The city of Strafford, Missouri, is constructing a Route 66 Historical Park next to city hall along with a visitors center.
KY3 in nearby Springfield got the details:
When completed, it will feature reconstructed versions of local 66 icons — the Bumgardner (sic) General Store and Delp Hotel.
“We do not have a lot of families in the midtown area. So, we need maybe an adult park- a place for people to buy lunch and come eat under a pavilion,” said Steve Bodenhamer, Strafford City Manager.
The center of it all will be this remake of the town’s old train station, which will house a visitors center and rest area with tourism and historical displays.
The city hopes to have the first phase of the project completed sometime in 2018.
More about the projects may be found at the city’s website:
The re-created Frisco depot will be located immediately east of City Hall. It will be equipped with restrooms and an environmentally controlled area for the display of Strafford historic information. The Bumgarner Store and Delp Hotel facades will be connected to pavilions equipped with outdoor tables.
Frank Delp built the 10-room Delp Hotel in Strafford about 1911 to cater to railroad passengers, according to an archived article in the Marshfield Mail. It last was used as a hotel in the 1930s or 1940s, when modern motels began being built along Route 66. It was torn down about 2008.
According to a floor plan, the Frisco Depot in Strafford was built about 1917.
Unfortunately, I’ve found little information about the Bumgarner General Store in Strafford except for an obituary that indicates the store was operating before 1955 until about the late 1970s or ’80s. The town was founded about 1871, and there very likely was a general store established within a few years.
(Artist’s rendering of Strafford Route 66 visitors center and park via screen-capture image from KY3 report)