Boots Motel makes “most endangered” list April 21, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Motels, Preservation.4 comments
The historic Boots Motel on Route 66 in Carthage, Mo., has been named one of the 10 Most Endangered Roadside Places in 2011 by the Society for Commercial Archaeology, according to a news release today.
The motel, which dates to 1939, was closed in 2003 after a local developer purchased it, reportedly so it could make way for a Walgreens drugstore.
That reputed plan was abandoned after historic preservationists, Route 66 fans, and the Carthage newspaper protested.
The building has been used as apartments since, and recently was listed for sale for $225,000.
According to the news release from the society:
The list showcases the diversity of roadside places and highlights the issues and challenges facing preservation of these important resources. Threats can include natural weathering, economic hardship, neglect, abandonment, inappropriate zoning, lack of maintenance, demolition and even a setback to a project to preserve a roadside place. [...]
“Our goal is to focus public attention on the unique character and historical importance of our nation’s roadside commercial architecture—and the factors that challenge their long-term preservation,” says Nancy Sturm, co-president of the organization.
Along with the attention, SCA will help property owners connect with local, state and federal preservation programs.
And here’s the society’s description of the Boots:
Boots Motel, 107 S Garrison Avenue (old US 66), Carthage, Missouri
Built in 1939 by Arthur G. Boots, this Streamline Moderne-influenced motel, with its once distinct pink and green neon, evolved into a Route 66 icon. After Arthur’s wife, Ilda Boots, passed away, the motel was sold several times. The most recent owner tried to negotiate a deal with Walgreens to build a new store on the property, but Route 66 advocates and community members rallied to save the motel from demolition. Walgreens decided to build elsewhere, and while the motel remains, its maintenance has ceased and it is now used for long-term rentals. Damaged by a storm, its broken neon dangles from the building; the vacancy sign on the office reads only “ANCY.” The property is again for sale. Ron Hart of the Carthage-based Route 66 Chamber of Commerce is looking into purchasing the property to preserve it as a vintage motel, and potentially a museum. But until that happens, the future of this Route 66 landmark is unknown.
Contact: Ron Hart, Route 66 Chamber of Commerce, (417) 385-6966
Here are the other endangered roadside attractions:
- Airplane Filling Station, Knoxville, Tenn.
- Bartles-Maguire/Wadhams Service Station, Waukesha, Wis.
- Buckhorn Baths, Mesa, Ariz.
- Diving Lady, Mesa, Ariz.
- Doo Wop Motels, the Wildwoods, N.J.
- Giant Santa, Haubstadt, Ind.
- Premiere Lanes Sign, Santa Fe Springs, Calif.
- Roundtop Filling Station, Sherwood, Ark.
- Wagon Wheel Motel, Oxnard, Calif. (destroyed)
Lexington restaurant is up for sale April 21, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Restaurants.add a comment
The Filling Station restaurant just off Route 66 in Lexington, Ill., is for sale for $295,000 after it closed two months ago.
The restaurant, which first opened in 1982, is listed on a Coldwell Banker real-estate site.
Kacie Rodriguez, a Realtor for Coldwell Banker in nearby Bloomington, said the restaurant was first listed on Feb. 27. She said the initial asking price was $395,000, but 100 grand was shaved off that amount several weeks ago.
“They are selling it because they are in a situation now where they just need to,” Rodriguez said in an e-mail, but did not elaborate further.
Lexington City Clerk Margaret Quinley during a telephone interview said she wasn’t sure why the restaurant closed, but noted the owners are older and suffer from health problems.
According to McLean County records, the Filling Station has been in behind in local tax payments since 2009.
The eatery has been regularly listed on the Route 66 Dining and Lodging Guide, published by the National Historic Route 66 Federation.
UPDATE 4/26/2011: Here’s a story about the Filling Station being for sale, from the Bloomington Pantagraph.
