Fall 1999	Volume 6, Number 4

Tucumcari Motel Designated as Historic Structure By Sue Bohannan Mann The Redwood Lodge in Tucumcari is approved for State Historic Registry. Owner Roger Jensen will soon apply for National Historic Registry

Tucumcari Motel designated as Historic Structure By Sue Bohannan Mann Roger Jensen, owner of the The Redwood Lodge in Tucumcari, New Mexico, will be traveling to Washington, D.C. in October to attend his first National Historic Preservation Conference. He won the trip for his essay entitled "Inn of the Motel," which covers what he considers important in preserving historic buildings. Located at the junction of U.S. 54 and Historic Route 66, next to Tucumcari’s Convention Center, the Redwood Lodge has been approved by the New Mexico Cultural Properties Committee to be designated a state historic structure. During his five years of ownership, Jensen has worked tirelessly to restore the 1954 L-shaped motel and adapt to needs of travelers. Working with Nancy Hanks of the New Mexico Cultural Property’s Review Committee, Jensen nominated the building and will soon see it listed on the State Registration of Historical Properties. According to James Hewit of New Mexico’s Cultural Property’s Division in Santa Fe, there are no grants available for owners such as Jensen, but the state can provide technical support. Also, state publicity and tax relief is given to property listed on the State Registration of Historic Properties. The Redwood Lodge was completed in 1954 and took its name from the authentic redwood used in construction. Jensen believes this extra expense was chosen as a termite prevention step. He is also adding an RV park at the end of the building and converting 6 rooms with 12 beds into a youth hostel with a community kitchen.

Jensen often feeds migrant workers passing through, gives them a few days’ work and pays them before they move on. "Route 66 has always been a path of the needy and immigrant," he says, "but neither am I Mother Theresa." The lodge also provides modest cost housing for students attending the local Mesa Technological College. Jensen has established a reputation along the road as a caring person who has lived all over the world doing electrical construction. His living quarters, with pitched roof and porch around the front of the building, are decorated with African masks he collected while living there. In many ways, New Mexico fondly reminds him of Africa. Jensen converses easily with the many Europeans who come through searching out the legend of Route 66 in the eight states. The legend lives because of the entrepreneurial spirit put forth by owners such as Roger Jenson, who works with both state and national organizations to keep the spirit of the road alive. He is open to new approaches for preserving the operation through its financial integrity. David Kammer, who authored The Historic and Architectural Resources of Route 66 Through New Mexico in 1992, feels the time has come for inclusion of the Redwood Motel in the New Mexico Historical Preservation archives. He feels it, and other deserving motels’ designated historical status, will enrich not only the structures but also the road and legend that is New Mexico’s Historic Route 66.