El Vado Motel, on Central Avenue between Albuquerque's Old Town and the Rio Grande, bills itself as "the purest Route 66 motel surviving". Unfortunately, it's been closed for several years. It epitomizes the dilemma of historically important but economically unfeasible properties: it costs too much to renovate and update, but it can't be torn down. So it just sits, fenced off but still intriguing.
"El vado" in Spanish means "ford" in English. Whether that refers to the river crossing or the Model T that carried people west on Route 66 is unclear.
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