The Needles, California, Chamber of Commerce last week broke ground to build a new office and visitors center in a seemingly ideal location — the historic El Garces train depot.
The Mohave Valley Daily News had more details about the 1,200-square-feet project, which had been years in the making:
The chamber will operate a full-service center to assist the traveling public, and guide them to local attractions and businesses.
The center also will market and promote the business community, sponsoring informational meetings and workshops, and highlighting the city’s location on the Colorado River and Route 66. […]
Looping videos that feature local attractions and provide an opportunity for advertising will play continuously on a large screen. Computers will be available for guests to use. Electronic devices will tally the number of visitors so the center can plan operations and marketing based on data counts.
Once completed, the chamber will organize tours of the train depot and solicit a team of volunteers to help promote Needles through direct marketing, media marketing and social media marketing. The center will sell retail products that advertise Needles and the attractions in the region, and the chamber will solicit photographs, paintings, books, collections and maps from locals.
The chamber posted several images from the groundbreaking ceremony.
El Garces was built in 1908 as a Harvey House to greet and feed customers who stepped off the train there. El Garces closed in 1949. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
Allen Affeldt, the savior of other Harvey Houses in Winslow, Arizona, and Las Vegas, New Mexico, sought to also restore El Garces as a hotel and restaurant starting in 2007 but dropped the plan two years later after the Federal Transit Administration wouldn’t allow the city to deed the property to him.
After more work, El Garces reopened to the public in 2014. El Garces sits one block off Broadway (aka Route 66).
(Image of groundbreaking for the Needles Chamber of Commerce office and visitors center via Facebook)