A collector of advertising, including neon signs, reported Wednesday the neon letters and other elements from the sign of the long-closed Gardenway Motel in Villa Ridge, Missouri, had been removed, leaving nothing but stone frame and foundation.
However, the president of the Route 66 Association of Missouri reported the sign was taken down “for its own protection.”
Nathan Lippe posted this Wednesday on Instagram:
Lippe stated he’d been trying for a year to contact the owners to save the remnants of the sign, to no avail.
Lippe last year bought one-half of the Bel Air Drive-In theater sign in Mitchell, Illinois, after an oil company bought the long-closed property and wouldn’t incorporate the sign in its development.
On Thursday, Roamin’ Rich Dinkela, president of the Route 66 Association of Missouri, stated in a Facebook post Thursday:
The owner took it down to protect it. It’s in storage until we can find a place for it to be restored. No trophy hunters here.
Here’s what the sign looked like before the Route 66 motel closed:
Ominous signs for the motel had surfaced in recent weeks, including bulldozers being parked on the property. The heavy machinery was used for another razing job. Regardless, it’s probably not long for this world.
The motel closed in 2014 after years of bad reviews from overnight travelers. At last report, the Eckelkamp family had owned the property.
According to the late Skip Curtis in his “The Missouri 66 Tour Book,” the motel was built in 1945. The book also had this information:
Named for the Henry Shaw Gardenway (Old 66), this motel was built at its western terminus. The first units were constructed by Louis Eckelkamp a short distance from his family’s home. The motel grew to 41 rooms, all with tile baths. Wonderful sign!
According to Quinta Scott’s book, “Along Route 66”:
Once 66 was abandoned to the interstate that cut through the hill below, Eckelkamp added the long GARDENWAY sign on the roof to notify travelers on I-44 of accommodations up on the ridge.
(Image of the Gardenway Motel sign in 2012 by JymPoiranges via Flickr)
I stayed there a couple times in 2010 during a 7 week photo outing on Route 66. The first time, in June, I couldn’t figure out what the black stuff that was in the spit coming out of my mouth as I brushed my teeth. I was trying to remember if I’d eaten any poppyseed bread. Then I noticed that the black stuff was moving. They were ants! Ants were on my toothbrush and somehow I didn’t notice. Hmm.
That didn’t stop me from staying there in late August. That stay wasn’t great. Most of the rooms had been rented long-term to road construction crews. Many of them had little bbq grilles and furniture outside their room. It made the place look kind of trashy. When they got home from work, many sat outside drinking beer and swearing like sailors. It was just awful for regular travelers and families in particular.
There were several damaged glass blocks in the sign by then. The damage was worse every time I buzzed the place. A few years back, I stopped looking because the state of the sign got too depressing.
Oh, the first time I stayed there was June, 1996. It was clean and comfortable and the sign was in really good shape.
I look forward to seeing it after restoration.
I stayed there for a week in the early 2000s. By that time it had already begun the decline. The room was a bit dirty, it reeked of smoke, the AC was not functioning properly. I ended up living less than 1 mile from here and saw it almost daily. I said it wasn’t nice in the early 2000s but with time I saw what you saw, it became run-down, more and more long term patrons, it became quite trashy.
When I stayed it wasn’t yet trashy, it was just obviously a low cost motel. The sign was still in great shape. But into the late 2000s I started seeing people sitting outside on lawn chairs, with bbq grills and all that, and it made me sad. A once thriving business was all but dead now, relegated to a beacon of poverty.
I didn’t see the sign post-damage, the last time I saw it with my own eyes it was still complete and functioning. I came to this article as I used google’s street view and saw the damage. Considering I saw that sign daily for more than 10 years, it was a heavy blow to see the sign gone and the glass smashed. But I’m glad the sign was saved, at least.