Route 66 by Amtrak: Albuquerque

Want to visit historic Route 66?

 

Hop aboard Amtrak's Southwest Chief. The train has several stops with preserved sections of America's Main Street.

 

The Southwest Chief's main service stop is Albuquerque. The city has some of the longest remaining sections of Route 66 motels and storefronts in the country. The pre-1938 alignment traveled north to south through town on what is now Fourth Street. The later re-alignment ran from east to west on Central Avenue.

 

The train station was built to resemble the former Alvarado Hotel and now serves as Albuquerque's transportation hub. While the city's center declined through the second half of the twentieth century, revitalization is under way. The Rail Yards to the south are being redeveloped, and an innovation corridor has started by the station.

 

 



 

Train Stop

A couple of hours during the Amtrak service stop is enough to explore Route 66. Exit the platform on the far north end, past the Rail Runner stop, to Central Avenue. You are now on The Mother Road.

Route 66 Crossroads

Walk four blocks west (away from the mountains) to reach the crossroads of the two alignments of Route 66.

Food

Lindy's Diner, at Fifth and Central, has been a family-owned restaurant since the 1920s. Want a taste of New Mexico? Order your food with green chile on top. Breakfast is served all day.

Shopping

Skip Maisel's is a landmark on Route 66, on the same block as Lindy's Diner. They claim to have the largest selection of Native American jewelry in the Southwest.

Must See

The city-owned KiMo Theater, across the street from Lindy's Diner, is one of the best examples of Pueblo Deco architecture in the country. If you arrive during business hours for the box office, step inside.

Self-guided tours of the interior are available for free. The theater only requests you stay away from the stage area. Be sure to look up to find the lighted cow skulls and painted details on the ceilings.

 

Historic Lodging

Want to stay a couple days?

Nearby the Hotel Andaluz was opened as a Hilton in 1939. It's only one of two historic GOLD Leed certified hotels in the USA.

 

Budget Lodging

the Hotel Blue

Route 66 Hostel

Getting Around

If you don't mind travel by city bus, the Route 66 runs the entire length of Central Avenue from one end of the city to the other. The most scenic section of The Mother Road is Nob Hill. Taxi service and car rentals are available in town.

Getting around Downtown is easiest by walking or bicycle. Routes Rentals & Tours will deliver bikes to your location.

Side Trips

 

Old Town

Want a quick taste of Santa Fe without having to travel north? The Hotel Albuquerque is 1.7 miles from the train station in historic Old Town. Nearby attractions include the Albuquerque BioPark gardens, aquarium and zoo. Bicycle rentals are available in the neighborhood to cruise the shade of the Bosque Trail or take a guided tour.

Santa Fe

The Rail Runner provides daily service to Santa Fe from the Alvarado station.

ABQ: Postcard 1950

ALBUQUERQUE

Postcard 1950


Central Ave., Route 66, in Downtown Albuquerque. The Kress sign still remains. The KIMO recently erected a new sign that is similar to the one in the postcard.

At the time of this postcard, Downtown was still the center for shopping in the city. In another decade that would change as many of the department stores left Downtown to locate in new shopping malls in the NE Heights, like Winrock Mall. They featured plenty of parking near the new housing subdivisions being built.

The abandonment of Downtown had started earlier, however, when autos allowed people to move to new neighborhoods, like areas around the university. One of the earliest auto strip malls was Nob Hill.



Winrock Mall:

In 1961, Winrock Shopping center was completed as a joint venture between soon-to-be Arkansas governor Winthrop Rockefeller and the University of New Mexico on a sandy lot at the edge of I-40. The development included a covered shopping center (the first for Albuquerque and New Mexico) with Safeway, J.C. Penney, Fedway and Montgomery Ward. A freestanding movie theater and attached motor hotel opened in 1963.

The mall was built as an outdoor shopping hub with a screened canopy roof above the main stretch of the mall and acres of parking on all sides. This design allowed for a pleasant shopping experience in the dry summer heat as well as the cold high-desert winters. The 82 acre mall site was bounded by the busy I-40 freeway to the south, with off-ramps to Louisiana Boulevard to the west.

