The Cactus Motor Lodge, later known as the Cactus RV Park, was a motel located along historic
U.S. Route 66
U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...
in
Tucumcari
Tucumcari (; ) is a city in and the county seat of Quay County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 5,278 at the 2020 census. Tucumcari was founded in 1901, two years before Quay County was established.
History
In 1901, the Chicago, ...
,
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...
. I.E. and Edna Perry built the lodge in 1941. The motel included three wings of units forming a "U" shape and an office, the latter of which was a dance hall when the motel opened. In 1952, Norm Wegner purchased the motel; Wegner added an artificial stone exterior to the buildings and converted the dance hall to an office. After Route 66 was decommissioned, the motel lost much of its business, and by the 1990s it became an RV park; the motel units fell into disuse. The motel's neon sign was restored in 2008. In October 2018, the sign was sold and removed to be relocated to an Albuquerque neon-sign park. Many other items were sold off before the owners sold the property itself to
O'Reilly Auto Parts. O'Reilly razed all structures before beginning construction of their store at the location.
The motel was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
on March 21, 2006.
Gallery
File:Cactus Motor Lodge, Tucumcari, New Mexico. One-half mile East on U.S. Highway 66, at the foot of the famous Indian legendary Tucumcari Mountain.jpg, Postcard promoting the motor lodge
File:Cactus RV Park, Tucumcari, NM, US (05).jpg, Buildings in 2018
File:Cactus RV Park, Tucumcari, NM, US (02).jpg, Office in 2018
File:O'Reilly Auto Parts Under Construction in Tucumcari NM - April 2021.jpg, An O'Reilly Auto Parts store under construction at the location on April 7, 2021
See also
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List of motels
This is a list of motels. A motel is lodging designed for motorists, and usually has a parking area for motor vehicles. Entering dictionaries after World War II, the word motel, coined in 1925 as a portmanteau of ''motor'' and ''hotel'' or ''mot ...
*
References
External links
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Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico
Hotel buildings completed in 1941
U.S. Route 66 in New Mexico
Buildings and structures on U.S. Route 66
Hotels established in 1941
Motels in the United States
National Register of Historic Places in Quay County, New Mexico
Pueblo Revival architecture in New Mexico
1941 establishments in Kentucky
Demolished hotels in the United States
Demolished buildings and structures in New Mexico
Recreational vehicles
Tucumcari, New Mexico
Demolished but still listed on the National Register of Historic Places
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