Just east of Downtown Albuquerque, rows of Victorian rooflines mark the neighborhood known as EDo, or East Downtown. Take it in: a mostly residential district with a high concentration of Victorian and early 20th-century houses, preserved together as the Huning Highlands Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places. Life here gathers along the old thoroughfares — Central Avenue, once U.S. Route 66, and Broadway Boulevard — where a modest commercial spine meets the homes.
The neighborhood began to take shape starting in 1880 and carries the name of Franz Huning, a prominent businessman at the time. The blocky edges of the area are real and easy to imagine: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue to the north, Locust Street to the east, Coal Avenue to the south, and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad tracks to the west, with the historic district dipping an extra block south to Iron Avenue. Nearby neighbors are Downtown to the west, Martineztown–Santa Barbara to the north, Sycamore to the east, and South Broadway to the south.
Feel the ground itself rise beneath your feet, the old sand hills climbing gently from west to east beneath the period houses and Central Avenue.