Route 66 - El Vado Motel - Albuquerque, NM
by Susan Rissi Tregoning
Title
Route 66 - El Vado Motel - Albuquerque, NM
Artist
Susan Rissi Tregoning
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
The El Vado Motel with its beautifully restored original neon sign lit at night on historic Route 66 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Reopening in 2018 after an $18 million award-winning redevelopment project, the El Vado Auto Court is Albuquerque, New Mexico’s latest Route 66 motel to be revitalized!
The El Vado is Albuquerque’s oldest Route 66 tourist court on the current alignment. Irish immigrant, Daniel Murphy, built the El Vado in anticipation of the Route 66 realignment, opening the motel in 1937. Designed in the popular Spanish Pueblo Revival style, the motel had thirty-two rooms with adjoining carports and a gas station. Quite the showplace in its day, a write-up in the Albuquerque Progress described the rooms as “swanky tile cabin suites ready for the summer tourist trade.”
The El Vado was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993, cited as one of the best examples of pre-World War II motels in New Mexico. It has also been designated a City Landmark and listed on the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties.
The motel closed in 2005. The city was finally able to purchase the El Vado in 2010 and began looking for a partner on board with their historic preservation and redevelopment concept. The plan was to preserve the existing buildings while bringing new life and activity to the complex and surrounding area through adaptive reuse.
In 2018 the El Vado reopened as a Boutique Motel elegantly furnished with custom-crafted mid-century modern furniture. The motel was reduced to twenty-two rooms to make room for a centrally located community food court with food pods and retail spaces, a taproom, pool, and events center.
The El Vado revitalization project won the 2019 NMAF award “for important historic buildings or sites that have had a lasting effect upon bringing together our community.”
Copyright 2022 Susan Rissi Tregoning
Uploaded
March 8th, 2022
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