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Lux Movie Theatre & More

1018 W. Santa Fe Ave., Grants, NM
Phone:

East < GO > West

The original theater here opened along side Route 66 in Grants in the late 1920s and closed in 1930. It reopened as the Lux Theatre in 1937. J.C. West bought the Lux from C.E. Means in 1950 and might have closed it for a time in the mid 1960s. In January 1967 the theater reopened after being remodeled. A furnace fire in 1970 led to it's closing.

The sign for the LUX still retained much of it's neon tubing when this photo was taken in 2009. Note the pattern of the tubing between the letters. Lux means light in the Greek language. Various reports list the theater as having between 450 and 518 seats.

The little ticket booth window is boarded up but the tile below it is still in place.

While you're here, walk around the corner of the 1016 building on the east side of the theater and check out the cool mural on the wall. It was painted by Felix Tom in 1999 when Bernie's Route 66 Motorcycles occupied the building. The mural shows how driving Route 66 can be quite desolate in places. Notice the roadrunner and mile post.

The old Grants State Bank building stands on the west side of the theater. The bank was founded in 1947 and this building seems to be from that era, so I suspect it was their first location. This 2019 photo shows that some work has been done to the front. The concrete block above the bank name wasn't there even in 2018. A short, maybe 6 inch tall, row of blue flute stone used to span the full width of the building just above the stone with the bank name, and that's as tall as the building went.

Just around the corner from the bank and one block off Route 66 is the little Mt. Taylor Coffee Company, easy to find thanks to the mural. It's the only independant coffee shop between Albuquerque and Gallup.

Photo(s): 2009, 2019