The City of Albuquerque plans to move a former Valentine diner that serves as a police substation to the troubled and yet-to-open Route 66 Visitor Center by next year for the highway’s centennial.
The police substation currently sits at Girard Boulevard and Central Avenue (aka Route 66), though it was at Eighth Street and Central about 30 years ago.
KRQE-TV in Albuquerque had more details about the plan:
They plan to convert the substation back into a diner, creating a historical exhibit connected to the Mother Road. “When we move it to a place like the Visitor Center, where we will have staff starting later this summer, we can open it to the public so that people can actually go into this space,” said Sanchez.
It remains unclear how much the move will cost, but the city expects to have a better estimate of its feasibility by the end of summer. Sanchez added, “Before we make the final decision as the administration and the department, we want to finish those conversations to ensure we are really hearing what everyone needs from this process.”
The building originally was the Little House Cafe, an eight-stool restaurant that opened around 1942.
The diner closed in 1993, and the city put the building in storage for several years before moving it to its current location.
Prefabricated Valentine diners were made in Wichita, Kansas, from 1938 to 1971. About 2,000 were manufactured; it remains unknown how many survive.
The $13 million Route 66 Visitor Center on the city’s west side has seen its timetable for opening change several times in the past few years.
Last month, KRQE filed an investigative report that detailed mismanagement, financial improprieties and procurement violations involving the facility.
Excerpts from the report:
In this case, millions of public dollars were allocated to a venture that had no master plan, no budget, and no oversight. It was only after funding the visitor center that county officials got around to a feasibility study. And then they ignored glaring red flags and went ahead with the project anyway. […]
According to the City Council’s new Budget Director, Mark Motsko, the Council’s equipment expenditures (for the visitors center) were not by the book. […]
Add it all up and, since 2022, Albuquerque’s City Council has shelled out more than $320,000 to furnish the newly constructed building. “There was no oversight of these (expenditures). I have not seen any records justifying the purchases,” Motsko said.
(Image of the Albuquerque police substation, a former Valentine diner, by Larry Myhre via Flickr)
Sounds like “here we go again”, good luck, the Valentines are very cool!