ABQ: Holiday Windows

ALBUQUERQUE

Holiday Windows


Getting ready for Christmas. Decorations in the Peoples Flower Shop windows on Central Ave. (Route 66) in Downtown ABQ.

In the background on the right is the KIMO theater sign.

ABQ: Happy Thanksgiving

ALBUQUERQUE

Happy Thanksgiving


This photo was taken the evening before Thanksgiving from the fourth floor of the Sunshine Building in Downtown Albuquerque.

ABQ: 4th St Ped Mall

ALBUQUERQUE

Fourth Street Pedestrian Mall

Downtown's pedestrian mall was created by closing and bricking over part of 4th Street, which was the original alignment, north and south, of Route 66 running through Albuquerque. By the time the outdoor mall was created Route 66 has been changed to run east and west on what is now Central Ave.

The pedestrian mall hasn't been very successful and the city is considering tearing it apart and reopening the street to road traffic. While some pedestrian malls, such as Denver, have been successful in lining the space with retail shops, restaurants and outdoor vendors, ABQ has not. Only a couple tables are set up regularly for street retailing and the space mostly collects homeless people.

The Hyatt wasn't built yet when the pedestrian mall was created. While the hotel restaurant has some closed-off outdoor seating, pictured above, their building was designed as a fortress against the street and public gathering was expected to take place in the central atrium indoors. In fairness to the hotel, Downtown ABQ was rather rough when the project was built.

Most of the street scape is rather barren, except for the patio seating on the south end of the mall by Central Ave. The best features of the mall are the shade trees that run down the center, which along with the tall buildings, provide welcome shade in the summer.



Pedestrian Malls:

Notes The Atlantic--American urban history is dotted with failed (and occasionally infamous) pedestrian malls. But there are success stories too, which offer lessons in designing walkable, mixed-use districts.

The world's first planned pedestrian mall was built in 1953 in Rotterdam. Six years later, Kalamazoo, Michigan, became the first American city adopt the concept. Austrian-born architect Victor Gruen (most famous for his American shopping malls) envisioned a project that would resemble Vienna's Ringstrasse. Instead, a much scaled-down concept was built in 1959.

The Kalamazoo Mall did well at first, with a fourth block added in the 1970s. But by the 1990s, it had become a sore spot for many residents. The "mall" had less parking, less weather protection, and more vagrants that the traditional shopping center. When the city decided to reopen part of the street in 1998, citizens excitedly competed, via raffle, to drive the first car down the mall.

Others have been more successful. Some of the best pedestrian malls in America are located in college towns like Charlottesville, Ithaca, Iowa City, and Madison.

ABQ: Postcard Night

ALBUQUERQUE

Postcard of Downtown at night.

Route 66, which is now Central Ave.

Date: 1970.

The tallest building on the left, behind the ABC sign, is now the Banque Lofts. It is, of course, a former bank building.

The intersection at the Walgreens and Woolworth's is now the Fourth Street Pedestrian Mall.

ABQ: Restoration @ Route 66

ALBUQUERQUE

Middle Rio Grande Restoration Project

Study for Ecosystem Revitalization at Route 66

Crew are working on adding recreational facilities to the Tingley Ponds area of the Bosque Restoration Project along the Rio Grande. The changes include two new pedestrian bridges and two overlooks on the ponds along the paths just south of Central Ave. (Route 66) in Downtown Albuquerque.



Info about the project:

The Bosque Ecosystem Restoration Project at Route 66 is a project for the environmental revitalization of our Bosque. This area is bounded on the north by the north side of the I-40 Bridge Crossing of the Rio Grande, and at the south end at the south side of the Bridge Street Crossing.
 


Project features are being constructed just north of Central on both sides of the river and between Central and Bridge on the west side of the river. Project construction includes removal of jetty jacks and non-native vegetation across 121 acres of bosque. Non-native vegetation has been removed including salt cedar (Tamarix ramosissima), Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia), Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) and Siberian elm (Ulmus pumila). The project also includes recreating 3 high-flow channels, and enhancing one outfall wetland at the Gonzales Drain. Additional restoration features include planting of native vegetation throughout the project area (121 acres) and creation of a number of willow swales. Improvements of existing facilities for educational, interpretive and low-impact recreational uses have also been incorporated into the Route 66 Project. 

