This flat-roofed department store on the corner has watched downtown Albuquerque change since 1925. This building was built in 1925 by the S. H. Kress & Co. department store chain, and it’s notable as a well-preserved early 20th century retail building. S. H. Kress & Co. purchased land for an Albuquerque store around 1909 but didn’t build until market conditions were judged more favorable.
The design was completed in 1924 by architect T. J. T. Hoffman, and construction began in January the following year. The Kress store operated here until 1981, when the parent company went out of business. Only minor changes to the building exterior have taken place, and the structure remains similar to many other Kress stores built in smaller cities during the 1910s and 1920s.
It is a two-story, flat-roofed building that has been vacant for many years, yet it earned recognition when it was added to the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties and the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. As of 2020 it is being renovated by local Victoria Van Dame with plans for a gallery drawing in creatives across visual, music, performance and the culinary arts. Picture the gallery of visual, music, performance and culinary artists Victoria Van Dame envisions filling these vacant floors.