Walking Albuquerque. Stephen Ausherman
ambience. Founded on Valentine’s Day 1978 by fourth-generation Bareleñas known as the Gonzales brothers, the BCH is famous for authentic New Mexican fare and the fat-cat politicos who come to feast on it.The next restaurant is on the campus of the National Hispanic Cultural Center on the south side of Bridge St. Entering on the east side from 4th St., you’ll first encounter the torreón, a tower housing a 4,000-square-foot concave fresco depicting more than 3,000 years of Hispanic history. Next is a renovated adobe Pueblo/Mission/Hacienda–style school formerly known as West San Jose School (aka River View Elementary) and built under the Works Progress Administration. La Fonda del Bosque opened here in 2000 and quickly garnered national praise. Dining in this stylish 280-seat restaurant is an elegant experience, and not as pricey as you might expect. (The NHCC is generously subsidized by the State of New Mexico.) Sunday brunch is especially popular. New management is expected to take over in 2015 with a greater variety of menu offerings.The NHCC complex also features a stellar art museum with traveling exhibitions and permanent collections. Their events calendar is crammed with music and dance performances, film festivals, lectures, arts workshops, language classes, and more. Budget an hour minimum for a glimpse of it all. Perhaps the most interesting structure is the home of Adela Martinez, situated between the parking area and the main complex. The story behind it: Construction of the NHCC was ready to begin in the late 1990s. All that stood in the way was the humble abode where Martinez had lived since the 1920s. Problem was she refused to budge, despite a $200,000 offering for her homestead. It remains in place, front and center on the NHCC grounds, as an unintentional yet completely authentic sort of shrine to mi chante.
Return to Bridge Blvd. and turn right.Detour: If you haven’t had enough to eat by now, take a short stroll to El Modelo. The take-out eatery with limited outdoor seating offers comfort food. Hot, heavy, messy, and delicious, it’s indisputably the city’s best Mexican dive. The red-chile spare ribs are perfectly spicy and savory. Gorge yourself, and then go north on 2nd St. to walk it off.
If skipping the detour, turn left on 3rd and cross the dirt lot on the north side of the overpass (Guadalupe Bridge).
Turn left on 2nd St. The neighborhood ahead fronts the rail yards, built between 1914 and 1924 and operated first by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and later by Burlington Northern. (Since the merger in 1996, the rails have operated under the dominion of BNSF.) At their height in the early 20th century, the rail yards employed nearly a quarter of the city’s workforce. Since their closure in the 1970s, the shops have been steadily falling into ruin. Recent drives to renovate the site into a commercial district have been enthusiastic, yet painfully slow. One theory on the delay involves the site’s value in its current state of derelict. The massive industrial landscape is invaluable as a filming location. The Avengers, Terminator Salvation, and Breaking Bad are among the big-budget productions partially filmed here. In 2014, the blacksmith shop became the site for the Rail Yards Market, a highly popular Sunday event with local farmers, food trucks, healers, herbalists, artists, and entertainers.The first structure you’ll see behind the chain-link and barbed-wire fence is a narrow, single-story storehouse that covers nearly 19,000 square feet. Built in 1915, it’s the oldest building still standing on the site. It currently houses the Wheels Museum, dedicated to preserving the history of transportation in the American West. To the immediate north, the machine shop, built in 1921, is the largest building, covering 165,000 square feet, or 3.8 acres. Its multicolored windows rival the stained glass on the Fellowship Hall.On your left, the Railroad Superintendent’s House at the corner of Pacific Ave. is one of the first and finest railroad buildings. Built in 1881 for Frank W. Smith, this Victorian Romantic cottage features three corbeled brick chimneys, a cross-gabled roof, finely carved sandstone lintels, carpenter Gothic pillars capped with arabesque corbels, and an open porch that wraps around the north and east sides of the house. The walls are red sandstone from a quarry near Laguna Pueblo.A two-story firehouse built in 1920 stands near the Y where 1st St. begins. Entry to the Rail Yards Market is just ahead on the right. This route continues straight on 2nd St. The blocks ahead, particularly the one between Stover and Iron, showcase some fascinating architectural designs from the railroad era. The three-story Queen Anne–style house on the southwest corner of 2nd St. and Iron Ave., built in 1899, functioned as the American Hotel from 1910 to 1929 and later as rented apartments. In 1952 it became the founding site of the Brothers of the Good Shepherd and the first homeless refuge in Albuquerque. (See Walk 7 for more details.) The Albuquerque Rescue Mission is across the street on the northwest corner. As expected, this area draws transient crowds and tends to get a bit sketchy at times.
Turn right on Iron Ave.
Turn left on 1st St. On the left immediately after crossing beneath Coal, El Madrid Lounge is a drinking enterprise that has catered to the community in various incarnations since the mid-20th century. At last check, it was closed (hopefully a temporary status), but its murals and signage still hearken back to bygone eras of romantic lowriders and drive-thru liquor stores.
After passing the grand east façade of Zachary Castle and beneath Lead, find the Santa Fe Freight House on your right near the south end of the Albuquerque depot complex. This two-story simplified Mission-style office, built in 1946, was one of the last AT&SF additions to the complex. Two more original buildings are still standing: a former telegraph office built in 1914 is directly behind the freight house, and the Indian Curio Store, built in 1912, stands to the north and now serves as an Amtrak office. The original AT&SF Depot, built in 1902, burned down in 1993. The Alvarado Hotel, also built in 1902, stood on the north end of the complex until 1970. In his 1963 reader’s guide, Southwestern Book Trails, Lawrence Clark Powell described the Alvarado as “one of the last of the Harvey Houses, and the most beautiful of them all.” The inexplicable demolition of the landmark hotel left the city scarred for decades. Much of the complex has been rebuilt (in a reinterpretation of the original California Mission style) as the Alvarado Transportation Center, the city’s hub for Amtrak, Greyhound, and local mass transit. Locate historical markers along the sidewalk for additional information.
To return to the starting point, go one block west on Gold Ave. and one block south on 2nd St.
POINTS OF INTEREST
Gertrude Zachary’s Castle Antiques gertrudezachary.com, 416 2nd St. SW, 505-244-1320
First United Methodist Church fumconline.org, 314 Lead Ave. SW, 505-243-5646
Our Lady of Kazan Monastery kazanmonastery.org, 324 Hazeldine Ave. SW, 505-242-6186
B. Ruppe Drugs facebook.com/bruppedrugsinc, 807 4th St. SW, 505-243-6719
Juanita’s Comida Mexicana 910 4th St. SW, 505-843-9669
Red Ball Café redballcafe.com, 1301 4th St. SW, 505-247-9438
Small Engine Gallery smallenginegallery.com, 1413 4th St. SW
The TANNEX acebook.com/thetannex, 1417 4th St. SW
Barelas Coffee House 1502 4th St. SW, 505-843-7577
National Hispanic Cultural Center nhccnm.org, 1701 4th St. SW, 505-242-5289
La Fonda del Bosque lafondadelbosque.com, 1701 4th St. SW, 505-247-9480
El Modelo 1715 2nd St. SW, 505-242-1843
Wheels Museum wheelsmuseum.org, 1100 2nd St. SW, 505-243-6269
Rail Yards Market railyardsmarket.org, 777 1st St. SW, 505-203-6200
El Madrid Lounge 423 1st St. SW, 505-242-0829
Alvarado