The area now referred to as Nob Hill was developed beginning in the mid-1920s as Albuquerque began to expand eastward along
Central Avenue. The first part of the neighborhood to be laid out was the area south of Central and west of Carlisle, which was
platted in 1906 as part of the University Heights Addition and developed beginning in the late 1920s. The developer was D.K.B. Sellers, a prominent local businessman who also served a term as mayor. In 1916 Sellers built a water tank on top of a large hill in eastern University Heights to provide a reliable water supply for the subdivision's residents. Seeking to promote his development, Sellers named the landform
Nob Hill after a fashionable area of
San Francisco, California. A photograph from 1937 shows Sellers posing with a large "Nob Hill" sign in an empty expanse of desert near what is now Silver and Tulane SE. On the north side of Central, the Monte Vista Addition was platted in 1926 by William Leverett. Due to topography and drainage concerns, the streets were laid out in an irregular pattern around two intersecting diagonal boulevards, Campus and Monte Vista. Leverett also set aside a large plot for a public elementary school in order to make the development more attractive to potential residents. Opened in 1930 as only the second elementary school on the East Mesa,
Monte Vista Elementary School is still operating and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. By 1930, over 100 houses had been built in the Monte Vista Addition. Nob Hill's commercial strip began to develop in the 1930s, spurred both by the growth of the surrounding neighborhoods and by the increasing number of travelers on Central Avenue. The latter became increasingly important after 1937, when Central was designated as
U.S. Route 66. The presence of both travelers and local residents in the neighborhood resulted in a mix of businesses catering to the two different markets, including the
Aztec Motel (1932), El Oriente Court (1935),
Modern Auto Court (1937),
Lobo Theater (1938),
De Anza Motor Lodge (1939), and
Jones Motor Company (also 1939). In 1947, a developer named Robert Waggoman built Albuquerque's first modern shopping center,
Nob Hill Business Center, at the southwest corner of Central and Carlisle. Critics of the project labeled it "Waggoman's Folly", believing it was too far from the downtown commercial area to attract much business. Further retail development soon turned Nob Hill into one of the city's premier shopping destinations. After the initial boom, Nob Hill's retail sector entered a decline in the 1960s with the continuing decentralization of the city and the construction of two large
shopping malls,
Winrock Shopping Center and
Coronado Center, in northeast Albuquerque. The tourist business similarly suffered when
Interstate 40 was completed, providing travelers a faster and more convenient route through the city that bypassed Central. Nob Hill started to rebound in the 1980s, however, thanks to a growing appreciation of the neighborhood's unique character and Route 66-era history. A number of buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places in the 1980s and 1990s, and by the mid-1990s the neighborhood's commercial core was thriving and property values were on the rise. In recent years, city planners have focused on expanding redevelopment efforts to the previously blighted Upper Nob Hill and Highland areas. ==Points of interest==