Route 66 Centennial Speaker Series: An Iconic View: Route 66 in Downtown Albuquerque

Event box

In-Person

Richard Ruddy’s talk looks at the impact that Route 66 had on Albuquerque’s main street, Central Ave. The story begins forty-six years before Route 66 was founded and is told with an iconic series of photographs each coincidentally taken from the railroad tracks and looking west along the trail that would become Central Ave. We see downtown Albuquerque grew to an optimum size in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, a vibrant business district the Saturday Evening Post said had “a blazing main drag” which the Chamber of Commerce claimed to be the brightest main street in America. But there is a downside to “optimum” which the iconic photographs also show as Albuquerque today valiantly fights to find a new identity for its central business district.

This is part of a rotating series of speakers that will offer presentations at these locations in 2026: Raymond Sanchez Community Center; Martha Liebert Public Library; Gutierrez-Hubbell House; International District Library; Isleta Pueblo Cultural Center; Los Lunas Multigenerational Center; Special Collections Library, East Mountain Library, Central and Unser Library, and the Wheels Museum. Find out more information here.