Route 66 in the News
Getting Quirky in Albuquerque
2005-11-29 20:44:58
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Grass roots efforts in many cities try to combat the hometown homogenizing created by national franchises and strip malls. But Albuquerque doesn't need copyrighted slogans or coffee mugs to advertise its quirkiness: It has Route 66.
Gentrification has yet to threaten the 18-mile stretch of the original "Mother Road" that roughly bisects the city. From 1920 to 1960, hundreds of businesses sprang up along the Central Avenue/Route 66 corridor, and many tried to attract the tourist dollar by appearing more outrageous than their neighbors.
Though the numbers have diminished through the decades, the off-beat legacy remains.
Today some of the original tourist courts, diners and gas stations still serve the public, but most of the storefronts have been reinvented with the same off-the-wall individualism their predecessors possessed.
"Beginning in the 1980s, new businesses began opening in the old buildings, and street beautification cleaned up Central Avenue," local historian Mike Pitel says. "Now the avenue is an upscale, hip area to shop and dine."
The area termed Old Town has about 100 merchants. Pitel inventoried the pre-1959 buildings for the city's official, free "Route 66 Map and Guide." Here are quirky stops - some original, some contemporary - where you can get your kicks on Route 66.
Sleeping along Route 66
At night, the neon still flashes on Central Avenue. From AAA-approved motor lodges to real dumps, you can sample the forerunners of today's modern motel. "The number of motels peaked at 98 in 1955," Pitel said. "Now about 40 remain. They're an endangered species."
My wife and I stepped back in time and stayed in relative luxury at the Monterey Non-Smoker's Motel, a AAA two-diamond lodge on Central Avenue within walking distance of Old Town and its attractions.
On the east end of Central Avenue in Nob Hill, Albuquerque's first suburb, we checked out the Aztec Motel, said to be New Mexico's oldest continually operated motel on Route 66.
Though AAA doesn't list this 20-unit lodge, it gets a four-diamond quirky rating, thanks to one of its longtime residents, Phyllis Evans. The retired history professor from the University of Michigan moved in for a brief stay in 1994 and loved the motel's family atmosphere so much she stayed.
"I decorated my patio with odds and ends I picked up at flea markets," Evans said. "My neighbors got jealous, so I decorated their patios, too."
She eventually plastered thousands of knickknacks over the exterior walls and turned the motel into traffic-stopping artwork. However, the Aztec and the Nob Hill Motel, across the street, were recently sold and are scheduled for major renovation. Evans' art is to remain.
Dining along Route 66
Skip the fast-food and sit at the counter stool in one of the hometown eateries on Central Avenue. The moderne architecture, juke box classics and waitresses with 1950s-style uniforms make 66 Diner a favorite. It serves a daily blue-plate special, plus cheeseburgers, chicken-fried steaks and great double-chocolate shakes.
For more upscale cuisine, we dined at the Scalo Northern Italian Grill, in the art deco/territorial-style Nob Hill Business Center on Central Avenue. This was the first shopping center in Albuquerque.
The restaurant serves gourmet pizzas, pasta and desserts. Across the street, a 15-foot wide flying saucer hovers over the Satellite Cafe.
Shopping along Route 66
With Route 66 came the beginnings of a mobile society. The Nob Hill Business Center caught the first wave of the future in 1947, opening with 22 businesses and off-street parking. The original shops in the horseshoe-shaped complex are long gone, replaced with galleries, a health-food store, an antique shop and Scalo.
But dozens of bizarre bazaars occupy historic buildings along Central Avenue, both in the Nob Hill neighborhood, home of the University of New Mexico, and downtown. After decades of decline, Route 66 is now the vanguard of the city's hip scene.
Decorated Route 66
Just as sunsets paint the New Mexican sky with blazing hues, neon signs turn Route 66 into a corridor of color. Period motel signs still dominate the strip at night. "Fortunately, many of the motel signs have been placed on the Historic Register, so they'll remain the same even if the businesses change," Pitel said.
But you don't have to wait until dark to enjoy the contemporary kitsch along the avenue.
From the Satellite Cafe to the Launchpad store, the alien influence of Roswell, N.M., shines. The two-story sign for the Library Bar and Grill in downtown features such classic tomes as Gone with the Gin, Tequila Mockingbird, A Midsummer Night's Drink and Lord of the Onion Rings.
Sweet Route 66
Candy gets risque at The Candy Lady's Kitchen in Old Town. Besides 21 flavors of fudge, including red or green chile and pinyon, there are X-rated decorated cakes and candy shaped like human body parts. "It's so much fun to embarrass customers," says owner Debbie Ball, grinning. "They go out with a laugh."
For something closer to traditional treats, stop at the Theobroma Chocolatier on Central Avenue, downtown. You want a nine-pound, milk-chocolate ballerina's leg, or a regulation-size chocolate football or basketball? Store manager Gene Corbin can fix you up.
"We shipped 20 (chocolate) footballs to the University of Florida last year," he said. "We have 300 different molds."
Wacky Route 66 museums
Old Town abounds with the cultural museums you'd expect in a cosmopolitan city, but some quirky collections bring back visions of oldtime tourist attractions.
The American International Rattlesnake Museum claims to have the world's largest collection of rattler species. Signs thoughtfully remind visitors, "This is not a petting zoo."
And the Turquoise Museum, with its massive collection of turquoise, displays a huge nugget shaped like George Washington's profile.
Joe Dan Lowry, a third-generation turquoise miner, grows passionate when he talks about his favorite gemstone. "We display turquoise from 50 mines across the Southwest," he said. Turquoise has "been used in the Southwest for 2,000 years. Turquoise is the perfect metaphor for life. No two pieces are alike."
Then he switched into his buyer-beware mode:
"Most of the jewelry sold in Old Town is not "natural turquoise,' the term for gemstone quality. Inexpensive jewelry is made from chalk-like white turquoise that has been treated to make it hard enough to set in jewelry. It's dyed, stabilized with acrylic, or soaked in oil to deepen the color. It doesn't have the luster of true gemstone turquoise."
I asked Lowry about the jewelry sold by vendors on the plaza in Old Town. "Most of the jewelry on the square is low-grade turquoise from China, placed in machine-made settings.
"In the stores," he advised, "look at the tag: "Indian Crafted' means it's machine made and assembled" by American Indians who also sell the items.
"'Indian Handmade' means every step is handmade from raw to finished product. It's all right to buy treated turquoise, but you should know the difference."
~George Oxford Miller
George Oxford Miller is a freelance writer living in Clarksboro, N.J. (for the St Petersburg Times)
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