Tower Courts
2210 Central Ave. SW., Albuquerque, NMThe Tower Courts building, as this apartment complex was first known, is a good example of a relatively unaltered pre World War II tourist court built in the Moderne Style, an infrequently used style along Route 66 in New Mexico. Built in 1939, two years after Route 66 was realigned along Central Avenue, the building is one of the oldest remaining tourist courts along the West Central Avenue commercial strip. When it first opened in 1939, Albuquerque Progress, a business monthly published by a local bank, described it as "thoroughly modern in all respects and pointed to it as evidence of the developing tourist industry along Route 66. Typical of the planning and economic pattern leading to the construction of most tourist courts along the highway until the mid-1950s, its builder, Ben F. Shear, was also its operator. Because of this close association with tourism along Route 66, the property is eligible under Criterion A. The property also qualifies under Criterion for the way in which its setting, location, design, and materials reflect early tourist court construction in New Mexico. In particular, the spatial arrangement of the complex and its modest use of the Moderne Style recalls the evolution of the early tourist court.
Local significance of the building:Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1993.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.