In a Carthage (Mo.) Press feature, Savannah’s Restaurant owner Vince Scott talks about, among other things, his ownership of the Boots Motel on Route 66:
Scott also owns one of the historic landmarks in Carthage, the Boots Motel. Again his intention was to buy the property and sell it quickly at a profit, which might have meant the destruction of this landmark, but things didn’t work out as planned.
The Walgreen’s pharmacy chain looked at the corner of Central and Garrison to build a store for several months but the deal couldn’t be made and Walgreen’s built its store at Grand Avenue and Fir Road.
Since then, however, the Route 66 icon has produced a steady income for Scott and his family, but it hasn’t been immune to the economic slowdown.
“It’s always been a good income producer, but it’s been a little bit slow even there,” Scott said. “The people who rent weekly, for whatever reason, whether they are transitioning from one place to another or they’ve lost their job, whatever the reason, they’ll stay there because they don’t have to get the utilities turned on or anything like that because I’m paying all that.
“There must be a lot less people moving around because I’ve got a couple of units open and I’m always full, and there are a lot less people calling.”
Scott said he hasn’t ruled out restoring the Boots himself and capitalizing on its unique place as one of the few operating roadside motels left over from the mid-20th century heyday of the Mother Road.
“If I was to be able to make this restaurant work and stand on it’s own, I may do that,” Scott said. “Then I could set people up in the Boots and send them down here to eat.”
The article is significant in that it’s the first time Scott has shown any inkling of wanting to restore the property. As recently as 18 months ago, Scott showed no interest in doing so.
Second, I believe this is the first time it’s been confirmed that Scott bought the Boots Motel in an effort to flip the property to Walgreens. A lot of well-placed sources said Walgreens was trying to get involved. But now the proof is apparent.
(Photo by Jim Ross)
Of course Walgreens was involved. We already know of their evil nature, despite what the National Trust for Historic Preservation thinks. I had a long list of landmarks destroyed by Walgreens at one time, and it was pretty astonishing.
They don’t scare me. We chased ’em off once. We’ll chase ’em off again.