A YouTube channel called Gateway Explorer recently dove into the history of the Rock City Cafe that once stood along Route 66 in Eureka, Missouri.
The channel describes the video:
Located at (38.5054260, -90.6151620), the Rock City Cafe was built in 1933 by Ed LaMar on a hill at the edge of Times Beach along the 1932 alignment of Route 66.
It was operated by Luther “Ambrose” Ambrose Keeton and offered a cafe, gas station, tavern, and cabins in the back that were called the Ozark Motel.
Stones used in the construction were quarried from Babler State Park by forty to fifty members of the Civilian Conservation Corps. It was very popular until Interstate 44 bypassed it in the 1950s.
In 1957, it was demolished and remained a vacant lot until the Spring of 2022 when Byerly RV cleared the land for an expansion of their parking lot.
The Gateway Explorer channel has other worthwhile videos, including two about the defunct Route 66 town of Times Beach, Missouri.
The Eureka Historical Society late last year posted something on Facebook about the complex:
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To bad that an older explorer wasn’t narrating the scrap finds on the ground. Someone older would know exactly what he was looking at.