The historic El Rey Inn in Santa Fe, N.M., is marking its 75th year along Cerrillos Road (aka Route 66), according to an article in the Albuquerque Journal.
Terrell White has owned El Rey since 1973. Amazingly, it’s reportedly not known who actually built the original motel structure:
The records don’t show who built the original adobe, 12 rooms with carports in a strip along the barely paved Cerrillos Road in 1936. For a couple of years, U.S. Route 66 hitched up her skirts and swung up through the Capital City and back down to Albuquerque, so the new motor court, as motels were called then, was a feasible economic venture.
White thinks the same developer built El Vado Court in Albuquerque as a sister business. Unfortunately, El Vado has fallen on hard times. But El Rey has become more beautiful over the years.
“The El Rey is an ongoing work of art, a tradition for 75 years,” White said. “People love it for what it is and what it represents.” […]
In the 1950s, then owner Len Matthews had enclosed the original individual carports to become sleeping rooms. Matthews also had a swimming pool built to keep El Rey in step with the newer motels in Santa Fe. Neighboring Alamo Lodge, also locally owned, was built in the ’50s just northeast of El Rey’s property line.
Many of the elements that make El Rey such a favorite were instituted by White over the past 38 years. The early-’70s oil crisis had a profound effect on travel, and White had to undertake the expensive and laborious project of replacing all of the hotel’s eroded gas and sewer pipes. Those were tough times, he recalled recently, even harder than the recent economic downturn.
The gardens are also his doing, he said. “Having nice grounds was something that was always important to my parents, and I guess I brought that sensibility with me,” he said. “It’s always been a passion for my family to have a green environment that is welcoming. The lush grounds are our signature. I planted so many of the trees myself.”
White also built a greenhouse in 1995. And rooms have been added three times during White’s ownership.
So, even though the motel has changed frequently, its grounds are so immaculate and the changes are so tasteful that few would know.