Hill, in the SE Heights, with double sets of brackets.