Speedway Laundromat

The city has been demolishing vacant buildings. I gather one reason is they get colonized by drug users and the homeless, although I also get the sense people prefer abandoned trailers or double wides that have bathrooms, beds, and other amenities. Since the buildings have no active utilities, people start fires to keep warm or cook. That, in turn, has led to the structures themselves catching fire and people inside dying.

One case occurred on 4 March 2017 in a trailer behind the Arrow Motel. Dwain Garcia died of smoke inhalation. The local paper published no more biographical information than the 44-years-old was from Okey Owingeh and buried at Santa Clara. [1]

That was a Saturday night. Another, more serious fire broke out eleven days later in the high-ceilinged empty building south of the motel. [2] I’ve found no report of the cause, although I assume there was an investigation.

The building was cinder block with exposed, wooden rafters. The collapse of that roof made the fire especially dangerous.

The news reports at the time only said it dated from the 1950s and last was used by the Speedway Laundromat. When I took pictures of the building in 2014, I could see laundry equipment that never had been removed. That seemed odd at the time, since I assume the machines could have been sold when the business closed.

The building looked like it might have been built as a warehouse. The walls were reinforced with buttresses and industrial vents were spaced on the peaked roof.

Whatever, the original use, the roof in back suggests an addition was made on the north side that was hidden by adding a Pueblo-Deco stepped façade. Still later, someone embedded sandstone in the stucco of the center and north bays.

One old sign advertized Premier Medical. [3] Ivan Herrera opened Porky’s Pizza there in 2001.

Does anyone know more about the history of the building and the people who had business there? It would be nice to know more about Dwain Garcia that his cause of death.

Notes:
1. Wheeler Cowperthwaite. "Men Found Deceased in Fire, Arroyo, Identified." Rio Grande Sun 23 March 2017.

2. Wheeler Cowperthwaite. "Two Fires Destroy Buildings." Rio Grande Sun 23 March 2017.

3. Robby Virus posted a picture of the ghost sign on Flickr.

Photographs: taken 30 April 2014.
1. East side (front) of building.

2. West side (back) of building. The trailer where Garcia side was farther to the west.

3. South side of building toward rear. You can see the wooden rafters and buttresses.

4. East side, to the south of the two-bay commercial section. You can see the laundry equipment through the window.

5. North side of the building, showing the poor condition of the composite roof that burned so easily.