Quay County Court House Photo of the day–3/12/2024

Quay County Courthouse (1938), Tucumcari, New Mexico

As I wrote in my description of the Guadalupe County Court House, I hadn’t planned on spending the night in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. Torrential rains had me choosing to exit the Interstate and wait out the storm. The next morning, I sought out the Court House as these buildings are one of my favorite subjects, then it was back on I-40 heading east.

The next county east, and the last New Mexico county on I-40 is Quay (pronounced kway), with its seat Tucumcari. This is where I had planned to overnight, as who can resist a town with that name? Also, the town of 5,300 people is the largest community on I-40 between Amarillo and Albuquerque. This section of I-40 for the most part supplants the old Route 66, the historic US highway connecting Chicago and Los Angeles. Tucumcari is a shrine to Route 66, and that alone makes a stop in town almost a necessity.

The Court House Building

The Court House, located at 300 South 3rd Street / High Street faces east on beautifully landscaped grounds. The county’s second court house, it  replaced the first which was built in 1908. The website courthouses.co has this to say about the Quay County Court House:

“The building faces east and is a four story buff and brown colored brick , stone and concrete structure. The rectangular shaped building is located on landscaped grounds in the center of Tucumcari. The east front of the building is faced with white colored stone and has a long vertical brick pilasters framing the vertical windows. The center section rises higher than the north and south wings which project from the main section. The roof line is flat. In the interior, there is a large mural above the entrance lobby. The stairs have metal railings. The County District Court courtroom is located on the second story. The building houses the County District Court of the 10th Judicial District. The building was a Works Progress administration project.”

I enjoyed the time I spent in Tucumcari and got many photographic souvenirs of my visit. I look forward to a return visit when I plan to spend much more time in this charming New Mexico town.

To read about my stay in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, and see the Guadalupe County Court House, click here.  And to see the wide variety of sizes and formats available for this print, click here.