People gathered in Springfield, Missouri, on Saturday night to mark the 150th birthday of John T. Woodruff — one of the city’s top early developers and a key figure in establishing U.S. Highway 66.
The event occurred at the former Kentwood Arms Hotel, now a dormitory for Missouri State University, in downtown Springfield.
More in a report from one of Springfield’s television stations:
“Today is the 150th anniversary of the birth of John T. Woodruff who is arguably the person of the many people who have contributed to Springfield’s development and success, he’s the one who has done the most,” Thomas Peters, dean of libraries at MSU, said. “He brought the west maintenance and repair shop for the Frisco railroad here in the early twentieth century and there are still a lot of people that the Frisco jobs were what brought them to Springfield.
“He built the Woodruff building now called Sky 11, built the Colonial Hotel, built the Hotel Sansone which is still standing there on East St. Louis, and of course, we are here in the Kentwood Arms which was the premier hotel for many, many years. He was very definitely involved in the good roads movement in Missouri but also he was an important player in the birth and development of Route 66. He served two terms as the president of the U.S. 66 Highway Association back in ’26, ’27, and ’28.”
Woodruff remains mostly known as being among a group of highway advocates (including Cyrus Avery) near the Colonial Hotel in Springfield when they sent a telegram April 30, 1926, to Washington accepting the number 66 assigned to a federal highway from Chicago to Los Angeles.
This moment remains the reason Springfield claims itself as the “birthplace of Route 66” and recently launched a Route 66 festival of the same name.
Here’s the entire report from the TV station:
Peters published a biography about Woodruff last year; you can read my review of it here.
Woodruff died in 1949 at age 81. He is buried in Hazelwood Cemetery in Springfield.
(Image of John T. Woodruff via Springfield-Greene County Library)