Albuquerque kicks off Centennial celebration at Alvarado

NMBW Staff

At a celebration of New Mexico's 100th anniversary of statehood Friday, Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry (center) said the state is "healthy, vibrant and helping lead the United States through the 21st century."

Albuquerque kicked off its celebration of 100 years of New Mexico’s statehood with honking horns, a locomotive whistle, a brass band, cake and a new exhibit on the historic Alvarado Hotel at the Alvarado Transportation Center Friday.

“A hundred years ago, President Taft signed New Mexico into statehood with the words ‘I am glad to give you life and I trust that you will be healthy,’” said Mayor Richard J. Berry. “A century later, New Mexico is healthy, vibrant and helping lead the United States through the 21st century.”

As Albuquerque resident Emma Stone, 10, cut the ribbon on the Alvarado exhibit, the New Mexico Territorial Brass Band played vintage songs such as “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” and “O Fair New Mexico.” City officials mingled with railroad enthusiasts, commuters and local residents while a few homeless people watched from the sidelines. Several large golden sheet cakes bearing the state’s zia symbol were sliced up and served.

When President William Howard Taft signed New Mexico into statehood, it was a surprise, said Bruce Rizzieri, director of ABQ Ride. It came a few days earlier than anticipated, so there wasn’t much fanfare the day it happened, he said.

“On the 100th anniversary of New Mexico’s statehood, we want to give the day the fanfare it should have gotten,” Rizzieri added.

The new Alvarado exhibit celebrates the history of the Fred Harvey Hotel, which opened in 1902 and was demolished in 1970. The 25 panels on the outer walls of the Alvarado Transportation Center, designed to evoke the old Alvarado, are a combination of narrative history, quotes from those who worked and stayed there, and photographs and images of the Indian Building and the Spanish Building, which celebrated the history and craftsmanship of the state’s residents.

The city’s transit department worked with the Cultural Services Department to create the exhibit, which drew upon an exhibit mounted in 2009 at the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History.

Rizzieri said it will give residents and visitors an opportunity to learn more about the city and its history.

“It gives a sense of who we are and who we have been,” he said.