The 1946 AT&SF Freight Office in Albuquerque

The Santa Fe Freight House is a historic building in Downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico. Built by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in 1946, it is a notable example of Mission Revival architecture. The building was listed on the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties in 2012 and the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.

The Freight Office was built as part of the modernization of the AT&SF freight handling facilities. These facilities included a much larger wood-framed freight warehouse that extended 450 feet south to the Coal Avenue viaduct. That warehouse and its associated loading platform were demolished in the 1980s when the railroad moved its regional freight operations to Belen. The Freight Office survived and is currently part of the Alvarado Transportation Center property, though vacant.

The building is two stories high with a basement and was designed in a stripped-down Mission style to harmonize with adjacent railroad buildings, including the depot and the Alvarado Hotel, both of which no longer stand. It is built from structural clay tile with a concrete frame, and the exterior is finished with pebble-dash stucco.

On the front elevation of the building, the architecture includes a flat-roofed entry porch and wood-framed sash windows with heavy concrete lintels. The structure also retains original neon signs. Today, the building remains on 1st Street Southwest as part of the Alvarado Transportation Center property.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons