Historic Buildings

New brick buildings gradually transformed downtown Gallup as Railroad Avenue kept pace with the eastern-style buildings rising along Coal Avenue, and maroon glazed tile became a sign of storefront modernization. As Route 66 developed through the heart of Gallup, the city opened to highway travelers from across the country and became a resting place for tourists. Gallup's corner sites continued the use of hospitable angled-corner doorways, seen at the White Café, built in 1928 at 100 West Historic Highway 66, which catered to auto travelers on Route 66 with quality quick service and free road maps, while its billboard also attracted Santa Fe Railroad passengers. Street lights were installed soon afterward in the same period. The Drake Hotel, built in 1919 at 216 East Historic Highway 66 during Gallup's second coal boom and also known as the Henry Hotel, was considered Gallup's finest hotel upstairs because it offered showers, steam heat, and an enclosed garage for patrons; local history also held that it was once controlled by bootleggers, with wine running from the faucets instead of water. The Rex Hotel, built in 1900 at 300 West Historic Highway 66, followed the common early hotel pattern of commercial space on the first floor and guest rooms on the second, later housed ladies of the night and their guests, and today has been adapted as a museum of Gallup's early history.

Gallup, New Mexico · United States