More on the Boots Motel’s reopening February 14, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in Motels, Preservation.add a comment
The Carthage Press today posted more information about the reopening of the historic Boots Motel in Carthage, Mo., scheduled for May 8. The opening date was announced a few days ago.
A few factoids from the article:
— New owners Pricilla Bledsaw and Deborah Harvey had planned to use the back building of the historic Route 66 motel as office space. However, demand for office space in Carthage wasn’t as great as anticipated, and the demand for room was greater than once was thought. Also, renovation of the other rooms in the front of the complex was more daunting than anticipated. So they’re opening the back rooms for overnight guests so the motel can generate revenue to fix up the rest of the property.
— The sisters already have three of the five rooms booked for opening night.
— Bob Boots, son of the motel’s builder, Arthur Boots, has asked to be the first reservation. Room rates that night will be $2.50, the same rate as in 1946, when the back building was constructed.
A small fact about Whitney Houston’s death February 14, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in History, Motels, People.2 comments
I sorta hate to bring this up, since it’s a trivial fact in light of a tragedy.
But the hotel where singing superstar Whitney Houston died on Saturday — the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. — sits next to Route 66. A reader alerted me to this today.
The hotel lists its address as 9876 Wilshire Blvd., which is not Route 66. However, the sprawling hotel complex occupies a corner of Santa Monica Boulevard, which is Route 66. And the Hilton is visible from that road.
And it’s not as if the Beverly Hilton is a johnny-come-lately of the chain. It was built in 1955, and was owned by Merv Griffin for over 15 years.
It’s not just a celebrity hangout. Numerous U.S. presidents have stayed there, to the point where it’s called the West Coast White House. The Beverly Hilton is already historically significant because of its age, and because of who booked a room there.
TMZ reported today that Houston’s room where she died is reoccupied. However, instead of booking guests there, the hotel probably is taking the room out of rotation for a few weeks until morbid curiosity-seekers go away, or until the room is thoroughly remodeled.
Celebrity death sites will attract a smattering of tourists. A lonely stretch of U.S. 95, aka Route 66, near Needles, Calif., was where comedian Sam Kenison died in a car crash in 1992.
Survivor of Joplin hotel collapse dies February 11, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in History, Motels, People.add a comment
Alfred Summers, the lone survivor of a collapse in 1978 of a large motel along Route 66 in Joplin, Mo., died Friday at age 64, according to the Joplin Globe.
Summers, part of demolition crew, was trapped in the rubble for more than three days before he was extricated. Two co-workers died in the unexpected collapse. Summer’s rescue earned national headlines.
KOAM-TV produced this excellent two-part story about the hotel’s collapse and Summers’ rescue in 2009. It’s well worth your time; if the videos don’t embed properly, just head to the link:
Here is Part 2:
The building that collapsed was the Connor Hotel, a nine-story beauty that was built in 1907. It was located at Fourth and Main Streets. Main Street was Route 66 in that part of town in the 1920s and ’30s. Connor died at age 60 before his hotel was completed.
According to local historian Brad Belk, the Connor Hotel added a huge annex in 1929:
All the rooms had “circulating ice water,” a telephone and a connection for a ceiling fan. The 400-room hotel provided five different room rates. The least-expensive $2 room offered a toilet and lavatory but no bath. The $2.50 and $3 rooms had tiled bathrooms, while the corner rooms remained the largest and most expensive, running $3.50 to $4 a night.
The Connor offered both a barber shop and a beauty shop.
The hotel had five restaurants, all under the capable hands of chef August Petit. Even Connor Hotel owner Allis dabbled in the design of one of the eateries. The Kit Cat coffee shop featured his novel “contabs,” which were part counter and part table. [...]
Another distinguishing feature of the renovation was the huge chandelier over the grand staircase. Weighing 1,200 pounds, the total ensemble glistened of crystals and imported gold glass panels supported by a base made of cast bronze.
The hotel struggled during the 1960s, and finally was scheduled to be demolished.
Here’s a digital scan of an early brochure of the hotel.
(Postcard of the Connor Hotel courtesy of 66Postcards.com)
Boots Motel set to reopen May 8 February 10, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in Motels, Preservation.add a comment
The historic Boots Motel, a Route 66 landmark in Carthage, Mo., that was endangered for several years, will reopen for business starting May 8, according to KODE-TV in nearby Joplin.
According to the station, the motel will price its rooms for $2.50 for opening night. After that, rooms will be $66 a night. Those interested in reservations should email bootsmotel(at)hotmail(dot)com .
According to the motel’s website, five restored rooms will be ready by the reopening. Its new owners are renovating the rest of the 14-room motel as money becomes available.
The Boots Motel’s Facebook page contains a number of photos showing the renovations and the restored rooms.
Debye Harvey of Georgia and Priscilla Bledsaw, who are sisters, purchased the motel last summer after the property went through foreclosure. For years before that, the Boots Motel had been used as apartments.
The sisters, along with property manager Ron Hart, want to restore the motel to 1940s splendor, including “a radio in every room.” The motel was built in 1939, and is one of the few surviving Route 66 motels to still have built-in carports. Movie star Clark Gable stayed in the motel overnight at least once.
The Boots Motel also created this map for Route 66 travelers coming from the east. The Spring River Bridge on the east edge of town is scheduled to be replaced starting in the spring, necessitating a detour off the usual path throughout tourism season. The map guides you straight to the motel.
