User:Camerafiend/Sawmill-Wells Park

The Sawmill District and Wells Park are two adjacent neighborhoods in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which are closely interlinked and often treated as a single neighborhood. The area is located northwest of Downtown and northeast of Old Town and encompasses residential, commercial, and industrial uses.

Geography
The generally accepted boundaries of Sawmill-Wells Park are Interstate 40 to the north, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad tracks to the east, Mountain Road to the south, and Rio Grande Boulevard to the west. The dividing line between Wells Park and the Sawmill District is 12th Street. Adjoining neighborhoods include Old Town, Downtown, and the Downtown Neighborhood to the south, Martineztown-Santa Barbara to the east, Near North Valley to the north, and West Old Town to the west.

Name
The Sawmill District is named for the former American Lumber Company mill, which opened in 1903 and operated under various names until 1990. Wells Park is named for the city park of the same name, which was named in 1951 for longtime City Manager Charles E. Wells (1896–1953).

Demographics
The 2010 United States Census recorded a population of 2,114 residents in Sawmill-Wells Park. The racial breakdown of the neighborhood was 63% Hispanic, 30% non-Hispanic white, 3% American Indian, 2% Black, and 2% other races or mixed-race.

History
What is now Sawmill-Wells Park was traditionally farmland used by Tiwa Puebloans since about 1350 to grow corn, beans, squash, and cotton. The area remained agricultural in character after the arrival of Spanish colonists in the 1600s, with scattered small farms and a system of acequias to irrigate the land. After the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway reached Albuquerque in 1880, the farmland started to be converted to residential and industrial use. The American Lumber Company mill, for which the Sawmill District is named, opened in 1903 along a newly constructed railroad spur. At its peak, the sawmill covered an area of 110 acre, employed 600–700 workers, and had its own line on the city streetcar system. The neighborhood also filled in with residential subdivisions, mostly constructed during the 1920s.

Education
Sawmill-Wells Park is served by Albuquerque Public Schools. Public school students from the neighborhood are assigned to Reginald Chavez Elementary School, Washington Middle School, and Albuquerque High School.

Transportation
The main thoroughfares in Sawmill-Wells Park are 2nd Street, 4th Street, 5th and 6th Streets (a pair of one-way arterials), and 12th Street, all of which run north-south. Mountain Road and Rio Grande Boulevard run along the southern and western edges of the neighborhood, respectively, and there is also access to Interstate 40 along the northern boundary via the 4th, 12th, and Rio Grande interchanges.

Public bus transit is provided by ABQ RIDE's 7 Candelaria Commuter and 13 Comanche Commuter (2nd/3rd), 10 North Fourth Street (4th), 8 Menaul, 92 Taylor Ranch Express, 93 Academy Commuter, and 94 Unser Commuter (5th/6th), and 36/37 12th Street/Rio Grande bus routes.

Places of interest
Notable attractions in Sawmill-Wells Park include:
 * New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science
 * Explora (children's museum and science center)

The neighborhood also contains two properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP):
 * Salvador Armijo House
 * Santa Fe 2926 (steam locomotive)

The Santa Fe 2926 locomotive was displayed as a static exhibit in Coronado Park from 1956 to 2000. In 2002 it was moved to a new location on 8th Street where it is undergoing restoration to full operating condition (as of 2021).

Notable residents
World champion boxer Johnny Tapia grew up in Wells Park and was closely associated with the neighborhood. After his death, the city renamed the Wells Park Community Center in his honor in 2017.