The Fool on the Hill? or Mastermind…
We must start the story, of course, with D.K.B. Sellers (1861-1950). You may know him as the man in the famous photo, taken with the Nob Hill sign, and now iconized on the wall of a building in the 3100 block of Central Avenue. Described by his peers as being “larger than life and full of himself,” he is the man credited with naming Nob Hill, and often credited with starting it all. How truthful, however, is this beginning?
A little back story on D.K.B. Sellers: A native of Dayton, Ohio, Sellers arrived in Albuquerque around 1900 via Farmington, where he had started a newspaper. At this point in his career, he had already gained and lost a fortune in California and gained another in Alaska. Although not a military man, he was known as Colonel Sellers and was one of Albuquerque’s greatest boosters. Known for his unconventional (and often unethical) tactics, he once staged a mass murder of Native Americans as entertainment at the Territorial Fair (See Albuquerque Morning Journal excerpt, October 11, 1908). The Colonel had a hand in politics as Albuquerque’s Mayor, the president of the Territorial Fair, the president of the New Mexico Automotive Association, the president of the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway Association, and as State Senator among many other endeavors, most of which advanced his personal interests, namely Nob Hill. Ever the optimist, or, more aptly, ever the profiteer, he saw an opportunity in Albuquerque for greatness– whether his own or the town’s depends on what you read…
DKB Sellers’ legacy includes signing the plat for the University Heights Subdivision in 1916, ghd conception of the Nob Hill brand (a homage to San Francisco’s fashionable district), and the construction of a private water tower for Nob Hill (which itself is now a house on Carlisle, more on that in a later story…). He is also credited with the renaming and paving of Central Avenue to UNM (1908), extending Albuquerque’s streetcar lines up the challenging sand dunes from downtown to Yale Boulevard (the southern edge of University Heights), and getting city water and sewer lines extended to the East Mesa, all of which made developing housing on the eastern edges of young Albuquerque more attractive to buyers prior to the 1926 Nob Hill platting frenzy. It should be noted that, until 1925, his University Heights Subdivision and all of Nob Hill existed outside of the city limits. And that too, would change, thanks to Sellers.
Sellers might have been a mastermind…but he was definitely not working alone.
©️ 2026 Michelle Allison