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The Barelas Community Center is a historic 
The center offered various services including youth organizations and activities, adult education, and recreation. It was operated by LULAC from 1942 to 1944 and the Barelas Community Council from 1944 to 1955 before being absorbed by the city's Parks and Recreation Department in 1955. Eleanor Roosevelt visited in 1956, writing in the ''Albuquerque Tribune'' that "The influence of these centers is making a great difference in the development of young people." The building was added to the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties and the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.
The community center is a one-story, U-shaped building, modeled after a traditional Spanish-style hacienda with a single row of rooms arranged around a central courtyard. It was designed by local architect A. W. Boehning in the Pueblo Revival architecture, Pueblo Revival style, with buttressed adobe walls, projecting Viga (architecture), vigas, and wooden lintels. The NYA constructed the building using labor-intensive traditional methods including hand-made adobe bricks and hand-cut vigas. The building contains a game room, a girls' club room, a kitchen, and a large community room with a stage. The community room is decorated with a series of six Native Americans in the United States, Native American-themed murals painted in 1957 by Albuquerque Indian School students under the direction of Teofilo Tafoya. A separate gymnasium was built in 1977 and was later connected to the main building in 2004.
community center
A community centre, community center, or community hall is a public location where members of a community gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may be open for the whole community or for a sp ...
in the Barelas
Barelas is an inner-city neighborhood of Albuquerque, New Mexico, located immediately south of Downtown. It consists of the triangular area bounded by Coal Avenue, the BNSF railroad tracks, and the Rio Grande. Originally a separate village, it w ...
neighborhood of Albuquerque
Albuquerque ( ; ), also known as ABQ, Burque, the Duke City, and in the past 'the Q', is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Bernal ...
, New Mexico
New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
. It was built from 1940 to 1942 by the National Youth Administration
The National Youth Administration (NYA) was a New Deal agency sponsored by Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt during his presidency. It focused on providing work and education for Americans between the ages of 16 and 25. ...
(NYA), a New Deal
The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...
agency which provided jobs and vocational training for young Americans. The NYA completed the Heights Community Center
The Heights Community Center is a historic community center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was built from 1938 to 1940 by the National Youth Administration (NYA), a New Deal agency which provided jobs and vocational training for young Americans. ...
in 1940 and immediately started work on a second center, in cooperation with the League of United Latin American Citizens
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is the largest and oldest Hispanic and Latin-American civil rights organization in the United States. It was established on February 17, 1929, in Corpus Christi, Texas, largely by Hispanic and ...
(LULAC), to serve the majority-Hispanic Barelas neighborhood. It was dedicated during the LULAC national convention in June, 1942. Heights and Barelas were the first two community centers in the city, and both are still in use as of 2021.
The center offered various services including youth organizations and activities, adult education, and recreation. It was operated by LULAC from 1942 to 1944 and the Barelas Community Council from 1944 to 1955 before being absorbed by the city's Parks and Recreation Department in 1955. Eleanor Roosevelt visited in 1956, writing in the ''Albuquerque Tribune'' that "The influence of these centers is making a great difference in the development of young people." The building was added to the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties and the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.
The community center is a one-story, U-shaped building, modeled after a traditional Spanish-style hacienda with a single row of rooms arranged around a central courtyard. It was designed by local architect A. W. Boehning in the Pueblo Revival architecture, Pueblo Revival style, with buttressed adobe walls, projecting Viga (architecture), vigas, and wooden lintels. The NYA constructed the building using labor-intensive traditional methods including hand-made adobe bricks and hand-cut vigas. The building contains a game room, a girls' club room, a kitchen, and a large community room with a stage. The community room is decorated with a series of six Native Americans in the United States, Native American-themed murals painted in 1957 by Albuquerque Indian School students under the direction of Teofilo Tafoya. A separate gymnasium was built in 1977 and was later connected to the main building in 2004.
References
Buildings and structures in Albuquerque, New Mexico National Register of Historic Places in Albuquerque, New Mexico Community centers in New Mexico Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico Event venues on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties Government buildings completed in 1942 {{NewMexico-NRHP-stub