The Munger Moss Motel in Lebanon, Missouri, will be marking its 70th birthday Saturday with music, food and dancing.
There’s a triple reason for the celebration, however. The Route 66 motel’s owners, Bob and Ramona Lehman, will mark their 45th year along Route 66. And Route 66 itself will mark its 90th anniversary later this year.
The Lehmans are inviting not only Route 66 enthusiasts, but also Lebanon residents. So the parking lot and former swimming pool that was converted into a concrete slab perfect for gatherings might get a bit crowded.
The event will run from 5 to 10 p.m.
The Lehmans told the Lebanon Daily Record how they acquired the motel:
After living through a horrible Iowa blizzard earlier that year, the Lehmans decided they were moving south. The couple went to Springfield to look for motels to purchase and on the way home, they stopped in Lebanon. A chance meeting with a real estate agent at a gas station led the Lehmans to looking at the Munger Moss. They fell in love with the motel and purchased it from Pete and Jesse Hudson, the original owners.
Over the years the hotel business has had its ups and downs, but the Lehmans stuck with it and have been able to improve but also preserve the historic hotel over years. The biggest change has been making the rooms energy efficient, but at the same time, they’ve tried to keep it as classic as possible. The rooms still contain the original tile and pink bathtubs.
The same day of that event, a rally will be held from noon to 4 p.m. that day on the west side of the closed Gasconade River Bridge, which is about 13 miles east of the Munger Moss off Interstate 44.
The event is meant to show the public and media how Route 66 travelers and local how important the bridge is, and they will urge its repair. The circa-1924 bridge was closed in late 2014 after state inspectors found it had deteriorated too much to be considered safe.
(Image of Bob and Ramona Lehman at their Munger Moss Motel by the Missouri Division of Tourism via Flickr)