A Historic Albuquerque Bed and Breakfast in Old Town
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A Historic Home Ahead of Its Time
Charles Bottger was born in New York City and his family owned a market in Rutherford, New Jersey. He arrived in Albuquerque around 1893. He worked for Tom Post, who owned the Atlantic & Pacific Hotel in Old Town, which included a stage coach stop and tavern. The hotel was located across the street on land which is now the Old Town parking lot. After the death of Tom Post, Charles Bottger married Mr. Post’s stepdaughter, Miguela, and re-opened the hotel in 1897 as the Sunnyside.
Charles Bottger’s parents had visited Albuquerque in 1902 and purchased the 40-room hacienda of former governor Manuel Armijo. In approximately 1909, the original hacienda was demolished to make way for the new Bottger Mansion in 1912. Charles Bottger wanted his new home to contain the most modern conveniences. Designed by local architect Edward Buxton Cristy in the American Foursquare style popular when New Mexico was still a U.S. territory, the house was the first residence in Old Town Albuquerque to have gas lighting, and the original gas pipes are still located inside the ceilings. There were speaking tubes to all the rooms, pressed-tin ceilings in the three main rooms, and a dumbwaiter to the upper floor. The Bottger Mansion is one of few homes in Albuquerque to have a basement. The fireplace in the living room is the only one in the house. Both the coal-fired central heater and the coal cellar were located in the basement. When it was built, the Bottger Mansion was called the “Pride of Old Town.” In the mid-1930s, a Bottger grandson, George Gallegos, painted a mural of New Mexico mountains around the upper wall of the Cristy room. Charles Bottger owned one of the first automobiles in Albuquerque.
Notorious Guests Visit Old Town
Charles Bottger died in 1914. As the Bottger family fortunes declined, Miguela began to take in boarders for additional income. In the 1930s, the FBI’s most wanted criminal, Machine Gun Kelly, was being hunted by lawmen everywhere. Kelly, his girlfriend, and his gang were headed back to Memphis from California and checked into the Bottger under assumed names. They had dyed their hair and purchased new clothes to help conceal their identities. After several days, the owners became suspicious when they noticed that the group always sent a neighborhood boy out to purchase meals and bring them back to their rooms in the mansion. They decided to notify the police but were overheard by one of the gang members. They quickly left just ahead of the law. However, they were captured shortly thereafter and imprisoned. In 1956, a young Elvis Presley, along with Bill Black and Scotty Moore, performed two shows in Albuquerque and stayed at the Bottger Mansion, leaving the next day for a show in Amarillo. In the late ’50s, a prominent Italian family rented the mansion for a large wedding. Frank Sinatra was a guest and performed in the courtyard after the wedding dinner was served.
A Landmark Reimagined
Pieces of the Bottger property were gradually sold off and the family donated some land for the San Felipe School just to the north. In approximately 1970, amid a family dispute relating to inheritance of the property, the Bottger Mansion remained vacant for several years and then was sold outside the family. Over the years the open front porch was closed in and the house became an art gallery, restaurant, beauty parlor, and several other business ventures. It became a bed and breakfast in 1989.
The 1912 Bottger Mansion is one of only a few mansions built in Old Town Albuquerque and remains virtually in its original form, one of the few properties in the area to escape Pueblo Revival renovation. Today, the Bottger Mansion of Old Town is a popular Albuquerque historic bed and breakfast. Located on Historic Route 66, the Bottger Mansion is on the National Register of Historic Places and is the only lodging accommodation in the Old Town Historic District. Read more about the history of Old Town here.
Plan your stay at the Bottger Mansion, and book your favorite room!
Meet the Owners
Steve and Kathy have been the innkeepers at the Bottger Mansion of Old Town since 2004. Our goal is to keep improving this grand old house one day at a time, take care of our guests, and serve amazing food in a great location. We want visitors to learn to love Albuquerque the way we do.
Many of our guests comment that staying in our Albuquerque bed and breakfast ”feels like home.” Relax in the lovely front garden or immerse yourself in the history of the house and Old Town. We provide a calm and peaceful home base so you can enjoy the best Albuquerque has to offer.
Steve is a New Mexico native but has lived all over the country, and Kathy grew up on the East Coast. We met in California while in the service and completed our military tours of duty in northern Japan. Later, we both attended the University of New Mexico. Our careers have taken us to New Hampshire and Oregon, and our travels have taken us to other countries as well. We are thrilled to be back in New Mexico, and we would love to help you discover the delights of Albuquerque.
Welcome!
Steve and Kathy Hiatt
Cats In Residence
Cats in residence: Two cats–Graycat and Socks–live with us in our private quarters. On occasion, they are in the main area of the house–not in the guest rooms. They occasionally make an appearance on Instagram.
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It was Wonderful!
These folks are causing me to break with tradition. I rarely give five stars. But I have to here. My wife stayed a night at the Bottger to celebrate here birthday. And it was just wonderful. Everything a bed and breakfast should be. And we’ve stayed at a bunch.
First the ‘bed’ part. Bottger is a delightful updated old mansion. They’ve done a marvelous job restoring the place. Our room was quite nice. A surprise was that there were numerous outlets. Rare in older properties. The whole house was updated, well maintained and clean.
And the breakfast? Superb. The allure of a bed and breakfast is that it has a creative, scrumptious breakfast of the sort you’d never make for yourself. All too many BnBs have a run-of-the-mill breakfast. Not the Bottger. We delighted in their modified French toast, green chile sausage and mimosa. It was all terrific.