Route 66 Ran Behind La Fonda. This Year's Día de los Muertos Brings It to the Plaza.

The City of Santa Fe's fifth annual Día de los Muertos takes over the Plaza on Friday, October 30, and Saturday, October 31. This year the city gave it a theme, "A Trip Down the Mother Road." Classic cars will park on the Plaza among the marigolds, candlelight and calaveras because Route 66 turns 100 this year. The city's event page points out that for its first decade, the highway "ran right through the heart of Santa Fe."

The 1926 road came in on a street most of us still drive and turned at the back of a hotel most of us walk past every week. The cars on the Plaza are parked about a block from the old route. Put the parade, the old route and a new mural at the New Mexico History Museum together, and the weekend becomes something residents can do on foot from Friday afternoon through Sunday.

The highway took the back way

Santa Fe was on the original Route 66 from 1926 to 1937. Tourism Santa Fe's centennial page describes the "Santa Fe Loop," which follows that alignment starting on Old Santa Fe Trail. Back then it was called College Street. The route passed San Miguel Chapel and Loretto Chapel before reaching the Plaza.

Legends of America's route history gives the turns in order. The highway came in along College Street, turned west on Water Street at the rear of La Fonda, left downtown by way of Galisteo Street and turned south at Cerrillos. From there it headed toward La Bajada Mesa and its hairpin descent. So the main road into the capital skirted the south side of the Plaza instead of going around it. For eleven years, Water Street was the highway.

Here is that route as a walk, using the landmarks Tourism Santa Fe lists as still standing from the pre-1937 era:

1. Old Santa Fe Trail at San Miguel Chapel. This is the College Street stretch, where the 1926 traveler first saw the old church.
2. Loretto Chapel. The next landmark on the way north toward downtown.
3. Water Street, behind La Fonda. This is the turn. Make it on foot and the Plaza is one short block north of you.
4. Galisteo Street. The highway's way out of downtown.
5. Cerrillos. The route turned south here and left the downtown grid behind.

The Plaza, the Palace of the Governors, the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, Hotel St. Francis and the Plaza Cafe are also on Tourism Santa Fe's list of places that were already here when the highway came through. That gives you the reason for the classic cars this year. They sit a short walk from the corner where the old road actually turned.

Fitting the walk into the Día schedule

The Plaza program runs Friday from 4 to 10 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Food trucks are on site both days. Friday opens at 4 with mariachi music on the Bandstand, which will be hung with papeles picados. Welcome remarks follow at 5, then live music into the evening.

Saturday packs more into the day. The city's posted schedule:

The city notes that the schedule is subject to change, so check the Día page again closer to the weekend. The community ofrendas are built by local volunteers. Anyone can help decorate them during the noon-to-4 window, and decorative items that customarily adorn an ofrenda will be for sale on site. Expect brightly colored masks, decorative skulls and hundreds of marigolds.

The schedule leaves a natural gap in the late afternoon. The mariachis wrap up at 4:30 and the folklórico performances start at 5. Before that, the ofrenda tables are busiest around midday. Walking the old route late Saturday morning gets you to San Miguel, down Old Santa Fe Trail, onto Water Street and to the Plaza in time to add to an ofrenda before the crowds build toward the evening. Once the sun sets, the Glow-in-the-Dark Candlelight Parade lights the Plaza and live music runs until 10.

Sunday, November 1: the mural, free with a New Mexico ID

The other Route 66 piece downtown is indoors, just north of the Plaza at the New Mexico History Museum, 113 Lincoln Avenue. Los Lunas artist Molly Mendenhall painted Mother Road Coming into Color, an 11-by-26-foot lobby mural for the centennial. The Santa Fe New Mexican reported that it will greet museum visitors through January 2027. The New Mexican also reported that 190 artists applied. An 11-person committee chose five finalists and asked each of them for sketches.

The mural tells the highway's story from one end to the other. In the same New Mexican article, project manager Keri Miki-Lani Schroeder, curator of the Palace Press at the museum, explained why the committee picked Mendenhall's design:

"The mural starts in a black-and-white motif and transitions into color, so there's a magical realism element. You have an old truck on the highway with the landscape featured in the background, and then there's contemporary signage and really bright, vivid colors toward the other side of the mural."

The timing works out well. Sunday, November 1 is the first Sunday of the month. The museum's admission page says New Mexico residents get in free all day on the first Sunday of each month with ID. That makes the morning after the parade a free visit, and you don't have to wonder whether the lobby needs a ticket. On a regular day, one-day admission is $7 for New Mexico residents and $12 for nonresidents. New Mexico seniors 60 and older get in free on Wednesdays, and children 16 and under are always free. The museum's current page lists closures on January 1, Thanksgiving and Christmas but doesn't spell out regular daily hours. Confirm hours before a weekday visit.

The mural may stay up after the centennial is over. The New Mexican reported that the museum has no plans for it beyond January 1, 2027. It won't be painted over, so "it might end up existing in perpetuity."

Under the portal and at the press

Two other things sit right next to the mural. The museum's Portal Artisans page says Native American artisans sell under the Palace of the Governors portal every day from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tourism Santa Fe's Route 66 page connects that tradition to the highway era. It suggests buying a souvenir from Native American artists at the Palace as one way to picture car travel a century ago.

The Palace Press, which Schroeder curates, runs letterpress demonstrations on First Friday evenings. The Department of Cultural Affairs calendar lists them for November 6 and December 4 and calls each one free during First Friday evening admission. The museum's own page is inconsistent on this. Its hours section lists free admission from 5 to 7 p.m. on First Fridays, while its admission section lists free First Friday evenings for May through October. Ask whether the November and December demonstrations come with free entry.

The hotel at the turn

La Fonda stands at the corner where the highway turned onto Water Street, and it's marking the centennial too. La Fonda's Route 66 Centennial Walking Tour package pairs a history walking tour with two Centennial Route 66 passes. Guests are asked to contact the tour provider 72 hours before they arrive. The package is built for overnight guests. For those of us who live downtown, it's a reminder that the route's most important turn in the city is behind a building we pass every week.

After Día, the next big Plaza date is the Holiday Tree Lighting on Friday, November 27, from 4:30 to 8 p.m. The lighting is expected around 6:15, and admission is free.

At Ralph Alan Real Estate Group, our family has been part of downtown Santa Fe for three generations. We think a street's history adds to its value, and that includes Water Street's eleven years as a highway. If you own a home along the old College Street route or near the Plaza and want to know what it's worth today, start with our instant home valuation and we'll go over the details with you.