A new Route 66-themed mural recently was added to the side of the Lumberyard Brewery in downtown Flagstaff, Ariz., according to The Lumberjack student newspaper of Northern Arizona University.
R. E. Wall and Margaret Dewar of Mural Mice Universal created the mural. The two started on the project in May.
The project was conceived by Bruce Aiken, NAU honors faculty member and a member of the Flagstaff Beautification and Public Art Commission.
“This part of the city needed more help,” Aiken said prior to revealing the mural to the public. “The mural should help drive visitors across the tracks to give people something to talk about.”
“We found that Route 66 has a unique place in American history,” Dewar said. “Though it was not the longest or oldest highway in the U.S., it somehow gained more notoriety than any highway in the world. It has become an icon, a symbol of American identity.”
The mural is at San Francisco Street and Phoenix Avenue, about a block south of 66 itself (map here).
More photos of the mural being made are at Mural Mice’s website. The Arizona Daily Sun also has a slideshow.
Murals has become a nice beautification trend on Route 66. The towns of Pontiac, Ill.; Atlanta, Ill.; Cuba, Mo.; Joplin, Mo.; Galena, Kan.; Tucumcari, N.M.; and Needles, Calif., all have thrown up prominent murals in recent years.
We were there this spring when they were working on this mural. It’s always fun to see these things while they are in progress. We’re looking forward to getting back there and seeing the finished mural in person.
The mural itself in fact lies along the earliest alignment of Route 66 in Flagstaff. 66’s first alignment, westbound turned left southbound and crossed the Santa Fe Railway’s tracks at San Francisco Street (now one-way northbound), then turned right on Phoenix Avenue, then left on Mike’s Pike to the notorious “five Points” intersection where Route 66 picked up S. Miltown for a block, then right on the current alignment west out of Flagstaff past the A.L. & T lumbermill. This alignment was in use (as illustrated by the presence of old hotels and rooming houses) until 1935 when an underpass was put in place beneath the Santa Fe tracks 5 blocks to the west, eliminating the Mike’s Pike, Phoenix Ave. stretch.
This wonderful mural then, really anchors Flagstaff’s historic southside neighborhood on Route 66, and while it is hard to drive westbound (owing to modern one-way street orientations) it is a wonderful 1 mile walking tour of 1920s Flagstaff, with godd restaurants, 4 microbreweries and more.