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3 BARELAS: LAND OF MI CHANTE

BOUNDARIES: Gold Ave., 1st St., National Hispanic Cultural Center

DISTANCE: 2.5 miles

DIFFICULTY: Easy

PARKING: Street parking on Silver Ave. near 2nd St., parking garage on 2nd St. south of Gold Ave., ample free parking at National Hispanic Cultural Center

PUBLIC TRANSIT: Bus 40 on 3rd St. at Silver Ave. Buses 66, 766, 777, and many others stop at the Alvarado Transportation Center. Bus 54 travels 4th St. between Silver Ave. and the National Hispanic Cultural Center. Numerous other routes serve the area.

Barelas emerged in the 19th century as a farming village near a site where the Camino Real crossed the Rio Grande. With the arrival of the railroad in 1880, Barelas quickly grew from an agricultural community into an industrial neighborhood dominated by Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway shops along 2nd St. Commerce increased when Route 66 coursed through the neighborhood in 1926, but its realignment in 1937 bypassed Barelas. The closure of the railroad shops in 1970 eliminated 1,500 jobs from the community. Adding insult to injury, the city disconnected the main route into Barelas to create Civic Plaza in 1974 (and reconnected it in 2014). Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Barelas fostered a mean reputation as a crime-ridden barrio. Now with the National Hispanic Cultural Center well established and renovations of the Rail Yards moving full steam ahead, Barelas is making a phenomenal comeback.

 Start at 2nd St. and Silver Ave. At the time of this writing (2014) plans for the northwest corner are underway for the construction of the Imperial Building, a mixed-use development with a 12,000-square-foot grocery store, which has downtown residents giddy with anticipation.

 Walk south one block to find Zachary Castle. In 1976 Gertrude Zachary opened a jewelry manufacturing operation on 2nd St. and soon came to be regarded as one of Albuquerque’s most dynamic, if somewhat eccentric, business leaders. In 2006 construction began on her dream house, a Paris-inspired estate abutting an overpass just off Skid Row. The estimated cost: $2–$4 million. Zachary shared her estate with a Shih Tzu named Zipper until her death in 2013. The private compound includes a pool, a courtyard garden, and an 8,500-square-foot main house with four turrets, each rising 50 feet. A separate tower stands directly in front of a billboard that advertises her wares. Gertrude Zachary’s Castle Antiques, a quirky 12,000-foot showroom of American and European antiques, is directly south of the compound.

 Turn right on Lead Ave. and walk one block west. Reverend Nathaniel Gale, Albuquerque’s first Methodist pastor, arrived from Silver City in 1879 and began holding services in a newly built adobe church on this site in 1880. His congregation outgrew the church by 1904, prompting the construction of a bigger one, which stands on the southwest corner of Lead Ave. and 3rd St. Dedicated in January 1905 the Gothic edifice is constructed of cast stone and concrete blocks. Its 24 stained glass windows show a mastery of the technique of Louis Tiffany, founder of the American stained glass style. This church building is listed as Fellowship Hall on the National Register of Historic Places. A newer, much bigger brick church stands on the corner ahead, indicating the congregation has continued to grow.

 Turn left on 4th St., which overlaps historical alignments of Highway 85, Route 66, and El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (the Spanish Colonial “Royal Road” between Santa Fe and Chihuahua). Coal Ave. ahead designates the northern boundary of Barelas. A welcoming mosaic illustrates historic buildings in the neighborhood. Another block south, the Coronado School stands on the right. The Territorial-style structure was designed by Louis Hesselden in 1936 and completed in 1937 as a Public Works Administration project. It was an elementary school from 1937 to 1975. After 20 years of administrative use, it reopened as an elementary school in 2009.The Barelas–South Fourth Street Historic District begins at the next street ahead (Stover) and extends about eight blocks to Bridge Blvd. The corridor is characterized by vernacular interpretations of popular architectural styles. Along the way you’ll find remnants of its eras—farming, railroad, and Route 66. Its decades of economic decline are still fairly evident, as are its recent years of recovery.On the southeast corner at Hazeldine Ave. is the Our Lady of Kazan Monastery. Its makeshift onion dome and Eastern Orthodox iconographic murals make it easy to spot. The local monastic community of Our Lady of Kazan began as a skete in the late 1970s. Initially established by Father Symeon Carmona, the skete has since grown into a small parish of about 30 converts. They observe Slavonic traditions but remain an independent Eastern Orthodox entity. Services are conducted in English, Slavonic, Greek, French, and Spanish. They also offer counseling services and iconography classes.Similar iconography appears across the street on B. Ruppe Drugs, which opened here in 1964. Charles Bernard Ruppe opened his first drugstore in Old Town in 1883. The enterprise has evolved from a full-service pharmacy to a vendor of traditional Mexican remedios. The manager and master curandera (traditional healer) offers herbal consultations and gorgeous handmade rosaries.However, one thing about Barelas will never change: The food is always phenomenal. Start with Juanita’s Comida Mexicana. Slightly bigger than a taco stand, this family-run eatery serves up some fine home cooking. Catch a whiff of barbacoa and you’ll know what to order before stepping through the door. Next, head down to Red Ball Café. Predating the original Route 66 by four years, this neighborhood hamburger stand was born in 1922, died in 1979, and was resurrected in 1998. The Red Ball Burger is arguably the best burger in town, but limit yourself to a slider-sized Wimpy Burger. There’s lots more eating ahead.Just past the X-shaped intersection of 4th St. and Barelas St. are a couple of unassuming noncommercial gallery spaces that operate sporadically. If you’re lucky you’ll find something artistic, musical, literary, or just wonderfully weird going on at either the Small Engine or TANNEX galleries.Back to the food: The Barelas Coffee House menu touts Barelas as “Land of Mi Chante,” chante being New Mexican slang derived from “shanty” as an endearing term for home. Aside from its souvenir shop, the restaurant does have a homey 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 Transportation Center myabqride.com, 100 1st St. SW, 505-243-RIDE

ROUTE SUMMARY

1 Start at the corner of 2nd St. and Silver Ave. and walk south.

2 Turn right on Lead Ave.

3 Turn left on 4th St.

4 Cross Bridge Blvd. and enter the campus for the National Hispanic Cultural Center.

5 Explore the campus at your leisure and return to Bridge Blvd.

6 Turn right on Bridge Blvd.

7 Turn left on 3rd St. and cross the dirt lot on the north side of the overpass.

8 Turn left on 2nd St.

9 Turn right on Iron Ave.

10 Turn left on 1st St.

CONNECTING THE WALKS

Connect with Walk 1 at the corner of 2nd and Gold.

Bronze sculpture of Dr. John A. Aragón at the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce on 4th St.