Hiway House

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Hiway House was a motor hotel chain founded in 1956 at Phoenix, Arizona by the late Del Webb, a construction magnate who owned the New York Yankees baseball team and later created the Sun City retirement communities. A remnant of the old Hiway House chain is still in operation at Albuquerque, New Mexico

The chain soon become a fixture throughout the Southwest. Ultimately, there would be Del Webb's Hiway House locations at Phoenix, Holbrook; Flagstaff; and Tucson, Arizona; Albuquerque, New Mexico, Tulsa, Oklahoma; Abilene, Texas; and Arcadia, California.

In 1955 before starting the Hiway House chain, Webb was one of the initial key investors of Ramada Inns, a new upstart chain of roadside hotels in the Southwestern states of Arizona, California and Texas that was founded by Marion W. Isbell. Today, Ramada (now Ramada Franchise Systems) is one of the world's largest lodging chains and owned by Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.

Albuquerque was one of the few cities to have two or more Hiway House locations during that chain's heyday. One of those locations is among the last Hiway House motor hotels still operating under that nameplate. Located in the 3200 block of Central Avenue S.E., which was the path of the world-famous Route 66 through Albuquerque, It still has the original colonial-style architecutre and same neon sign that has stood since it opened in 1958. The bottom portion of the street-level Hiway House signs read the motto "Sleep is our Business." Today that line still appears on the sign of the Albuquerque location, which is owned by Bicu Corporation and has been operated in recent years by George and Livia Strimbu. The restaurant is also still intact as a micro brewery.