Bent Door update January 2, 2007
Posted by Ron in Businesses, People, Preservation, Restaurants.add a comment
I e-mailed Ramona Kiewert, asking them how she and her husband, Roy, were coming on their plans of moving from Nacogdoches, Texas, to Adrian, Texas, so they could restore and reopen the historic Bent Door. The Kiewerts bought the long-closed Route 66 business last summer.
Here is what she told me:
We haven’t moved as of yet, but we are working hard at The Bent Door. The tables and chairs are there as well as are the appliances for the kitchen. Robert Harris removed the old tin roof. But we have found that the roof is leaking bad and we are in need of a new tin roof. Roy thought that he had the leaks fixed, but with the rain and melting snow there are new cracks in the old cement roof. We were there working Dec. 26-30.
Roy is there about twice a week and has been getting a lot done. We are awaiting approval on our plans for the gas lines to the building. When that is done, the kitchen will began to come together. We have people stopping by to see the progress. It’s slow but steady.
We will be at The Bent Door on March 10 - 15, 2007. If anyone would like to come by to help with the outside cleanup and painting, we would greatly appreciate the help. We are going to see if we can get a roll-off box placed there for the trash that week. We have a lot more to do, and we are excited about moving to Adrian. We are making some wonderful friends in town.
For more details about the Kiewerts’ purchase of the Bent Door, its history and their plans, read this article in the Route 66 Pulse newspaper, written by yours truly.
An interesting note about El Vado Motel January 2, 2007
Posted by Ron in Motels, Preservation.1 comment so far
Redforkhippiechick received an interesting comment a few days ago from Karim Hakam about her post in February about the endangered El Vado Motel on Route 66 in Albuquerque.
Hakam’s father ran El Vado for a number of years. Here’s what he had to say:
… It never ceases to amaze me how passionate the Route 66 aficionados are about the Mother Road. When my family ran the El Vado during the 80’s and early 90’s, it was my father’s passion (and that of his predecessor and mentor Patrick O’Neil) for the old motor court that brought global fame to the El Vado.
While my schoolmates were playing Little League baseball and earning their merit badges in the Boy Scouts, the El Vado created a unique learning experience for me as a classroom of life. In this classroom there were two very different experiences, one was associated with the constant media blitz, the other with maintaining an aging adobe motor court on Albuquerque’s Central Avenue. The media blitz included such experiences as meeting authors like Michael Wallis on his tour of the Mother Road as part of his book promotion, Good Morning America doing a segment on the El Vado and of course all of the national and international press (special sections in the local paper dedicated to the El Vado, magazines as far as Japan had articles about “Ali Hakam-san”).
The other experience of the constant repair such as the highly manually-intensive swamp cooled air conditioners, flying golf ball damage from the near-by country club, and the numerous other tasks associated with maintaing the property made this a constantly eventful and challenging time.
However, the real lessons were learned by seeing the reactions of families and business travelers that were in awe that such a historic architectural structure had not only been preserved, but had the professionalism, hygiene and efficiency to be expected from Ali Hakam and his predecessor Patrick O’Neil (Patrick’s father in law, Dan Murphy built the El Vado).
As a professional, many of the lessons I learned in my childhood I practice everyday and I thank you Route 66 fans for creating the environment for me to able to earn my own merit badge.
I wish you good luck and am proud to have had the exposure I did.
Karim Hakam
Tokyo, Japan
I asked Hakam permission to use those comments on this site, which he granted. I also informed him about Richard L. Gonzales’ desire to tear down El Vado Motel to make way for luxury townhouses. Hakam said this about the situation:
I think what Richard is doing is horrible, as he is destroying a very important relic of American history for the sole sake of amassing personal wealth.
I couldn’t have said it better.
The city is holding the second half of a hearing about an application to demolish El Vado on Jan. 10. We’ll keep you posted.
