This is a walk I would be happy to do over and over again.”
POINTS OF INTEREST
Century Theatres cinemark.com/theatre-447, 100 Central Ave. SW, 505-243-9555
Tucanos Brazilian Grill tucanos.com, 110 Central Ave. SW, 505-246-9900
Sushi King sushikingnm.com, 118 Central Ave. SW, 505-842-5099
Sunshine Theater sunshinetheaterlive.com, 120 Central Ave. SW, 505-764-0249
Chama River Microbar chamariverbrewery.com, 106 2nd St. SW, 505-842-8329
Burt’s Tiki Lounge 313 Gold Ave. SW, 505-247-2878
Downtown Contemporary Gallery downtowncontemporary.com, 105 4th St. SW, 505-363-3870
516 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,
