Here it is, in full:

Greetings:

El Vado Motel is back on the Albuquerque Landmarks and Urban Conservation Commission’s agenda in two weeks. If you support preservation of this historic Route 66 landmark, know that its designation as a City of Albuquerque Landmark is again at stake, along with its very existence. Two related questions are at issue: 1) Should the El Vado be designated a City Landmark? and 2) Should the owner’s request for a Certificate of Appropriateness to demolish it be approved?

Issue 1 — The El Vado was designated a City Landmark in early 2006 by the City Council, but on appeal by the owner, that designation was reversed by a court and must be taken up again by the Landmarks Commission. The buildings remain suitable for preservation and easily qualify as a City Landmark under the City’s designation criteria. However, the economic impact of the landmark designation must be considered by the Commission and will be presented to them.

Issue 2 — Earlier this year, the Commission denied the owner’s application for a Certificate of Appropriateness to demolish, but this decision too was appealed and the application remanded to the Commission for further deliberation.

I’m writing you because the Commission’s decision is to be made in public with public testimony, written and spoken. If you are inclined to write or appear and voice your support for city landmark designation and the degree of protection that comes with that designation, please do so.

Here’s how:

Written: E-mail or write a letter to Charles Price, Chairman, and Members, Albuquerque Landmarks and Urban Commission, c/o Maryellen Hennessy, City Planning Department, P.O. Box 1293, Albuquerque NM 87103, by November 5th if possible. [Editor's note: Maryellen Hennessy's e-mail is mhennessy@cabq.gov]

Spoken: If you live near enough to attend the Commission’s hearing, please come and voice your support — it’s especially effective. The hearing time and place are as follows — 3 p.m. Wednesday, 14 November, Basement Hearing Room, 600 Second Street NW (corner of Roma and 2nd, a block south of Lomas).

Questions? Let me know at 505-924-3342 or reply to this message.

Thanks very much,

Ed Boles
Historic Preservation Planner
City of Albuquerque
eboles@cabq.gov

P.S.: Thanks for all your support to date. I’m optimistic about preserving the El Vado and seeing it back in service.

This is what we’re trying to save:

You heard the man. Get writing.

… but Shellee Graham will have a screening of her documentary “Built for Speed: The Coral Court Motel” at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Lincoln County Museum of Pioneer History at 717-719 Manvel, aka Route 66, in Chandler, Okla.

The Coral Court Motel was an exquisite art deco business on Route 66 in Marlborough, Mo., that was torn down about 10 years ago. A reassembled unit, however, is at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis.

The former Big Chief Dakota restaurant and motel complex on the Manchester Road alignment of Route 66 in Wildwood, Mo., now a B. Donovan’s restaurant, may have some ghosts on the premises, reports the Suburban Journals.

Smith said he has heard a number of stories about the property.

“One is that there is a female Indian ghost that walks along the back of the property,”he said. “The other is supposedly when they tore down a cabin, a body was found in the wall.”

Smith said strange incidents happen in the restaurant.

In spring, he and three employees were sitting in the restaurant after closing time and heard a woman’s voice, he said.

“There was no woman in the restaurant at the time, and we searched for her — but she was not found,” Smith said.

He said footsteps sometimes are heard when no one is seen on the stairs.

“There are also a lot of noises in the attic,” Smith said.

The thing that seems to bother him the most are weird holes that appear in the ceiling of the attic. He said he keeps sealing them, and “when I return in the morning, a new hole appears,” he said.

Hope the health inspector doesn’t get mad about those holes.