This Pueblo Revival building in Huning Highlands dates to 1925, when it opened as Albuquerque's new Main Library. Built in 1925 as the main facility of the Albuquerque Public Library, this building was designed by Arthur Rossiter with interior decorations by Gustave Baumann and is a notable example of Pueblo Revival architecture. The story begins earlier: the city’s library opened in 1901 in Perkins Hall, a former school donated by Joshua and Sarah Raynolds, but by the 1920s that building was obsolete.
A campaign led by the Women's Library Association — with writer Erna Fergusson among its leaders — carried the effort forward and in 1923 voters approved a bond issue for construction. Since the opening of the current Main Library in 1975, this building has served as the system’s Special Collections branch, housing historical and genealogical research materials. It was added to the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties in 1975, is an Albuquerque Historic Landmark, and was individually listed on the National Register in 2024.
Erna Fergusson's campaign and the bond vote of 1923 live on in Rossiter's Pueblo Revival walls and Baumann's interior decorations, the Huning Highlands streets running quietly past.