Motel Safari receives award

Larry Smith, owner of the Motel Safari in Tucumcari, on Thursday accepted the 2020 New Mexico Route 66 Association Heritage Award to the motel and said previous owners deserved to accept it, as well.

The New Mexico Route 66 Association gave the award "in recognition of numerous renovations to the Classic Googie Style Motel, a New Mexico Route 66 landmark," it stated in a news release the day before.

Smith received from association President Melissa Lea Beasley a plaque, a metal New Mexico Route 66 road sign and a one-year free business membership to the association.

The ceremony was filmed for the Fast TV Network, and several city officials and association members attended.

Smith, who brought the property in 2017, credited the previous owners of the 1959 motel built by Chester Dohrer. Those included the recently deceased Ronald Frey, who raised five children with his wife, Arlene, on the property. The motel's previous owners for 10 years, Richard and Gail Talley, also attended the ceremony.

"It's humbling," Smith said afterward. "I'm glad Motel Safari got it. It's not just me; it goes back to everybody who owned the place. It goes back to the Talleys buying the place in 2007 and doing a lot of work on it. If they hadn't done it, I wouldn't be here now. It would be in ruin, like a lot of other places that have been under really bad ownership.

"It's the people in the past who've led us to this point," he added.

Beasley said association officers and board members make the nominations for the annual award.

"I'd been out here with Fast TV Network and saw the progress he has been making, and I brought it up," she said.

Beasley listed improvements Smith made to the Safari Motel, among them a new roof, repainted exterior, new furniture and bedspreads, custom throw pillows and a new historic marker in the front. Planned are a new guest services room and lobby renovations.

She also praised Smith's involvement as chairman of the Tucumcari Lodgers Tax Board and the city's branding committee, his sponsorship of the annual Wheels on Fire 100-mile bicycle race and serving as senior editor of the association's New Mexico Route 66 Magazine.

Beasley said she hoped the award would inspired other Route 66 business owners who are struggling under the strain of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year's New Mexico Route 66 Association Heritage Award winners were the Pecos Theatre in Santa Rosa, May Cafe in Albuquerque and Glenn's Bakery in Gallup. The 2018 winner was El Vado Motel in Albuquerque.