Neighborhood History
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- Download and fill out the Membership Form, then mail it, along with your $12.00 Annual Membership Dues (payable to Osuna Park NA) to:
- Penny Hoe,
Membership Chair
9412 Dona Rowena NE
Albuquerque, NM 87111 -
Membership Form
75 kb
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Neighborhood Deja Vu
A Continuing History
Imagine Montgomery Boulevard as a two-lane road. Picture Eubank and Wyoming extending only a couple of blocks north of Montgomery. See Osuna Road as an indistinguishable part of the desert landscape. Visualize a view of the airport from your backyard. There is no K-Mart, Target, or any commercial enterprise in the area. Most of all, there is no traffic.
If any of these images sound familiar to you, then you remember how our neighborhood looked in 1963 when the first homes were being occupied.
The area comprising the Osuna Park Neighborhood Association did not appear on city maps until 1959 when a few initial streets were listed. According to city directories printed in the 1960s, this neighborhood (the Ofimiano Gutierrez Addition) developed near Montgomery and Wyoming and spread east. By 1963 families were moving into homes on Lagrima de Oro, Las Calabazillas, Gutierrez, Las Camas, La Barranca, and Avenales. These homes were interspersed with vacant lots and houses under construction. Dona Marguerita first appeared erroneously in the 1963 city directory as Donna Marguerite, but no homes were listed on this street or Dona Rowena until after 1965.
The backyards of the homes on Avenales were the northern boundary of Albuquerque’s city limits and remained so until 1972 when development of the northern portion of our neighborhood (Northridge Addition) began. Homes were being built and occupied on Evangeline, General Hodges, General Bradley, and Osuna Road, and Northridge was under construction in 1972. Piedra Rosa appears in the city directory the following year, and Pristina in 1975. By the mid-1970s, this section was building up rapidly and beginning to resemble what we know today.
If you have any memories of our neighborhood that you care to share or know of a former resident who has information to share, please contact Nancy Rickerman at 296-4892 or via e-mail at newrick@comcast.net
Osuna, Spain
Osuna What?
Osuna Park Neighborhood Association was indirectly named for an ancient Spanish family, and the city
of Osuna. The origins of Osuna stretch back to the year 1000 BC, as can be seen by the great number
of remains from each historical period.
Osuna got its name from the Turdetans, and several objects remain from this pre-Roman period, such as the "Bull of Osuna" and the "Reliefs of Osuna".
Pompey made his last unsuccessful stand against Caesar in Osuna. The city fell into Caesar’s hands, who subsequently gave Osuna the status of a colony; the importance of which is suggested by the laws found in the "Osuna Bronzes".
In 1562 the 5th Count of Ureña was made 1st Duke of Osuna, and from then on Osuna became the Andalusian capital of the domains of the Tellez Giron family, who were the founders of the Collegiate Church and the University in the 16th century.
The Giron family did much to make the urban landscape of Osuna what it is today, building and supporting its mixture of convents and churches, lordly palaces and manors.
