The long-closed Diamond Inn Motel along old Route 66 in Villa Ridge, Missouri, will be razed in the next couple of months — meeting the same fate as the nearby Gardenway Motel.
The Washington Missourian had the story:
Both properties, which are owned by members of the Eckelkamp family, are slated for redevelopment.
“It’s hard to see it coming down,” L.B. Eckelkamp Jr. said Monday of the Diamond Inn Motel, which he said had fallen into disrepair. “But it’s definitely time.”
Eckelkamp said asbestos contamination has delayed the demolition of the Diamond Inn. “I think they (the demolition crew) would be finished by now if they hadn’t found more asbestos,” Eckelkamp said.
The closed Gardenway was torn down last month, though its neon sign and roof letters reportedly were saved.
The Diamond Inn was built in 1971 next to the Diamonds Restaurant. The eatery closed in 1995, and the motel closed in 2016. For a while, the motel was a Travelodge.
There once was a cool billboard, accented with neon lighting, at the nearby interchange of Interstate 44 that advertised the Gardenway and Diamond Inn motels. But the neon had been removed years ago, and a perusal of Google Street View reveals the billboard had been painted over.
We stayed at the motel overnight not long before it closed. It was clean, comfortable and inexpensive, and we wanted to stay again during a future cross-country trip. When that time came around, it was shuttered.
(Vintage postcard image of Diamond Inn Motel and Diamonds Restaurant in Villa Ridge, Missouri, via 66Postards.com)
Wow, what a fantastic postcard!
Indeed, the moment of the photo must have been a beautiful moment to travel on route 66.
Another disappearance after the Gardenway motel a few days ago. The building of the Diamonds restaurant, located not far from there, also has to worry?