History: The Way We Were - The Milan Motel
Posted: Friday, September 20, 2013 by Paul Milan, Historical Society - for the Beacon
I was happy to read that the National Park Service (NPS) Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program awarded a grant to assist the restoration of the Milan Motel as a significant historic property. This event has brought me many memories, because the motel was a significant part of my family and my past.
After World War ll ended automobiles became available and people began to travel to California to visit many of the relatives who had moved there during the war including some of our relatives. During our traveling to see our relatives my father, Salvador, noticed that motels were being built along Route 66.
He felt that since the ranch land abutted Route 66 there was an opportunity to develop some of the land, especially when he noticed all the tourists who were stopping at the Cobra Gardens on the north side of 66 on land that he had sold to Herman Atkinson.
My father spent some time visiting his brother-in-law, the late Wallace Gunn, who managed the Villa de Cubero Trading Post and Motel, which gave him some valuable information to develop a plan. He also observed that all the motels from Albuquerque to California were designed with a theme. He did not want to copy any existing designs in Grants and he liked the Log Cabin Motel in Gallup.
During his investigation he came upon this logging company from Louisiana and a deal was made. He contracted with the company and while the logs were being harvested he started developing the site. Since the land was lower than the highway he had to fill in with soil and to bring it up to the necessary height. My father would borrow the county grader on Sundays and he personally filled and leveled the site, which was about the size of a football field. After the site was completed the contractor set up a shop and built an office home and twelve motel units.
My father formed a partnership with Al Arvizo, who ran the motel for about three years. In 1949 Mr. Arvizo decided he wanted to go back to teaching and my mother, my brother, my sister, and I were recruited to manage the motel. Mr. Arvizo went on to later become the superintendent of the Grants Schools.
Living on the ranch for most of my early years it became a cultural shock for me; it was the first time that I had used a telephone, it was a party line and you had to crank it to get to the operator. We discovered that the logs were green when they were placed, which was normal in Louisiana. And with the extreme dryness in this area the logs began to twist leaving many openings or peepholes; therefore the first thing that my father did was have the walls insulated and covered with knotty pine. My father had originally had the logs tested and was told that they were equivalent to eight inches of adobe.
We ran the motel for two years, which had a snack shop and gas pumps. In 1951 my brother graduated and left home. I had gone to a band workshop and my father ran the motel for a week by himself for the first time. He decided that when I graduated and left home he would be stuck and so he leased the motel while I was away. In 1951 my father built his home and completed four duplexes behind the motel, which he planned to rent to carrot growers during the summer and to teachers during the winter. I worked for the contractor during this phase and then went back to working on the farms feeling that my motel days were finished.
During the 50s the motel was leased to Jack Starnes who subleased it to Duffy Kimball. In 1960 I was working at the Grants State Bank and raising a family when my father asked me to consider managing the motel since he did not want to lease it out again. I convinced my wife to try it for at least one year and we ran it until 1969 when I decided to go back to school to work on my MBA.
During the sixties the first uranium bust caused the bank to change hands and there were plans to change the highway route with the proposed Interstate 40, which would ruin the motel business in small towns. To prepare for this change my father sold the four duplexes, which were moved, and hired a clerk to run the office and he moved his office to the motel. During the sixties my family started to grow and in by 1967 the second story on the home was built.
Although the small “ma and pa” motels are very confining we had some of our best memories by hosting our children’s baptisms, birthday parties, Christmas gatherings, and any excuse to have guests.
During the Gallup Ceremonials we would fill up early so we took advantage by having friends visit in the evening. On one occasion we invited a couple to dine and once when we were getting ready to serve the meal, a customer came to tell us that the sewer was stopped up. Therefore I called a plumber and we desperately unplugged the sewer line, (the wife had flushed a diaper down the drain). I rushed back to our guests to find that a lady guest had run to the office screaming that her husband was going to kill her. The lady got behind my wife while her husband was brandishing a gun and yelling that he was going to kill her. Thank God her son was able to wrestle the gun from the father. My guests were wide-eyed and thanked us for the meal that they ate by themselves and said that they would rather have us come to their house next time.
During the uranium boom in the seventies my father sold the motel to Jesse Barela who sold it to Mrs. Rodriguez.During the first part of the eighties the economy was so bad that the motel business was unstable and Roy Yates purchased it and developed the Kachina Trading Post and remodeled the building to what it is today.
Editor’s Note: Paul Milan contributes to the Beacon’s history column and is a longtime resident of Cibola County. Milan’s father, Salvador Milan, was the Village of Milan’s first mayor.
