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Rt. 66 Ghost Town Declared A National Historic District


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Rt. 66 Ghost Town Declared a National Historic District

 

by Tom Drake

 

Santa Fe -- Glenrio, a town fabricated by transportation and the needs of travelers, sits empty along an abandoned stretch of Route 66 on the Texas-New Mexico border. A modern-day ghost town, it has been declared a National Historic District by the National Park Service, the New Mexico Historic Preservation Division announced today.

 

The First in Texas/Last in Texas Motel, the Art Moderne-style Little Juarez Diner, and the ca. 1930 adobe State Line Bar and Motel on the New Mexico side all are vacant. Some are missing windows, others appear about to be overcome by nature and a few have morphed into out buildings.

 

But to get off Interstate 40 and cruise Route 66 through Glenrio and across the border oddly evokes some of the excitement and sense of adventure motorists from decades ago felt when they traveled long stretches of two-lane blacktop through a lonely countryside.

 

"Glenrio was a splash of bright lights, hot meals and a few western-themed motels, and after that all signs of civilization ended abruptly," said John Murphey, HPD State Register coordinator. "Not only was Glenrio the only town for miles around on Route 66, but its livelihood depended entirely on Route 66, and without it, it quickly became a mid-century ghost town."

 

There was always a bit of artifice to Glenrio. The town originally called Rock Island in 1908 was renamed Glenrio by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, although there is no river or grassy valley for miles.

 

Glenrio prospered and by 1915 a frame school was built to complement the small houses, town hall, Methodist Church, Glenrio Hotel, restaurants and new businesses mostly centered around the railroad and its new depot. It was the federal government's siting of a post office in Glenrio in 1916 that officially placed the town in New Mexico, although mail was delivered by train to the Texas side and brought over to New Mexico for delivery.

 

By 1917, the hotel had numerous guests traveling the rough Ozark Trails by car. Automobile traffic increased as the dirt-road predecessor was officially designated Route 66 in 1926. Once a two-lane blacktop connected Chicago to Santa Monica, California, in the mid-1930s, Glenrio literally turned its back on its early railroad years and put its best face toward the new highway.

 

Several gas stations, a new restaurant and a motel clustered along the north side of Route 66 by the early 1930s. A few buildings from Glenrio's rail-town past were moved up close to the new highway, but most of the rest were demolished or fell into ruin. Dry on the Deaf County, Texas, side most new businesses located in New Mexico's Quay County, which followed most of the nation in repealing Prohibition.

 

Glenrio's peak period began in 1945 and lasted 30 years until Interstate 40 bypassed it, killing in two years the motels, restaurants, five gas stations and other businesses that thrived for decades -- many of them under family ownership.

 

The relatives of Joseph Brownlee and Homer Ehresman who started many of the businesses recall when cars were lined up five deep waiting to fill up with gasoline. In 1955, Route 66 was widened to four lanes in town to accommodate the traffic.

 

The Glenrio Historic District includes 17 buildings and structures, the Route 66 roadbed, and the one remaining home from its days as a rail town. Many of the buildings are small and boxy, made of adobe-and-frame construction covered in smooth plaster.

 

The Little Juarez Diner built in 1952 was built of cinderblock and streamlined to resemble the popular small, one-man operated Valentine Diners, which were hauled into towns across the country on flatcars from Wichita, Kansas. Brownlee added the touch of painting his creation with green stripes to match his nearby Texaco gas station.

 

Glenrio was one of the last Route 66 communities to be bypassed by an interstate, holding out well past when most of system was completed. For years, Interstate 40 stopped just east of town in Texas and motorists traveled the highway to Tucumcari. But eventually the new road came through, and today motorists mostly zip by Glenrio except for the Route 66 aficionados looking to recapture a roadtrip from a bygone era.

 

-30-

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Tom Drake, Public Relations

Historic Preservation Division Department of Cultural Affairs

Bataan Memorial Building

407 Galisteo St., Suite 236

Santa Fe, NM 87501

(505) 827-4067

tom.drake@state.nm.us

www.nmhistoricpreservation.org

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Thanks for the good news and interesting description of Glenrio! I have added it to the places I want to see on my next trip to New Mexico. We just got back from a trip your way and plan a return visit soon.

 

I couldn’t resist looking up the description of the road through Glenrio in the 1921 Automobile Blue Book, where it is described as a “sand dirt rut” from a few miles east of Tucumcari to Glenrio. It was identified as a section of the Ozark Trail. Glenrio was apparently just a wide place in the road in 1921, as it didn’t merit more than the terse “Thru Glenrio, NM, 111.0” (the mileage from Santa Rosa).

 

They did comment that stretches of the road between Santa Rosa and Amarillo “will be improved in the near future, making to possible to travel over graded road the entire distance.”

 

Thanks again!

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