The town of Glenrio (“Glen Rio”) straddles the Texas/New Mexico border. Nearly all of the matchcovers that I have seen say “New Mexico” on them since the post office that served both parts of Glenrio was in New Mexico. All of the bars were located in New Mexico since Deaf Smith County, Texas, was “dry.” The cheapest gasoline was found in Texas since the state gas tax was lower. So we have made our best guesses when we divided the Glenrio matchcover images between the Texas and New Mexico sections of the database. We have listed several matchcovers here in the New Mexico section of the website as we think the businesses were located here. But under Texas the website visitor will find many different matchcovers from the famous Texas Longhorn complex plus one other gasoline station. The easiest way to see everything together is to simply type “Glenrio” into the “Keyword Search” box.
Route 66 passed through Tucumcari just south of the downtown area on Gaynell Blvd. (the early name) or Tucumcari Blvd. (the present name). Many businesses were located in the older downtown area along First or Second Streets or even Railroad Avenue or Main Street or US Highway 54. Matchcovers that say 66 on them are always included plus traveler-oriented businesses on Gaynell/Tucumcari Blvd. As per our rules for inclusion, some businesses that were downtown that claimed on their matchcovers to be on 66 are included even though the business really was not. These include the Hotel Randle, the Flagg Ranch and May’s Curio and Gift Shop (First Street). (By the way, semi-famous Harry’s Lunch/Two Gun Harry’s was on Railroad Avenue across from the train depot and far from 66.)
Any matchcover image from a traveler-oriented business in Santa Rosa is included since probably any such business would have to be on US Highway 66 to be viable. Sometimes other sources (often postcards) explicitly place the business on Route 66, like the La Loma Lodge, Lettie’s Restaurant, Magnolia Service Station, Motel Shawford, Oasis Motel, Silver Moon and Tiffin.
The tiny town of Buford was on early Route 66 so all matchcovers with the town name Buford are included since the commercial businesses of Buford would have had to have been on 66. The city of Moriarty, which originally was just south of Buford, reached north and absorbed Buford into its city limits so all traveler-oriented matchcovers from Moriarty are included as well unless the matchcover specifically indicates that the business was “downtown” in old Moriarty. Obviously matchcovers printed with the town name Buford are older than the matchcovers listed with the city name Moriarty. Of course Buford is gone today and can not be found on contemporary maps.
US Highway 66 initially looped north through Glorieta Pass and into Santa Fe and then descended La Bajada Hill to follow the Rio Grande south to Albuquerque. We consider the last Route 66 alignment through Santa Fe (from the east: Old Santa Fe Trail, Water Street, Galisteo Street and Cerillos Road) as the reference to determine what businesses were on 66. The El Fidel Hotel was at the corner of Galisteo and Water Streets and was right where Route 66 made its turn. The La Fonda is where the Old Santa Fe Trail meets Water Street so it was on 66 too. (The La Fonda has a street address today of San Francisco Street but the hotel spans the entire block south to Water.) The De Vargas Hotel (remodeled and renamed the St. Francis Hotel) is operating with an official address of 200 Don Gasper Avenue and is 100’ from Water Street which we consider close enough when there were limited lodging options back in the 1930s anyway. The famous El Rey Court opened in 1936 on Cerillos Road so it was on 66 for a year. The La Posada was several blocks from old 66 and is not included. None of the Santa Fe matchcovers say 66 on them and probably none were distributed prior to 1937 but since we know these four businesses were on active 66 we are including later matchcovers from these business in the archive.
This early alignment of Route 66 passed through Albuquerque in a north-south direction on 4th Street. In 1937 the later alignment from Santa Rosa through Tijeras Canyon opened and it came through Albuquerque in an east-west direction on Central Avenue. There were relatively few matchbooks distributed before 1937 so there are hardly any matchcovers from Albuquerque from the early 4th Street alignment that say 66 on them. If an early 4th Street matchcover says 66 on it, we also include any later matchcovers from the same business that do not say 66. (The only example of this case today is the King’s Rest Auto Court.) We also included a number of matchcovers from the Court Café on 4th Street yet none of them say 66. We decided to include them because an early Curteich linen postcard from the Court Café did indicate that the business was on 66. Curteich encoded the year of the original year of publication of the postcard into the card number. This particular Curtech linen postcard (5A-H610) was originally published in 1935 and the postcard explicitly states that the Court Café was on both US Highways 66 and 85. It is possible that some of these Court Café matchcovers date back before 1937 but the proprietor of the Court Café did not have the highway number of 66 printed on the matchbooks. We include a matchcover from the Albuquerque Auto Court on Fourth since internet documentation indicates that it was opened in 1928 when Fourth was US Highway 66. The Court John on 4th Street was built in 1939 after US Highway 66 was re-aligned to Central so matchcovers are not included. L.E. Ruffin opened two gasoline stations on 4th Street in the late 1940s when 4th Street was no longer U.S. Highway 66, so we are not including matchcovers from the L.E. Ruffin Texaco station(s).
Any matchcover that has 66 printed on it is included as well as traveler-oriented businesses along Central Avenue. The Fred Harvey Alvarado Hotel faced the railroad tracks (Fred Harvey referred to the front side of the hotels as the side that faced the railroad tracks) and the rear was on SW 1st Street. But the short north side of the hotel faced Central Avenue so that matchcover is included. The Venetian Bar was located at 215 Central NW in Albuquerque. The East End Roller Rink was located at 7320 East Central.
One somewhat confusing thing about some of the street addresses in Albuquerque is that changes occurred in the early 1950s. Initially Albuquerque was divided into East and West street addresses. But around 1953 the address numbering system changed into quadrants (NW, NE, SE, SW) with meridians of Central Avenue and Broadway Blvd. Around that time some of the street addresses along Central were adjusted. You can see this among some of the matchcovers displayed here. For example, an early matchcover from the Country Club Court indicates that the business was at 2531 West Central but later matchcovers indicate it was at 2411 W. Central. The Fair Grounds Auto Court was 6452 East Central and then later at 6522 Central SE. The Luna Motel was at 9019 East Central and later 9119 NE Central. I’m only aware of these address discrepancies on the west side of Albuquerque. Does anyone have more information about this address adjustment in Albuquerque back then?
Any matchcover image from a traveler-oriented business from Grants is included for the reason that for the business to be economically viable it would have to be on US Highway 66. One minor exception is the Sands Motel (still open today) which is actually one-half block north of 66 but signage is visible from 66. The California Hotel and Café was on Santa Fe at First Street and was razed decades ago. The building that once housed Dougherty’s Cafeteria in the early 1960s and later the Starlite Cafeteria is located at 820 E. Santa Fe Avenue. The Lost Canyon Trading Post was just west of Grants on Route 66 and later became the Cobra Gardens.
Most matchcovers from Gallup say Highway 66 on them. Later this road was named 66th Avenue. For a time West Coal Avenue (but not East Coal) carried Route 66 through the west side of Gallup. Coal (both east and west) merged with US Highway 66/66th Avenue at the “East Y” and the “West Y.” So for inclusion in this database matchcovers that say 66 on them or are located at the East Y or West Y are valid. Also traveler-oriented businesses from West Coal are included. However the commercial district of Gallup included several other streets so we are reluctant to include matchcovers from Gallup that are not printed with an address and we can find no other reference that would place them on US Highway 66.