(Hat tip: Lynn “Lulu” Bagdon)
New film will be shown at Chandler museum April 21, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in History, Movies, Museums.add a comment
Starting tomorrow, the Route 66 Interpretive Center in Chandler, Okla., will show a new 20-minute documentary about one man’s journey on Route 66 in 1959 and his revisiting the Mother Road decades later.
Howard Dickman, a longtime trustee with the museum’s historic Old Armory building and a Chandler resident, spent about 18 months working on the film. He was kind enough to provide a DVD copy a couple of weeks ago. He said the version I watched is “very close to a final product.”
Here’s a summary:
In 1959, Dick Besser wanted an education in a state different than his home state of New York. He and a buddy drove to the University of Arizona and just happened to drive on U.S. Route 66. It was such a memorable trip that in the year 2000 Besser retraced his adventure by driving Route 66 once again, this time in a new 2000 torch-red Chevy Corvette.
This movie documents life of the ’50s with pictures, postcards, letters and stories from that first trip. The film then documents how life had changed along Route 66 41 years later. With the use of over 100 pictures, narrated by the producer’s wife, Victoria Dickman, and interspersed with Dick’s stories, this film paints a personal experience with the most famous highway in America, U.S. Route 66.
This film may sound like a glorified slide show, but it’s crisply edited and engaging throughout, especially when Besser and his pal get into a couple of misadventures along the way.
The film turns out to be much like a Ken Burns documentary on PBS. Go see it.
The movie will be on loan at the museum indefinitely, but is not for sale.
(Photo of Dick Besser provided by Howard Dickman)
Oklahoma Senate advances Route 66 bicycle trail bill April 19, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in bicycling, Highways.add a comment
The Oklahoma Senate today voted unanimously to advance a measure that would eventually create a 90-mile Route 66 bicycle trail from Sapulpa to Edmond.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Lewis Moore (R-Arcadia) and co-sponsored by Sen. Andrew Rice (D-Oklahoma City), reportedly will go back to the Oklahoma House for reconciliation after the Senate’s 46-0 vote.
Because the state senate attached a minor amendment to the bill and the fact House members passed it by more than a 3-to-1 margin several weeks ago, House Bill 2049 is expected to go to the Gov. Mary Fallin’s desk soon.
It will be officially called the Historic Route 66 Bike Trail. Although costs of a new bicycle shoulder along the highway for a bicycle trail are “contingent on funds available,” a fiscal analysis report said the Oklahoma Department of Transportation’s future plans already includes Oklahoma Highway 66 for shoulder improvements. Moore also said he hoped donations would also defray some of the project’s costs.
Moore, a cycling aficionado, said in an interview that he wanted more bicycle trails in Oklahoma, and thought Oklahoma Route 66 would be an ideal spot for one.
Lake City Diner in Santa Rosa will reopen April 19, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Preservation, Restaurants.add a comment
The Lake City Diner along Route 66 in Santa Rosa, N.M., will reopen in early May after it abruptly closed a few months ago, according to the current print edition of the Guadalupe County Communicator, based in Santa Rosa.
The newspaper reports that the restaurant, housed in a 1901 downtown building, will reopen under new owners Dicky and Rhonda Gutierrez. After purchasing the business from previous owner Frances Marquez, they recently started remodeling the kitchen and dining area.
Gutierrez is a former city council candidate, but also earned a culinary arts degree. The newspaper reports:
At first, the menu will be similar to Marquez’s menu, but quite soon it will begin to evolve in new directions, perhaps with Spanish paella, seafood and “a lot more steaks … steaks and lobsters,” Gutierrez said.
The building is older than even the landmark Guadalupe County Courthouse across the street. Before it became a restaurant, it was a bank, then a women’s department annex to a clothing store.
A photo of the Lake City Diner can be seen here.
East Hollywood wants Route 66 improvements April 18, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, bicycling.add a comment
The East Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles is applying for city grants to help dress up a 22-block stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard (aka Route 66), according to Curbed Los Angeles.
Armen Makasjian of the Santa Monica Boulevard/Route 66 Task Force says his group hopes to capitalize on Route 66′s reputation as one of the nation’s best known highways. The effort would be modeled in part after West Hollywood’s own stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard, he tells Curbed.
