La Posada De Albuquerque
125 Second NW, 1939, Anton Korn

La Posada (the old Hilton Hotel) was built by hotel magnate Conrad Hilton in 1939. Hilton, a native of San Antonio, New Mexico, and already the owner of several Texas hotels, made the Hilton his first construction project after the worst of the Depression. It represented the culmination of a lifelong desire to succeed in Albuquerque and an affirmation that the city would become a major business center.

The hotel was and is a remarkable blend of old and new. It was the first modern high-rise hotel in the state; its mechanical systems were of the latest design. Because it's importance as a high-rise, the roofline can now not be changed. It was the only place in the city for quite some time after it was built to have a modern ballroom and meeting facilities. However, the brick coping along the roof, the interior design, carved woodwork, and most of the furnishings were rooted in New Mexican tradition and are among those features now protected.

The Hilton became the city's premier hotel. Among its guests were Zsa Zsa Gabor (while on her honeymoon with Conrad Hilton in 1941), James Stewart (stationed at the city's Kirtland Air Force Base during WWII), Lucille Ball, Lyndon Johnson and Spiro Agnew. Former governor Clyde Tingley became a regular in the lobby, meeting with the Democratic Party faithful. In July 1945 Los Alamos scientists gathered in the hotel to await the results of he Trinity test of the atomic bomb. In June 1945 David Greenglass allegedly met Harry Gold at the Hilton to exchange atomic secrets. The hotel narrowly escaped being stripped of much of its southwestern interior in 1981. Its present renovation was completed in 1984.