The city of Pacific, Missouri, recently completed its purchase of the closed Red Cedar Inn restaurant and will reopen it as visitors center, history museum and genealogy center sometime next year.
The Washington Missourian reported the city paid $290,000 for the Route 66 landmark, which closed in 2007. The city had its eye on the Red Cedar Inn as a visitors center or museum for almost 10 years, but earlier efforts failed.
The city will move into the building in six months. It is occupied by an electrical company.
The city bought a house in 2012 with the purpose of making it into a museum or visitors center. The newspaper had details about the original plan, which presumably will be used for the Red Cedar Inn:
The committee met for a six-month period and produced a report on the viability of a visitor information center that would showcase Pacific and nearby visitor venues, a revolving exhibit of historic artifacts owned by the city museum, a gift shop that would sell Pacific, Missouri, Railroad and Route 66 memorabilia as a source of income to operate the visitor center.
The committee also called for cold drink and snack machines, near a sit-down area as another source of revenue.
The Smith brothers built the restaurant in 1932, then the tavern addition a few years later, from logs cut from the family farm. The restaurant and bar were a favorite for many travelers on Route 66, including baseball legends Dizzy Dean and Ted Williams.
(Image of the Red Cedar Inn in 2004 in Pacific, Missouri, by Original uploader was Kbh3rd (talk) – Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Xnatedawgx using CommonsHelper., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6312740)