ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - The caretaker of a mid-century S.H. Kress building in Downtown Albuquerque on the historic Route 66 is seeking to renovate the building and transform it into an art gallery.
The Albuquerque Journal reports caretaker Victoria Van Dame has started the process of renovating and cleaning out the property owned by Anna Muller, who moved to California for health reasons.
The building has been empty for decades, and its trademark curved windows long since have been covered.
Van Dame says she wants to restore the building and create a gallery that draws in creatives across all fields - visual, music, performance arts, and the culinary arts.
Van Dame says she hopes the Kress building will make special accommodations for people of all abilities and become a space that can bring people together in the community.
There is no set date for the Kress building to open to the public. Van Dame says she hopes that the remodel will be finished by late summer.
S. H. Kress & Co. was the trading name of a chain of “five and dime” retail department stores in the U.S. The company operated stores in downtowns across the country until 1981.
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