ABQ: Conservatories

ALBUQUERQUE

Conservatories

View the photo journal of conservatories in Albuquerque, the Bonsai Museum at the Steinhardt Conservatory in Brooklyn, and the orchids at the Lincoln Park Conservatory in Chicago.


The ABQ BioPark Botanic Garden, located in Greater Downtown on Central Ave. (Route 66) and the Rio Grande, features one and half miles of paths through a variety of gardens on 36 acres and two conservatories.


Mediterranean Conservatory

The Mediterranean Conservatory shows off a variety of plants native to coastal areas with hot dry summers and mild rainy winters, such as the Mediterranean Sea coast, the California coast, southwestern Australia, South Africa and coastal Chile.

This conservatory is also the locale for several flower shows, including Bulbs in Bloom and the Orchid Show.

Desert Conservatory

Its hot, dry climate supports a collection of plant life from deserts of the American Southwest.

Saguaro cactus and palo verde trees from the Sonoran Desert, creosote and yucca from the Chihuahuan Desert and elephant trees from Baja are just some of the incredible xeric-adapted plants on display.

ROUTE 66: Former Hotel Franciscan

ROUTE 66

Former Hotel Franciscan

Pictured is the Hotel Franciscan on Route 66 (Central Ave.) in Downtown Albuquerque. Beside it, on the left side of the picture with white columns, was the Masonic Temple. Both were torn down and the empty land continues to be used for parking lots.


1941 postcard of the hotel said:

This structure, typical of the architecture brought to the Southwest by the early settlers, is regarded as the most unusual building of its type anywhere in the world. It was built by the Community Spirit of Albuquerque. The Hotel contains 175 guest rooms. In lobby, magnificently decorated, is the most artistic interior in this section of the country. The Hotel is especially adapted to the entertainment of Clubs, Conventions and large social gatherings. Every attention is paid to the comfort of cross country tourists, whose prolonged stay is desirable to all Albuquerque.


Wikipedia about Pueblo Revival:

The Pueblo Revival style is a regional architectural style of the Southwestern United States which draws its inspiration from thePueblos and the Spanish missions in New Mexico. The style developed at the turn of the 20th century and reached its greatest popularity in the 1920s and 1930s, though it is still commonly used for new buildings. Pueblo style architecture is most prevalent in the state of New Mexico.

Pueblo style architecture seeks to imitate the appearance of traditional adobe construction, though more modern materials such asbrick or concrete are often substituted. If adobe is not used, rounded corners, irregular parapets, and thick, battered walls are used to simulate it. Walls are usually stuccoed and painted in earth tones. Multistory buildings usually employ stepped massing similar to that seen at Taos Pueblo. Roofs are always flat. A common feature is the use of projecting wooden roof beams (vigas), which often serve no structural purpose.


Emporis:

Technical Data

Height (architectural)

96.00 ft

Height (roof)

96.00 ft

Height (main roof)

82.00 ft

Floors (above ground)

7

Construction end

1923

Demolition end

1972

Elevators

2

Involved Companies

Architect:

• Trost & Trost

ABQ: Windows of Old Town

ALBUQUERQUE

Photo journal of the Window of Old Town.


Sept. 2012

Route 66: Postcard 1942

 

 

ROUTE 66

 

Postcard 1942

 

Postcard reads: Looking East on Central Ave., with Sandia Mountains in the Distance, Masonic Temple is seen in Foreground at Left.

 

 

The Masonic Temple, with the white columns, has since been torn down. Likewise for the Hotel Franciscan pictured directly behind the temple on the left. The theater across the street, the El Rey, remains in business to this day. They host muscians, receptions, and even an evening church service.

 

 

While the Masonic Temple was typical of architecutre from back east that became popular after the railroads came to New Mexico, the Hotel Franciscan was a unique style of building called Pueblo Revival.

 

According to Wikipedia:

 

The Pueblo Revival style is a regional architectural style of the Southwestern United States which draws its inspiration from thePueblos and the Spanish missions in New Mexico. The style developed at the turn of the 20th century and reached its greatest popularity in the 1920s and 1930s, though it is still commonly used for new buildings. Pueblo style architecture is most prevalent in the state of New Mexico.



