Walking Albuquerque. Stephen Ausherman
Arts 516arts.org, 516 Central Ave. SW, 505-242-1445
El Rey Theater elreytheater.com, 622 Central Ave. SW, 505-242-2353
Launchpad launchpadrocks.com, 618 Central Ave. SW, 505-764-8887
Holocaust & Intolerance Museum of New Mexico nmholocaustmuseum.org, 616 Central Ave. SW, 505-247-0606
Sushi Hana sushihananm.com, 521 Central Ave. NW, 505-842-8700
KiMo Theater kimotickets.com, 421 Central Ave. NW, 505-768-3522
Sister Bar sisterthebar.com, 407 Central Ave. NW, 505-242-4900
Anodyne theanodyne.com, 409 Central Ave. NW, 505-244-1820
Telephone Museum of New Mexico telecomhistory.org, 110 4th St. NW, 505-842-2937
Hotel Andaluz hotelandaluz.com, 125 2nd St. NW, 505-242-9090
MÁS hotelandaluz.com, 125 2nd St. NW, 505-923-9080
The Cell fusionabq.org, 700 1st St. NW, 505-766-9412
Warehouse 508 warehouse508.org, 508 1st St. NW, 505-296-2738
ROUTE SUMMARY
1 Start at the southwest corner of Central Ave. and Broadway Blvd. and walk west on Central Ave.
2 Turn left on 2nd St.
3 Turn right on Gold Ave.
4 Turn right on 3rd St. and go half a block north.
5 Turn left into the alley.
6 Turn right on 7th St.
7 Turn right on Central Ave.
8 Turn left on 6th St. and go half a block north.
9 Turn right into the alley.
10 Turn left on 2nd St.
11 Turn right into the second parking lot entrance north of Roma Ave.
12 Turn right on 1st St.
13 Turn right at the end of 1st St.
14 Take a sharp left onto the viaduct.
15 Turn right on Broadway Blvd.
CONNECTING THE WALKS
Walk 2 begins on the southeast corner of Central and Broadway. Walk 3 begins on 3rd St. one block south of Gold. To connect with Walk 4, continue one block west from the alley south of Central. For Walk 5, turn left on 4th St. from the alley north of Central and go two blocks north.
Pueblo Deco details on the KiMo Theater
2 HUNING HIGHLAND: LEGACY OF THE RAILROAD AND ROUTE 66
BOUNDARIES: Broadway Blvd., Coal Ave., Elm St., Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Ave.
DISTANCE: 2 miles
DIFFICULTY: Easy
PARKING: Free parking on Broadway Blvd., Coal Ave., Elm St., Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Ave.
PUBLIC TRANSIT: Buses 66 and 1618 on Central Ave. at Broadway Blvd. Numerous routes serve the area. Railrunner station is on 1st St. south of Central Ave.
In 1880 German immigrant/merchant/entrepreneur Franz Huning platted the lots east of the newly arrived railroad. By 1888, he’d already sold 63 percent of the 536 lots. Huning’s Highland Addition, Albuquerque’s first Anglo neighborhood, reflects Anglo-American values and Victorian tastes in home design. Architectural examples include Queen Anne, Italianate, and Colonial Revival—all styles that could be ordered prefabricated in factories and delivered via the railroad. A growing fascination for and dependence on automobiles contributed to the neighborhood’s decline. The 1937 realignment of Route 66 (Central Ave.) cut it in half. In the 1960s, I-25 emerged on the eastern boundary, and liquor stores and cheap motels popped up near its intersection with Central Ave. The area was in rapid decline by the mid-1970s. Its first step toward recovery came in 1978, when the Huning Highland Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The rebound continued into the late 1990s and early 2000s with the city’s initiative to redevelop east downtown, or EDo. The new name and gentrified urban face-lift is not without its critics, and there’s still much room for improvement, but the push continues to restore and balance the celebrated characteristics of both the railroad era and the heyday of Route 66.
Start at the southeast corner of Central and Broadway. The enormous Gothic Revival complex to the north is the Old Albuquerque High School, which provided secondary education to local students as early as 1914 in the Old Main Building on Central. The Manual Arts addition on Arno St. was completed in 1927, and the gymnasium on Tijeras Ave. was added in 1938. Classes continued until the early 1970s. The building sat vacant until 2003, when renovations began to convert old classrooms into stylish apartments and commercial spaces. Visitors are not allowed to explore the interior on their own, but EDo Spaces offers tours of The Lofts at Albuquerque High three times a week.
Walk east on Central and follow the scent of comfort food to the Standard Diner. Housed in a 1930s gas station, the popular eatery is both nostalgic and contemporary in terms of both décor and cuisine. Bacon-wrapped meatloaf is a favorite. That and the country-fried tuna seemed to impress Guy Fieri when he stopped in on a 2013 episode of the TV series Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.A three-story schoolhouse once stood on the northwest corner of Central and Edith Blvd. Originally it was the site of Albuquerque Academy, which became the Albuquerque Public School in 1891 and a public library and business college after 1900. The building was demolished in 1923 and replaced in 1925 with an excellent example of Pueblo Spanish–style architecture. It now houses the Special Collections Library, research collections on Albuquerque history and New Mexico history and culture, as well as The Center for the Book, a hands-on learning center about the history of printing.Foodie alert on the southwest corner: Artichoke Cafe, an upscale New American cuisine establishment, earned its place on every local favorite list (along with the attention of a few national reviews) long before anyone else would’ve dared put a bistro in EDo. And, yes, they have artichoke on the menu.
Turn right on Walter St. The restaurant on the east side of the parking lot should look familiar to fans of the TV series Breaking Bad. The Grove Cafe should also interest fans of breakfast and brunch. Go for the goat cheese burrito.The McMillan House, at 119 Walter St., is the first of several unusual constructions you’ll encounter in the next three blocks. Built for A. B. McMillan, a wealthy socialite in the 1890s, this chaotically designed house features a veranda that wraps around the east- and north-facing sides, along with gable trim that seems oddly reminiscent of Imperial Japan. The neighbor to the south seems even stranger, with its low-slope roof and widow’s walk, details commonly associated with coastal housing, but you’ll soon notice those are popular rooftops in this neighborhood. More seemingly coastal features can be found on the Cristy House, at 201 Walter St. Completed in 1897 the clapboard cottage is adorned with