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.

Santa Fe, Nov 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dia del Dulce (Day of Candy) in Old Town, ABQ

ALBUQUERQUE

Dia del Dulce, Day of Candy, in Old Town

View the photo journal of Fall Festival celebrating Halloween in Old Town.

Link to 2013 Schedule of Events

ABQ: Heritage Farm

ALBUQUERQUE

Rio Grande Heritage Farm at the BioPark

View the photo journal.



Just a few decades ago, almost everyone in America had a connection to a farm.

Revive that connection at the award-winning Rio Grande Heritage Farm, a re-creation of a 1930s era farmstead.

Located just northeast of the conservatories, you'll find a large kitchen garden, crops in the field, an orchard, vineyard and berry bushes surrounding an adobe farmhouse. Canning, quilting and other demonstrations take place in the farmhouse and a cider press in the wooden barn turns much of the fall apple harvest into vinegar and cider. The adobe animal barn houses a Percheron draft horse, Paint horse, Alpine goats, a Jersey cow, Churro sheep and Dominique chickens. During the winter months, early morning visitors might catch a glimpse of sandhill cranes feeding in the fields.

Programs for this year-round working farm include interpretive presentations, hands-on demonstrations and farm activities.

Entry to the Rio Grande Heritage Farm is included with regular Botanic Garden / Aquarium admission.

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: Postcard Copper Ave Homes

ALBUQUERQUE

Postcard: Copper Avenue Homes 1940


This postcard is Copper Avenue in Downtown Albuquerque. The house in the foreground is now used by MRCOG, the Mid-Region Council of Governments.

I can't read the postcard clearly, but it may say that the homes were located in the Roundhouse District. I have never heard this reference to a Downtown Albuquerque neighborhood. Usually when people talk about the Roundhouse, they are referring to state government in Santa Fe.

The Wheels Museum has records about the Albuquerque Roundhouse that was used to service trains at the Rail Yards in Barelas.


AT&SF Albuquerque, NM Roundhouse

According to the Wheels Museum:

"The 32-stall Albuquerque roundhouse was built in 1914-15. It included four "long" stalls on the east side that could accommodate Mallets and other large engines. The turntable was an 85-foot through plate girder table that was extended to 120 feet.

MRCOG:

The Mid-Region Council of Governments is a multi-county governmental agency that is helping our region plan responsibly for the future, in light of anticipated growth in New Mexico's mid-region.  Representing the counties of Bernalillo, Valencia, Torrance, and Sandoval, we provide planning services in the areas of transportation, agriculture, workforce development, employment growth, land-use, water, and economic development. We also manage the popular commuter rail service: the New Mexico Rail Runner Express. Our regional water planning effort addresses a fundamental concern of local governments: how will we meet future water needs? Likewise, the Agriculture Collaborative focuses on another scarce resource: local farmland, which as a result of urban encroachment, is dwindling.

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: Copper Square

ALBUQUERQUE

Old El Fidel Hotel/Copper Square

View the drawings of Copper Square.


Copper Square is an office complex converted from the El Fidel Hotel. The building has purchased in the mid-2000's with the intention of being upgraded from an office complex into modern high-tech office condos. However, the developer Vincent Garcia was later convicted of fraud and the building went into foreclosure.

The building is currently for sale.


According to the Albuquerque Journal in 2010:

While he was sucking cash out of some $24 million in construction loans intended for projects such as the mixed-use Anasazi Downtown and Copper Square, developer Vincent J. Garcia was living the life of a "high roller," according to court documents.

He went to Mexico every other month. He bragged about his trips there and elsewhere, like the Las Vegas trip to see Oscar de la Hoya in a boxing match. According to statements from four confidential witnesses, his office manager would pull money from one or another loan account before he left on a trip, and at least one source believed the loans were probably his sole source of income.

It got so bad, one source told agents, that one of Vincent Garcia's sons, Josh Garcia, accused him of being a crook and dropped out of a condominium project he was involved in with his father.

To get the draws on their construction loans, the Garcias created fake invoices themselves, the affidavits say, but also "coerced" subcontractors to create fake invoices for them. Another tactic, they say, was to submit legitimate subcontractor invoices but pocket the money and tell the subs that the bank had rejected the subcontractors' bills.

 

Anasazi and Copper Square were 75 percent to 85 percent complete when work ground to a halt.

History from Zia Rising Construction Management:

Originally designed and built in 1931 as the El Fidel Hotel, the building comprised a basement and five additional levels. The entrance level served as the hotel lobby, kitchen, dining room and coffee shop, with additional offices and retail space. Upper levels housed guest rooms and meeting rooms. The basement was devoted to laundry, boilers and storage areas.

Forum Limited purchased the property in 1979 from the Fidel family, and in 1981 began renovation to create the current Copper Square. Because of the historic nature of the building, 75% of the building exterior was restored to its original condition. The building frontage on both 5th Street and Copper Avenue retained the 1930's era facade. The exterior remodeling focused on the creation of a five-story garden atrium in the southwest corner of the building, replacing the former ballroom.

 

The resulting conversion created a five-story atrium office building with basement area. The gross building area with The Copper Square is 99,900 square feet; net rentable area is 67,784 square feet; and usable area is 58,941 square feet. Each office floor has 12,736 square feet of rentable space, and forms an "L" shape facing the atrium with the common corridors being open balconies.

 

Picture of the original hotel.

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.

ABQ: Aerial 1940

ALBUQUERQUE

1940 Aerial Photo

This is Downtown looking towards the river. It would appear there is flooding in what is now West Old Town and the Near North Valley.

Link to 1940 Census maps.

In 1940 Albuquerque had a Class C minor baseball team the Albuquerque Cardinals, named after their major league affiliated team of the St. Louis Cardinals. They played in the Arizona-Texas league at the Tingley Field ballpark, located in present day Barelas at 10th, Stover and Atlantic. The team started as the Albuquerque Dons, then the Cardinals, then Dukes while working their way up to AA, and eventually becoming the Albuquerque Dodgers, affiliated with the Los Angeles team, in the 1960s.

In 1940 the population of the state had increased about 25% from the previous decade, despite a declining birth rate and new laws restricting immigration. The total state population was 531,818.

Thousands of people flocked to New Mexico from 1880 through 1940 to seek a cure for tuberculosis. While many states began to discourage and even stop them from arriving, New Mexico welcomed "Lungers." By the 1930s New Mexico had nearly 60 sanatoriums to treat tuberculosis. Many more people came to find a cure in the sunshine on their own without official treatment. An entire industry arose around the health seekers, including a variety of newsletters.

The Health City Sun newspaper was established in 1929 and remains in print today. They now specialize in running legal notices.

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.

ABQ: Former Hale Shoes

ALBUQUERQUE

Former Hale Shoes

In the 1930s Hale Shoes opened at 109 5th Street SW, between Central Avenue and Gold, remaining in the same location for over 80 years. According to the Alibi, the store only had three owners. All of them ran the store by the same motto: Don't try to stock what people think they want. Give them what they need.

The Hale Shoes sign, and some other mementos from the store, was donated to the Albuquerque Museum after the store closed.

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.