Originally constructed as a hospital for 1920s railway workers then serving a children’s psychiatric institution, Albuquerque’s 74-room Hotel Parq Central is now open to guests.
The guests checking into Albuquerque’s Hotel Parq Central today are very different than the ones who checked in 87 years ago, when the building served as the Santa Fe Hospital.
Constructed in 1926, the New Mexico hospital was originally frequented by employees of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company, who worked on the railroad that cut through the city. After a brief stint as a psychiatric hospital for children and teenagers in the 1980s, the building fell into despair in the late 1990s and sat vacant for years.
The property finally reopened as the Hotel Parq Central in 2010 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, thanks to its railway history and impressive Italianate architecture, featuring arched windows, a flat roof and exterior baluster staircases.
Though the hotel’s furnishings have a distinctively clean and modern feel, the 74-room property pays tribute to its past with hallway display cases featuring old railway maps and historic medical equipment such as an operating room lamp.
In another nod to its 1920s origins, the hotel’s rooftop Apothecary Lounge serves Prohibition-era cocktails like The Pink Lady, made with gin, egg whites and grenadine, and the Sazerac, made with rye whiskey, absinthe and bitters. Those with more contemporary tastes can try the prickly pear margarita or local brews Marble IPA and Santa Fe Nut Brown. Sip on one during sunset for a 270-degree view of Albuquerque old and new.