Boots Court motel added to National Register of Historic Places

The Boots Court motel, a landmark along Route 66 in Carthage, Missouri, recently was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The designation was confirmed by a weekly email Friday from the National Park Service, which runs the program.

According to the email, the Boots Court officially was listed on the National Register on Sept. 26.

Contrary to popular belief, a National Register listing doesn’t necessarily confer historic protection. However, the listing does make it eligible for more preservation grants and programs.

The Carthage-based Boots Court Foundation, which purchased the property at 107 S. Garrison Ave. (aka Route 66) last year, made a National Register listing a priority.

Considering the property is more than 80 years old and its location, it seems inconceivable it hadn’t landed on the National Register well before now.

However, the installation of a gabled roof in 1978 so changed the motel’s look, it essentially was rendered ineligible for the listing for decades.

The gabled roof finally was removed in 2013.

At last report, five of the motel’s 13 rooms were open, with the goal to remodel and reopen the rest by the city’s Maple Leaf Festival in mid-October.

The Boots Court was built in 1939 by Arthur Boots. Movie star Clark Gable stayed there several times during cross-country trips from his native Ohio; he rested his head in Room No. 6.

The motel came close to being demolished in the early 2000s when its owner, citing poor health, sold it to a local developer. Speculation ran rampant the motel would be razed for a Walgreens.

An outcry from the Route 66 Association of Missouri, Friends of the Mother Road and other preservationists apparently scared off the developers.

The previous owners bought the run-down property in 2011 and reopened it to overnight guests after months of renovations to restore it to its 1940s appearance, including “a radio in every room” and no televisions.

(Image of the Boots Court in Carthage, Missouri, by Jeff Kays via Flickr)