The Alvarado Hotel was located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was one of the Fred Harvey hotels located on the Santa Fe Railroad route. The hotel was named after Hernando de Alvarado, Commander of Artillery in Coronado's great Southwest expedition.

On Feb. 13, 1970, the wrecking ball smashed into the central portion of Albuquerque's most famous historical landmark, the Alvarado Hotel.

In 1902,  Mary Jane Colter  was hired by the Fred Harvey Company to design hotels, shops and rest havens along the new Santa Fe Railway lines for the eager tourists who were anxious to experience the American West. 

Her first project for the Harvey Company was at the Alvarado Hotel in Albuquerque; a museum and gift shop that incorporated Spanish and Native American influences. Its success convinced the company that architecture could be used as a marketing tool to attract tourists, and they sent Colter to the Grand Canyon to build an Indian museum.

Charles F. Whittlesey designed the 118 room hotel. The Mission Revival style, which engineered for concrete and brick born of adobe, became the first southwestern architectural style to gain national favor after 1890. It quickly became a favorite architectural vocabulary for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and other lines that crisscrossed New Mexico a century ago.

Articles