KiMo Theater

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The KiMo Theater.

Interior of the KiMo Theater

Located at 423 Central Avenue NW in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico, the extravagant KiMo Theater is probably the city's best-known landmark. It was built in 1927 in the Pueblo Deco style, which is a blend of adobe building styles (rounded corners and edges), decorative motifs from indigenous cultures, and the soaring lines and linear repetition found in American Art Deco architecture. (Examples of Pueblo Deco-style buildings can be seen in Marcus Whiffen's book, "Pueblo deco: The art deco architecture of the Southwest" (ISBN 0-8263-0676-4).)

The KiMo was conceived by entrepreneur Oreste Bachechi and designed for him by Carl Boller of the Boller Brothers architecture firm, who conducted an extensive investigation into the cultures and building styles of the Southwest before submitting his design. The theater is a three-story stucco building with the stepped massing characteristic of Pueblo architecture as well as the recessed spandrels and strong vertical thrust of Art Deco skyscrapers. Both the exterior and interior of the building incorporate a variety of indigenous motifs, like the row of terra-cotta shields above the third-floor windows.

The name "KiMo" (literally translated as "mountain lion" in tiwa, and sometimes loosely translated as "king of its kind") was supplied by Isleta Pueblo governor Pablo Abeita, who won $50 for his suggestion.

By 1977, the theater had fallen into disrepair but was saved from the wrecking ball when voters approved a plan for the City of Albuquerque to purchase the structure. It was then painstakingly restored to its former glory and is once again open to the public for performances.

The KiMo Theater is rumored to be haunted by the ghost of Bobby Darnall, a six-year old boy killed when a boiler in the theater's basement exploded in 1951. The theater staff hangs doughnuts from a water pipe behind the stage in an attempt to "appease the spirit." Some claim to have actually seen Bobby's ghost, clad in jeans and a striped shirt.[1]