On behalf of the Revitalize San Pedro Partnership (RSPP), a Main Street America Accredited organization serving the San Pedro Drive commercial corridor in Albuquerque, I write in strong support of the nomination of the Cal-Linn Condominiums Building — the former headquarters of Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) and first office of Microsoft — for listing in the State Register of Cultural Properties and the National Register of Historic Places.
The Cal-Linn Building sits within the San Pedro Main Street corridor, the area our organization exists to revitalize and strengthen. We know this building. We have long understood, even when the broader world has not, that this modest strip of brick and glass at the corner of California and Linn Avenues is one of the most consequential addresses in the history of American technology.
The nomination before you makes that case with rigor and depth. We won't try to improve upon it. What we can offer is the perspective of a place-based economic development organization that sees in this building something beyond its architectural or historical significance alone: we see an asset that tells the story of this place.
The San Pedro Main Street corridor is a crossroads of generations. It is a working corridor — small businesses, families, long-time property owners — but it is also a corridor with a history that reaches well beyond its boundaries. Historic Route 66 runs through it. The New Mexico State Fairgrounds anchor it. And in a strip of commercial suites one block north of Central Avenue, the personal computer revolution was set in motion. Paul Allen and Bill Gates were, for several formative years, Albuquerqueans — living near the University of New Mexico, working through the night on California Street, shipping Altair 8800 computers to hobbyists across the country who didn't yet know they were living through a turning point.
That history belongs to Albuquerque. It belongs to this corridor. And it belongs to the national story of innovation, entrepreneurship, and the unexpected places where world-changing work happens.
Listing the Cal-Linn Building on the State Register of Cultural Properties and the National Register of Historic Places protects a physical locus of that story. It ensures that a building with remarkable integrity remains legible as a site of significance. It draws visitors, scholars, and technology history enthusiasts — many of whom already make the pilgrimage — and formal recognition will deepen that draw, and with it, the economic and cultural vitality of the surrounding corridor.
RSPP is proud to support this nomination without reservation. The Cal-Linn Building deserves this recognition. So does Albuquerque.
Respectfully submitted,
Adrian N. Carver, MCRP
Executive Director
adrian@sanpedroabq.org
Cynthia Serna
Board President
president@sanpedroabq.org