The Motels of Route 66 project will spawn a book and film February 7, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in Books, History, Motels, Movies.5 comments
Simon Cantlon, an Emmy-nominated producer of digital media for the entertainment industry, has launched The Motels of Route 66 project that will spawn a documentary film and a book.
Cantlon created this video that explains his project:
According to his website:
The Motels of Route 66 project will capture the spirit of these motels, both the thriving and the forgotten, in film, photographs and oral histories. We will document the motel owners stories, the iconic neon signs, the mid-century architecture and the travelers who stayed there then and now.
From the Greenway Motel in Mitchell, Illinois with the billboard-sized arrow showing travelers where to turn, and the Blue Swallow Inn in Tucumcari, New Mexico with its blue and pink neon sign adorned with a sweet, simple blue bird select iconic motels and their owners along the Route will be documented on film. Every single vintage motel sign still standing along the mother road will also be captured in film and photograph.
Another major component of the project will be compiling existing photographs and stories from people around the world. We will use social media networks, mobile phone apps and online ad campaigns to cull photographs and stories from those who have been inspired by Route 66. We will form partnerships with Route 66 associations to get the word out about the project and help gather pre-existing source material. We want to form a digital and physical archive of these places, of visuals and narratives already found, and those we have yet to unearth.
The project will culminate with the release of a coffee table book, publishing the best photographs of the accumulated images, as well as stories about a select number of the motels. We will also put together a short documentary film, giving further context to and expanded stories from these classic motels.
In 2009, Route 66 motels were named one of the most endangered historic sites in America by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. So Cantlon’s book and film probably will have historic value.
UPDATE 2/10/2012: Cantlon, in an email, said he’d do a scouting trip in May and start actual shooting in July.
He also said this about the project:
The plan is to highlight the stories of a select number of the vintage motels (12 to 16 or so) in the documentary. Visually I plan to represent all of them in the film and the book but only the expanded stories of a select amount in the documentary. The book will expand on the documentary and include many more stories of the motels.
The project will also be seeking submissions from travellers, fans, motel owners and experts in the form of video and photos to be included in the documentary and book.
La Posada nearly finished with all the rooms February 6, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in Motels, Restaurants.add a comment
John Sharpe, chef at the acclaimed Turquoise Room restaurant at the historic and massively successful La Posada hotel in Winslow, Ariz., revealed a few newsworthy items in his regular email newsletter Sunday.
First, construction on all the hotel’s rooms is about to come to an end. Sharpe said:
We are presently at 49 and will top 53 by April. More guests staying here translates to more people to feed so we will have to be ready by April.
Second, La Posada is about to expand further:
We have made some modifications to the kitchen that will help us do just that (expansion). Allan is relocating our management offices to the area that used to be the original front desk of the hotel.
This is to facilitate the next phase of the hotel’s expansion eastwards into the Depot and the grounds surrounding this area. We are hoping to have increased seating by the spring of 2013 in the form of a patio. It will be entered from the east end of the dining room where you now see us going into the management office. This building, known as the “Spam Room,” is to be demolished. It will make way for the partially enclosed patio. As a footnote – the “Spam Room” is where the spam sandwiches were prepared during World War Two. Many troop trains stopped in Winslow as they carried the troops to war and back home again.
There will be the planting of a “Chefs’ Garden” as well as a vineyard. All of this will enhance the eastern entrance to what will be the transformation of the Depot into art gallery space also being referred to as the Museum project.
The back of the kitchen will be thankfully hidden behind walls and so that the eastern part of the property can be as desirable a place to walk as some of the other areas. Construction is due to start on this later in 2012. I will keep you posted through my newsletters and blog.
La Posada sits next to Route 66 on one side, and the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe railroad tracks on the other.
La Posada’s owner, Alan Affeldt, also seeks to renovate and reopen the long-closed El Garces in Needles, Calif. Like La Posada, El Garces was built as a Harvey House.
El Garces makes slow progress February 4, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in Motels, Preservation, Railroad.add a comment
It’s been slow, but the Needles (Calif.) Desert Star reported this week that the effort to restore and eventually reopen the historic El Garces hotel, restaurant, and railroad depot in Needles is making progress.
The stumbling point has been whether the Federal Transportation Administration will approve a joint operating agreement between El Garces LLC and the city, or some other arrangement.
Alan Affeldt, owner of La Posada in Winslow, Ariz., and lead developer of the El Garces project, sent a recent email that clarified things :
Now FTA has to decide if the City can be a partner with anyone (like me, which is very challenging but possible) or if the city has to do it themselves (which is highly unlikely).
Most importantly, FTA has to decide if the City can transfer (sell) title to the property to a private party (like me) if certain USE conditions/restrictions are met.
Everyone thinks they should allow transfer, without which the rehabilitation cannot be financed, but FTA has statutory obligations to protect the public interest in the project grants.
It is alas not a simple problem, but we seem to be getting closer to an answer which will make the options clear to all the parties.
We should hear something by spring…
It should be noted that Affeldt isn’t an unproven or fly-by-night operator. His revival of La Posada is one of the greatest success stories of the Southwest. His track record should carry a lot of credibility.
El Garces opened as a Harvey House hotel and restaurant in 1908. It closed in 1949. The older alignment of Route 66 goes right by the landmark. Efforts by Affeldt to restore El Garces began in 2007, but were put on hold in 2011.