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Downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico, is a bustling area full of restaurants, theaters, nightlife, and historic buildings.
The downtown area is the center of government and business in the city and contains several high-rise buildings. Historic Route 66 also passes through downtown Albuquerque along Central Avenue.
We didn’t spend any time in downtown Albuquerque other than a quick drive down Central Avenue and a stop at the excellent New Mexico Holocaust Museum. I definitely plan to spend more time there on a future trip to Albuquerque.
KiMo Theatre
One of the most recognizable landmarks in Albuquerque is the KiMo Theatre, which sits on Central Avenue. It caught my eye as we drove by and I was able to snap a quick picture.
The KiMo Theatre opened on September 19, 1927. It was built by Italian immigrant Oreste Bachechi, who came to the United States in 1885. The architect was Carl Boller (1868-1946) of the Boller Brothers, who designed it in the Pueblo Deco style, which fuses Art Deco with Native American and Southwest elements. Pablo Abeita (1871-1940), the former governor of the Isleta Pueblo, won a naming contest for the theatre. It featured a new US$18,000 Wurlitzer organ to accompany silent films. Sadly, Bachechi died just a year after the theatre opened, and ownership passed to his sons.
The KiMo Theatre was owned by a handful of different companies throughout the years after the Bachechi family merged their interests with those of Joseph Barnett in 1935. It was damaged by a fire in the early 1960s and fell into disrepair. It was purchased by the city in 1977 and saved, with a series of renovations finishing in 2000. A replica of the original neon sign was added in June 2011. The KiMo Theatre currently seats 650.