Posted at:
http://www.cibolabeacon.com/cibola_living/the-way-we-were-the-milan-motel/article_7f1d83cc-219e-11e3-8ff4-001a4bcf887a.html
I was happy to read that the National Park Service (NPS) Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program awarded a grant to assist the restoration of the Milan Motel as a significant historic property. This event has brought me many memories, because the motel was a significant part of my family and my past.
After World War ll ended automobiles became available and people began to travel to California to visit many of the relatives who had moved there during the war including some of our relatives. During our traveling to see our relatives my father, Salvador, noticed that motels were being built along Route 66.
He felt that since the ranch land abutted Route 66 there was an opportunity to develop some of the land, especially when he noticed all the tourists who were stopping at the Cobra Gardens on the north side of 66 on land that he had sold to Herman Atkinson.
My father spent some time visiting his brother-in-law, the late Wallace Gunn, who managed the Villa de Cubero Trading Post and Motel, which gave him some valuable information to develop a plan. He also observed that all the motels from Albuquerque to California were designed with a theme. He did not want to copy any existing designs in Grants and he liked the Log Cabin Motel in Gallup.
During his investigation he came upon this logging company from Louisiana and a deal was made. He contracted with the company and while the logs were being harvested he started developing the site. Since the land was lower than the highway he had to fill in with soil and to bring it up to the necessary height. My father would borrow the county grader on Sundays and he personally filled and leveled the site, which was about the size of a football field. After the site was completed the contractor set up a shop and built an office home and twelve motel units.
My father formed a partnership with Al Arvizo, who ran the motel for about three years. In 1949 Mr. Arvizo decided he wanted to go back to teaching and my mother, my brother, my sister, and I were recruited to manage the motel. Mr. Arvizo went on to later become the superintendent of the Grants Schools.
Living on the ranch for most of my early years it became a cultural shock for me; it was the first time that I had used a telephone, it was a party line and you had to crank it to get to the operator. We discovered that the logs were green when they were placed, which was normal in Louisiana. And with the extreme dryness in this area the logs began to twist leaving many openings or peepholes; therefore the first thing that my father did was have the walls insulated and covered with knotty pine. My father had originally had the logs tested and was told that they were equivalent to eight inches of adobe.
We ran the motel for two years, which had a snack shop and gas pumps. In 1951 my brother graduated and left home. I had gone to a band workshop and my father ran the motel for a week by himself for the first time. He decided that when I graduated and left home he would be stuck and so he leased the motel while I was away. In 1951 my father built his home and completed four duplexes behind the motel, which he planned to rent to carrot growers during the summer and to teachers during the winter. I worked for the contractor during this phase and then went back to working on the farms feeling that my motel days were finished.
During the 50s the motel was leased to Jack Starnes who subleased it to Duffy Kimball. In 1960 I was working at the Grants State Bank and raising a family when my father asked me to consider managing the motel since he did not want to lease it out again. I convinced my wife to try it for at least one year and we ran it until 1969 when I decided to go back to school to work on my MBA.
During the sixties the first uranium bust caused the bank to change hands and there were plans to change the highway route with the proposed Interstate 40, which would ruin the motel business in small towns. To prepare for this change my father sold the four duplexes, which were moved, and hired a clerk to run the office and he moved his office to the motel. During the sixties my family started to grow and in by 1967 the second story on the home was built.
Although the small “ma and pa” motels are very confining we had some of our best memories by hosting our children’s baptisms, birthday parties, Christmas gatherings, and any excuse to have guests.
During the Gallup Ceremonials we would fill up early so we took advantage by having friends visit in the evening. On one occasion we invited a couple to dine and once when we were getting ready to serve the meal, a customer came to tell us that the sewer was stopped up. Therefore I called a plumber and we desperately unplugged the sewer line, (the wife had flushed a diaper down the drain). I rushed back to our guests to find that a lady guest had run to the office screaming that her husband was going to kill her. The lady got behind my wife while her husband was brandishing a gun and yelling that he was going to kill her. Thank God her son was able to wrestle the gun from the father. My guests were wide-eyed and thanked us for the meal that they ate by themselves and said that they would rather have us come to their house next time.
During the uranium boom in the seventies my father sold the motel to Jesse Barela who sold it to Mrs. Rodriguez.During the first part of the eighties the economy was so bad that the motel business was unstable and Roy Yates purchased it and developed the Kachina Trading Post and remodeled the building to what it is today.
Editor’s Note: Paul Milan contributes to the Beacon’s history column and is a longtime resident of Cibola County. Milan’s father, Salvador Milan, was the Village of Milan’s first mayor.
Posted at:
http://www.cibolabeacon.com/cibola_living/the-way-we-were-the-milan-motel/article_7f1d83cc-219e-11e3-8ff4-001a4bcf887a.html