WINDOW SHOPPING
Historic Downtown residence tied to one of Albuquerque’s first mayors up for sale
The Dutch Colonial Revival-style home, built in the early 1900s, is like ‘living out in the country’
It’s rare to find Dutch Colonial Revival-style homes on the market in Albuquerque, much less one with a connection to a late 19th-century mayor.
That package exists at 216 Ninth NW — a historic Downtown home known as the J.E. Saint House. The property for $613,000 in early April. The price dropped to $599,000 on Tuesday.
“It’s a very cool listing,” said Katie Fellure, an Albuquerque broker who co-listed the property under eXp Realty with Santa Fe broker Lance Lewis.
The property’s nickname is inspired by its earliest resident, Joseph Exum Saint. Saint served as Albuquerque’s first mayor after the city was incorporated in 1891, according to archives from the Albuquerque Museum.
Saint was only mayor for one year, the term for Albuquerque mayors at the time. As mayor, Saint approved a $60,000 bond to build a school and led efforts to install a new sewer system in the rapidly growing area surrounding Second Street.
It is estimated that Saint had the home built in 1907. It features an architectural style — Dutch Colonial Revival — that became popular in America in the early 1900s, characterized by a wide, barn-shaped roof; curved, flaring roof edges; and a symmetrical design.
It’s unclear how long Saint lived in the home, nor is the number of owners it has had since him. The home’s current owners are a married couple, Ivan Alley and Nathan Fox, who have lived in the home since 2003.
Alley — originally from Kansas but an Albuquerque resident of 37 years — used to observe the home during trips to the Duke City as a kid. Next door to the home was a Shriners temple that held events such as races and silent-movie showings. Alley continued to stroll past the property as an adult living Downtown; it was a boarding house before he bought it.
There was an art to the home’s architecture that drew Alley in. He was raised in a Victorian-style home in Kansas, so he grew up understanding that those homes are built to last.
“It's like a really, really good car. All you have to do is put parts on and bam, you're back into business,” Alley said. “It was definitely something that, even though it’s a little rough around the edges, we could definitely fix it up and restore it into its former glory.”
Over the years, Alley and Fox uncovered the home’s old floor plans and pictures, and launched a series of restoration projects to “bring it back to the original as much as possible.” Some of the original hardwood floors are preserved in the home, which is included in the National Register of Historic Places.
Today, the home spans 2,469 square feet and sits on a little over a 10th of an acre, also occupied by a 574-square-foot guest house. The property offers four bedrooms and four bathrooms. With an upstairs covered patio and a location just three minutes from the heart of Downtown, the home offered Alley a paradox of city living and towerscapes mixed with quiet birdwatching and sunlit mountain backdrops.
“It is kind of this crazy mixture of being in the middle of the city, but yet, I have this little oasis, living out in the country,” Alley said.
Alley and Fox have decided to list the property so they can move to Kansas to help take care of Alley’s elderly parents.
With options for residential or commercial zoning and two enclosed porches, Fellure said she can easily see the property as a home for a family or a business, such as a coffee shop or bed-and-breakfast.
“It would be so charming,” Fellure said. “What a great place to come in, go to Balloon Fiesta, enjoy Downtown amenities, farmers markets, Old Town — it's a great location to explore the city.”
Window Shopping is a recurring Journal series exploring unique homes on the market in New Mexico. Send tips to Kylie Garcia, the Journal’s retail and real estate reporter, at kgarcia@abqjournal.com.
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