The owner of Gearhead Curios in Galena, Kansas, soon will break ground on a project to build a gas-station-themed, 10-unit motor court called Petrol Motor Quart in Galena.
Aaron Perry announced on Facebook the groundbreaking for the project, scheduled for 11:30 a.m. local time on Feb. 11. The motor court will be at 317 S. Main St. (aka Route 66) in Galena.
Perry said in a phone interview that each cottage-style cabin will come in a distinctive theme with a gas pump, neon lighting and bathrooms in the retro colors of pink or turquoise with ceramic tile. Most will have a small canopy for shade and to shelter the gas pumps, but they won’t be large enough to park cars underneath them, he said.
“It won’t be the Hilton,” he said of the complex.
A privacy fence in the back of the property will include automobile advertisements.
Perry said he hopes to have the motor court finished within five years. He’ll seek grants or big donations from celebrities (mentioning Jay Leno as one example) to help with the otherwise self-financed project.
“If we get the money, it will be finished sooner,” he said.
He said his fiancee and fellow longtime Route 66 fan Cassandra Rangel is a partner on the project.
Perry said he had held the idea of a petroliana motor court for a while, especially after noticing the vacant lots in the 300 block of South Main Street.
He said two people owned the lots. After a few local inquiries, he was able to acquire all 10 lots needed for the project by October. Perry said his father gave him a no-interest loan to acquire the land.
Perry said one of the lots contained the Green Parrot Tavern, which collapsed in 2007 into a sinkhole that unexpectedly opened under the building — probably from subsidence from lead or zinc mining many years ago.
Perry said he wanted the tavern’s old address of 317 S. Main St. and was able to secure it. He said he wasn’t worried about the property; he figured it now is one of the most stable lots in town.
He said one of the cottages will contain a tribute to a local gas station owner who had a parrot as a mascot.
Another cottage will contain a Union 76 theme on Perry’s insistence. He said one of his earliest road-trip memories was during the United States bicentennial in 1976. As a child, he assumed Union 76 stations would be renamed Union 77 the next year.
Other themes in an artist’s rendering of the motor court (seen above) include Whiting Brothers, Clark, Derby, Phillips 66 and Esso.
An aerial artist’s rendering of the motor court is below:
Perry noted Route 66 contains a stretch of no vintage motels or motor courts from about Carthage, Missouri, to Vinita, Oklahoma. He said many Route 66 travelers want to spend at least one night in each of the highway’s eight states, and his Petrol Motor Quart will give them more of an incentive to stay in Kansas.
He also said between Cars on the Route, his Gearhead Curios and the forthcoming Hot Rod Hangout (with a gas station theme and an operating Valentine Diner), Galena would be well-poised to draw a lot of visitors.
“Galena will be a Mecca of old-school gas stations,” he said. “I’m pumped.”
(Images of the Petrol Motor Quart courtesy of Aaron Perry)
Go Aaron! We’re excited over your excitement!