David Wickline plans to eventually build replica of the 66 Courts motel and attached Magnolia gas station that once stood on Route 66 in Groom, Texas.
Wickline, who lives in Ohio, announced it late Tuesday with a Facebook post linking to a GoFundMe page for the project. He hopes to raise $50,000.
Wickline said in a text message he hopes to start the 66 Courts project in two to three years if he can sell his Roadhouse 66 Bar & Grill in Worthington, Ohio.
He explained he owns the original 66 Courts neon sign he wants Joel Rayburn of GlassBoy Studios to restore. Wickline said he plans to build scale replicas of the three 66 Courts buildings, including the Magnolia gas station.
The GoFundMe page contains a few more details about his plan:
[…} During the project I will be reconstructing the OFFICE and House/residence of the historic motel (one of the first buildings in the complex to be raised and not in many photos at all) from recently acquired photos and video of the same. I plan to use the Motel building which will be 18′ by 105′ (and an exact replica of 6 rooms) for displaying all of my Route 66 Memorabilia into a museum setting) for all to see. I will live on site in the office/house and hold the Magnolia Station open as many days and as well as I can for 66 travelers at this age so they can experience a new attraction along the old highway we so fondly love and adore.
The key difference is instead of the Texas Panhandle, Wickline will build the 66 Courts replica somewhere on Route 66 in Arizona.
Wickline also launched a 66 Courts page on Facebook in January to collect photographs of the old motel to help guide his plans.
Wickline said he formerly was a residential plan designer in Ohio. “It will just be a fun project for me and get me out of the snowbelt,” he wrote.
The 66 Courts motel sat abandoned for years after Interstate 40 bypassed Groom in the mid-1980s. Route 66 travelers still snapped photos of the fast-decaying buildings until their razing in 2005.
One of the best documented images of the motel and station when they still stood is this video Anthony Reichardt shot in 1993:
Finding any sort of history on the 66 Courts proves scant. Quinta Scott’s well-researched “Along Route 66” book states only that the motel complex’s construction began after World War II.
Wickline probably remains best-known for his acclaimed books “Images of 66: An Interactive Journey Along the Length of the Mother Road” and “Images of 66: Digging Deeper Along the Length of the Mother Road, Vol. 2″ that photographically documented Route 66 very well about 10 years ago.
(Image of the 66 Courts in Groom, Texas, in 1994 by Shelby Bell via Flickr)
Hi Ron – Thanks for posting this. Just to be completely (I hope) accurate – From the above video, it appears that the 66 Courts was here 35°12’04.50″ N 101°06’34.61″ W, which is about 0.15 mile east of its position as posted on various sites on the Internet. I base this position using Google Earth historic imagery, GE street view, and the location of several structures (grain elevator opposite, curved roof building adjacent, and water tower in the background.
Frank, you are correct