Bernalillo

Formed January 9, 1852 (1^st county)

Bernalillo County (676,438), Albuquerque (564,581)

The Modern building is sited on Lomas Avenue between 3^rd Street Northwest and 4^th Street Northwest, the facility is 11 blocks west of Interstate Highway 25.  The structure was built in 2001.  Custer Basarich Architects provided the stone and masonry designs.  There were two earlier courthouses in Albuquerque in 1883 and 1926.  The 1926 still houses some county offices and a 1985 Administrative Building also supports the courthouse.  The county was formed on January 9, 1852 as the original county with Albuquerque and Bernalillo serving as the county seat.  Bernalillo gets its name from the town which got its name from a family of settlers, the Bernal family.  The county seat of Sandoval County has the same source for its name.  The county seat was named for the Duke of Albuquerque, the Viceroy of New Spain.  Bernalillo County was the birthplace for 1 New Mexico Governor, John F. Simms, Jr. 

Bernalillo County government consists of a manager, a sheriff, a treasurer, an attorney, an assessor, and a clerk (executive).  It has 5 Commissioners (legislative.)  Twenty-seven District Court Judges serve Bernalillo County (judicial.)  The county is located in the center of the state to the southwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico.  The Rio Grande runs through the middle of the county.  The county center is in Albuquerque 1.3 miles South-Southwest of the city center.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Sandoval, Santa Fe, Torrance, Valencia, and Cibola counties. 

The area of the county is 1166 square miles.  It is 31 out of 33 in the state.  It ranks 1 out of 33 in population in the state.  It has a density of 580.1 persons per square mile making it 1 out of 33 in the state.  Bernalillo County has 84.4% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 25 goes north and south through the county from Sandoval County to Valencia County.  Interstate Highway 40 crosses east to west, Santa Fe County to Cibola County.  The county is overall shaped like a knife blade with a foot extending to the southeast and an indent in the middle of the southern border.  The large Albuquerque metropolitan area is in the center of the county.  Albuquerque is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 83.5% of the county population.  The county is pronounced BUR-NA-LEE-YO.  The county seat is pronounced AL-BU-KUR-KEE.  This county is in the Albuquerque Metropolitan Statistical Area.