ROUTE 66: Freed Co

ROUTE 66

The Freed Co, Since 1920

The Freed Co. was an import merchandise store, located on Route 66 (Central Ave.), near the Kimo Theater. Some accounts list the store as opening in this location in 1920, while others credit the store to moving to this site in 1979.  It was run by two brothers--Philip and Max Freed. They were reported to have dressed alike and worked side by side, almost inseparable from each other. The brothers died within a week of each other in January of 1999.

Leba Freed runs the nonprofit Wheels Museum in Downtown, located at the historic Barelas Railyards.

The Freed Co. building is now used as a music venue.

Max Freed's wife, Marcia Hertzmark, was one of a small number of first women lawyers in New Mexico. According to the New Mexico Bar:

Hertzmark was one of the first women to graduate from the University of Denver Law School and was admitted to practice in New Mexico in1933. She finished first among those taking the bar in both Colorado and New Mexico. Hertzmark practiced law in Santa Fe and served as a law clerk for the New Mexico Supreme Court for a short time before moving to Washington D.C., to work for the National Labor Relations Board where she helped write labor laws. She had a hand in drafting the landmark Hatch Political Activities Act, which prohibits most federal employees from taking an active part in political campaigns. She returned to New Mexico in 1947 where she met and married Max Freed, of the Freed Co., and left professional life.

ROUTE 66: Kress Sign

ROUTE 66

Kress Sign

The Kress sign remains on Route 66 (Central Ave) in Albuquerque, along with curved plate glass windows and interesting architectural details, on an empty storefront in Downtown.

Kress department stores were a chain of Five and Dimes, similar to Woolworth's. They were in business from 1896 to 1981 and a precursor to modern day Kmart, Target and Wal-Mart. In the first half of the twentieth century Kress stores could be found on the mainstreets of hundred of cities and towns across America.

Samuel Henry Kress, founder of S. H. Kress & Co., used his fortune to amass the most significant collections of Italian Renaissance and European artwork assembled in the twentieth century. Works were eventually donated to 18 regional museums around the U. S.

Kress stores are noted for their architecture. Kress considered his buildings to be works of public art that would contribute to the cityscape. The Albuquerque store is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Due to its ongoing vacancy, it remains in nearly original condition.

Notes the Historic Register nomination form, filled out in the early 1980's:

The Kress Building in Downtown Albuquerque is an unaltered 1925 Kress store displaying a standard storefront design developed by the S. H. Kress Company in the 1920's. It is the only such storefront in New Mexico and as such is of both local and state significance. It is possibly nationally significant as a virtually unchanged example of a major chain store's early attempt to achieve quick public recognition through the use of standardized design. In Albuquerque it is an extremely rare unremodeled pre-depression retail building.
 

ABQ PLAZAS: Third Central Plaza

ALBUQUERQUE PLAZAS

Third Central Plaza

Visit the Photo Journal of Third Central Plaza.


Third Central Plaza is located, not surprisingly, at the corner of Third Street and Central Avenue in Downtown Albuquerque. Not much history is available about the building or site, although it's possibly a former graveyard.

An Odd Fellows building was located near here and apparently they used a now defunct cemetery, which was located between Central Avenue and Gold Avenue, and between Third and Fourth Streets. I'm not sure on the actual boundaries of the cemetery. I've seen this abandoned site labeled as Santa Barbara, although there is the Mt. Calvary/Santa Barbara Cemetery at 1900 Edith Blvd, which is a different graveyard. I'm not sure if the two names are being confused. The City of Albuquerque doesn't show the Railroad (Central) Ave and Third St site on their official inventory. The old Sanborn maps I've found show the area blackened out.
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On the outside of the plaza is a historical marker with a photo and description, which reads:

This photograph shows the 1898 Territorial Fair Parade passing along the 300 block of Railroad (Central) Avenue. Railroad Avenue was the main thoroughfare of Albuquerque's New Town, and it linked the the railroad depot to Old Town Plaza. Railroad and Gold were the principal commercial avenues of New Town. A horse-drawn trolley system, established in 1880, ran along Railroad Avenue tracks from the depot to Old Town Plaza. This eastward view, taken only 18 years after the barren lot of the New Town site had been surveyed, shows the amazing growth of the early New Town settlement.

