Walking Albuquerque. Stephen Ausherman

myabqride.com, 100 1st St. SW, 505-243-RIDE

      ROUTE SUMMARY

      1 Start at the corner of 2nd St. and Silver Ave. and walk south.

      2 Turn right on Lead Ave.

      3 Turn left on 4th St.

      4 Cross Bridge Blvd. and enter the campus for the National Hispanic Cultural Center.

      5 Explore the campus at your leisure and return to Bridge Blvd.

      6 Turn right on Bridge Blvd.

      7 Turn left on 3rd St. and cross the dirt lot on the north side of the overpass.

      8 Turn left on 2nd St.

      9 Turn right on Iron Ave.

      10 Turn left on 1st St.

      CONNECTING THE WALKS

      Connect with Walk 1 at the corner of 2nd and Gold.

      Bronze sculpture of Dr. John A. Aragón at the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce on 4th St.

      4 DOWNTOWN TO THE COUNTRY CLUB: MOVIN’ ON UP

      BOUNDARIES: 8th St., Central Ave., Laguna Blvd., Tingley Dr.

      DISTANCE: 3 miles, 4.25 miles with detour

      DIFFICULTY: Moderate (unpaved surfaces)

      PARKING: Free street parking on Silver Ave. west of 8th St. and at Tingley Beach

      PUBLIC TRANSIT: Bus 66 on Central Ave. at 10th St.; buses 53 and 54 on 6th St. at Silver Ave.

      This walk shuttles between the west end of downtown’s main drag and the south side of the Albuquerque Country Club. Though less than a mile apart, the two settings are nearly opposites in character. Along the way you’ll encounter more contrasts as you explore two distinct neighborhoods. The Raynolds Addition, which spans 8th–17th Streets, was platted in 1912. The blocks gradually filled in with bungalows, Southwest-style houses, and some of the city’s first apartment buildings. Some of the original structures were sacrificed in the “urban renewal” of the 1960s. Homes were razed to make way for businesses, and many of the lots sat empty for decades to follow. Recent efforts to revive neighborhood spirit include public art projects, xeric gardens, and tree sculpting. The Country Club area, spanning from 17th St. to Tingley Dr., was platted in 1928 as the Huning Castle Addition, named for the so-called castle built in the 1880s on an estate that spanned from Railroad (now Central) Ave. to the Rio Grande.

       Start on the northeast corner of Silver and 8th. The former Southern Union Gas Company of New Mexico building was designed in the 1950s by quintessential Southwest architect John Gaw Meem, famed for concocting the “Sante Fe style” from a heady mix of Pueblo and Spanish Colonial architecture with a dash of modernism. Since 2005 the building has housed Flying Star Cafe, an extraordinarily popular local franchise. If you can’t get a seat, get a couple of sandwiches to go for picnicking later on. As the bakery smell suggests, the pastries here are also phenomenal.Across the street to the west is a relatively new development of four-story buildings with a classic live-work design. The sidewalk level accommodates office and retail space, while the upper floors are residential apartments.

       Head north toward Central. Eller Apartments front the block north of Gold Ave. They were designed by Henry Trost for Dr. Charles Eller in 1922. Just ahead are the back sides of two more historic structures. The smaller yet stately one on the right is the John Pearce House. On the left is the Skinner Building, longtime home to a popular Italian restaurant, Villa di Capo, or simply Capo’s. Designed by former cabinetmaker A. W. Boehning and built in 1931 as a grocery store, the Art Deco building has been altered over the years, yet still retains many original features, such as the terra-cotta tile façade, green and black opalescent glass detailing, and, inside, a pressed metal ceiling.

       Turn left on Park Ave. and pause at 8 o’clock on the roundabout. At 3 o’clock, The Hotel Blue first opened as Downtowner Motor Inn in 1965 and was given its current name in the late 1990s, when it was renovated into a boutique hotel with an Art Deco theme. Across the street to the west is Robinson Park, the city’s first outside of Old Town. A modest memorial in the park describes an incident involving former Indian scout John Braden. During a fiesta parade here in 1896, someone threw a firecracker into Braden’s horse-drawn wagon, which was packed with ammunition. (To clarify: the “ammunition” was for a fireworks display.) As it detonated, he managed to steer his startled horses away from the crowd, sacrificing his life to save many others. He now rests in an unmarked grave in Fairview Cemetery (Walk 23). The park also hosts the Downtown Growers’ Market on Saturday mornings, June–October. For more information, visit downtowngrowers.com.

       Continue west on Park Ave. The prairie-style home on the left is the Milne House, built in 1917. John Milne served as superintendent of Albuquerque public schools from 1911 until his death in 1956. The house is now headquarters for the Southwest Network for Environmental Justice.A pair of buildings ahead on the left have ground-floor business space and upstairs apartments. Firenze Pizzeria moved into 900 Park Ave. in 2011, after a successful run with a food truck and a mobile wood-fired oven. Next door is Java Joe’s, a well-established yet funky café with a flashy mural, sidewalk seating, local ingredients on the menu, and handcrafted coffee. One wonders how the tenant in the apartment above could ever sleep with the invigorating aroma of high-octane morning brew permeating the walls.

       Continue straight to the southwest corner of Park Ave. and 10th St. Need a haircut? Check out the cute little peluquería to the south. On the northwest corner are three ceramic-tiled columns at the entry to Washington Park. Titled Pillars of the Community, this public artwork is a collaboration between artist Eddie Dominguez, students from Washington Middle School, and elders from the neighborhood.

       Turn right on 10th St. and head north to Central, passing the luxurious and stylish Silver Moon Lodge Apartments. The Pueblo Deco–style structure was built in 2014 on the site of the old Silver Moon Lodge, a classic Route 66 motel.

       Turn left on Central. Washington Apartments stand on the southwest corner. This pair of two-story buildings, formerly a children’s hospital, was converted in 1917 to apartments. The floor plans for the 16 units are each unique. The building next door began as a single-family home in 1905. In 1930 the interior was divided into nine units, and it became the Colonial Arms Apartments. Additional units were added in the 1930s, bringing the total up to 16 by 1940. In the 1970s it became a youth hostel, and it’s now known as the Route 66 Hostel. Nightly rates range from $20 to $35.

       Continue northwest on Central, noting the remains of its classic Route 66 motels and laundromats. Just past a minuscule brick duplex is the world-famous Dog House Drive In. The chili is lethally hot, so be sure to order it on everything, especially if you’re a fan of Breaking Bad, which featured several scenes here.Ahead on the north side of Central Ave., Soldiers and Sailors Park is a triangular 0.15-acre military memorial that slumped into disrepair until local veterans banded together to fix it up in 2014.

      Bell Trading Post Lofts

       Turn left on 14th St. The first block of 14th St. constitutes the Aldo Leopold Neighborhood Historic District. These eight bungalows were built between 1913 and 1920. The one at 135 14th St. was built for Aldo Leopold himself, who resided in Albuquerque from 1914 to 1924. Leopold is credited with establishing the nation’s first federally protected wilderness area, and he’s often lauded as the founder of the modern natural conservation movement. He was an avid outdoorsman who, according to his own obsessive records, somehow managed to shoot more than