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: 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.

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: Gold Building

ALBUQUERQUE

Gold Building (also known as New Mexico Bank & Trust)

Wikipedia:

The Bank of New Mexico Building, as it was originally known, was built on the site of the old Wright's Trading Post building at Fourth and Gold.The building was dedicated in a ceremony featuring Native American dancers and a speech by a sombrero-wearing Winthrop Rockefeller, who was one of the original owners.

The building is rectangular in plan and sits on a larger one-story base. The east and west walls of the Gold Building are windowless expanses of reddish brick, much like the neighboring Simms Building. The north facade is clad in dark glass that neatly reflects the image of the Bank of Albuquerque Tower a few blocks away. The south elevation, also glass, is punctuated by a protruding brick-faced elevator shaft. The architects were W.C. Kruger & Associates.

 

EMPORIS:

The Gold Building is a modernist high-rise.

Technical Data

Height (tip)

203.41 ft

Height (architectural)

203.41 ft

Height (roof)

203.41 ft

Floors (above ground)

14

Construction start

1967

Construction end

1968

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.
 

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.

ABQ: Crossing Signal

ALBUQUERQUE

Crossing Signal

View the Photo Journal of Downtown drawings. These were created from photographs of Downtown Albuquerque.

ABQ: Parking Sign

ALBUQUERQUE

Parking Garage Sign

This is a photo converted to a drawing of a sign located in Downtown Albuquerque.
.....

Photo journal of drawings.

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.