 

ROUTE 66: Kimo Theater

ROUTE 66

Kimo Theater

View the Photo Journal of Downtown Architectural Drawings


The Kimo Theater, built as a picture palace, opened on September 19, 1927. The architectural style is known as Art Deco-Pueblo Revival Style, or Pueblo Deco for short, a short-lived fad of blending adobe style (rounded corners and edges), decorative motifs from indigenous cultures, and elements of Art Deco.

The theater is rumored to be haunted by a boy killed in 1951 when the water heater in the lobby exploded.

The Art Deco Society of New Mexico offers a self-guided tour pamplet in the central core of Albuquerque of Pueblo Deco buildings. It's easiest to follow when printed and folded vertically. The tour starts Downtown at the Kimo.

ROUTE 66: Little Chief Lunch

ROUTE 66

Postcard of Little Chief Lunch

3101 East Central Ave., on Highway 66

While this postcard is from the UNM/Nob Hill area rather than Downtown, it typifies the "fast food" lunch stands that used to line the highways. The location is now Imbibe.

The postcard proclaims: "We serve nationally advertised foods." This would appear to be a mom-and-pop local variation of the White Castle hamburger chain, a concept unknown before the prevalence of automobile travel.

The postcard is dated 1906. However, this can't be correct. First of all, the architecture and car don't match turn of the century styles. More importantly, Highway 66 wouldn't run through Nob Hill until after 1937, when the alignment was changed from a north to south route from Santa Fe down to Los Lunas on what is now mostly Fourth Street in Albuquerque, to an east to west alignment going straight through Albuquerque on Central Ave. and by-passing places like Santa Fe.

ROUTE 66: 1939 Postcard

ROUTE 66

1939 Postcard

Pictured is the Rosenwald Brothers Department Store building on Route 66, aka Central Avenue, in Downtown Albuquerque. The Sunshine building can be seen in the upper left corner.

The building is listed on the National Historic Register and is the first cast concrete structure in the state. The buildings sits at Fourth and Central, the crossroads of the old pre-1937 north/south alignment of Route 66 and the later east/west route through Albuquerque.

The building is currently vacant. The bottom two floors are owned by the city.

OLD ROUTE 66: Former Royal Fork

OLD ROUTE 66

Former Royal Fork Buffet Restaurant


View the complete photo journal of drawings of Downtown Albuquerque.
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The Royal Fork Buffet sign is left over from the restaurant that used to be located here. The chain was founded by Jerry Caven, who started with some McDonald's restaurants and attended their "Hamburger University" while living in Idaho. Later he decided to open a buffet chain that would have 48 locations in 12 states, before he sold the Royal Fork Buffet chain in the late 1970s. He would later return to the corporation. Some Royal Fork Buffet restaurants are still in operation in the West and Canada.

The abandoned Albuquerque site was redeveloped into the Royal Fork Lofts.

The Royal Fork sign is located on south Fourth Street, which was the pre-1937 alignment of the original Route 66 that ran north/south through Albuquerque. South Forth Street eventually was designated a historic commercial district in the Barelas neighborhood.

ROUTE 66: Postcard 1938

ROUTE 66

Postcard 1938

This image is Central Avenue in 1938. It would have just been designated as the new north and south alignment of Route 66.

The older alignment went north/south from Santa Fe, through Albuquerque until it turned east/west again around Los Lunas. Once the route was changed, Route 66 no longer went to Santa Fe.

ROUTE 66: Former Huning Castle

ROUTE 66

Former Huning Castle

Huning Castle was built by the wealthy German immigrant Franz Huning. Constructed of adobe with "wood flourishes" the castle would be demolished in the 1950's.

Franz Huning prospered in trade and real estate development. The Huning Highland neighborhood and Huning Castle (aka Country Club) neighborhood are both named after him, as well as various streets.

The Manzano Day School was originally housed in the Huning Castle from 1938 until it moved to its present location down the street on Central Avenue in 1942.

In the 1920s Franz's son built the Castle Apartments on the other side of the street. The apartments were lost to fire in 2009.