Granted, East Hollywood’s goals are more modest: The Task Force wants more trash cans, cleaner bus stops, and less tagging. Longer-term goals include adding Historic Route 66 marker signs, benches, bike racks, and decorative trash cans. Anything to lure more pedestrians and more shops, really. “We haven’t had any new businesses moving in,” says Makasjian of the area. “You have to have more services.”
The area where improvements are sought is between Hoover Street and the Highway 101 freeway.
Geocache goof continues to reverberate April 17, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, Highways, Maps.2 comments
You may remember a few weeks ago the story about how the Nevada Department of Transportation, citing dubious safety reasons, abruptly removed hundreds of geocaches along the Extraterrestrial Highway.
Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Adrienne Packer today posted a follow-up on that story. In short, she found no shortage of geocache fans who proclaimed they would skip Nevada and instead choose California — and Route 66 — for their activities.
That included Ed Yohn, from Lancaster, Pa.:
“The bright side for Nevada is that we are still flying into Las Vegas and renting a vehicle. Granted, once the tires roll, they won’t stop until California. If the E.T. highway trail is ever reinstated, we’ll be back.”
You get the picture. These notes, which are a fraction of those I received after writing about the caches being taken away, definitely demonstrate how angry these people are and how much money our rural communities might be losing out on.
The transportation division has requested legal advice from the attorney general’s office on the placement of caches off the highway in the desert land, some of which is public and some of which is the transportation department’s right of way.
Transportation officials said they have yet to receive a response.
Packer quoted seven geocachers in her story, and all said they would snub Nevada because of the geocaches’ removal. And, remember, she says that is “a fraction” of the comments she received. At minimum, we’re talking probably thousands of tourism dollars lost — at a time when Nevada’s economy is struggling — because of the agency’s impulsive decision.
And the dithering by the state attorney general’s office isn’t helping, either. Summer tourism season lurks just weeks away.
From eyesore to eyeful April 17, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Events, Motels, Preservation.add a comment
The Tulsa World today provided a sneak preview of what the renovation of the Campbell Hotel in Tulsa looks like. It also told how close the historic property came to the wrecking ball just a few years ago:
No way it could be restored.
That’s what the gentleman told local architect Tom Neal in the late 1990s when they walked through the derelict Max W. Campbell building. A building many longtime Tulsans might refer to as the old Casa Loma Hotel at 2600 E. 11th St.
“It was dirty, probably had birds in it,” recalled Neal, who’s also president of the Renaissance Neighborhood Association. “The windows were falling apart from neglect.” [...]
Hence that conversation Neal had in the 1990s with the man who thought it should be demolished – quite possibly for a parking lot.
That very well may have happened had not Renaissance Neighborhood Association volunteers intervened, Neal said.
The hotel, which recently was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, now is the subject of Designer Showcase 2011, a fundraiser for the Foundation for Tulsa Schools. Forty designers used their talents to dress up about 30,000 square feet of space at the hotel.
The Designer Showcase will run from April 29 to May 29 (tickets are here). The Campbell Hotel will open as a hotel later this summer.
“American States of Mind” April 17, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Photographs, Road trips.1 comment so far
This is an exceptional photo essay by Eva E. Davier. You’ll see a few side trips, but many of the images come from Route 66.
More of her photos can be seen here, including the ruins of Ella’s Frontier in Joseph City, Ariz.
Short film about Blue Whale will premiere in June April 16, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, Movies.1 comment so far
Filmmaker Alexander Knight of Oklahoma City has made a 13-minute documentary about the Blue Whale of Catoosa, Okla. The film will premiere during the deadCENTER Film Festival in Oklahoma City on June 8-12.
Here’s the trailer. Unlike a lot of trailers, this one doesn’t give a lot away:
However, the credits do show that longtime Blue Whale caretaker Blaine Davis stars in the film.
Alexander said an exact screening time at the festival should be announced later this month.