Travelling Route 66 will take some planning, especially if you ae a photographer, with so many guides, books and websites out there. Listed below are my favourite locations to photograph on Route 66 listed in alphabetical order

So to begin with, here's what to see and photograph on Route 66 from A to E

Ambler's Texaco Gas Station
Dwight, Illinois

    Ambler’s Texaco Gas Station, also known as Vernon’s Texaco Station and Becker’s Marathon Gas Station, is located along historic Route 66 in the Village of Dwight. The station gets its name from longtime   manager Basil “Tubby” Ambler, who operated the station  from 1938 to 1966.  The original 1933 building Jack Shore built consisted of an office with wood clapboard siding, an arched roof with asphalt     shingles,  and residential windows adorned with shutters and flower boxes. Extending out from the office over three Texaco gas pumps was a sheltering canopy supported by two tapered columns.  Mr. Shore   also constructed an ice house located on the property. 

 The station’s design, with its cottage look, may strike the contemporary traveler as quaint--or perhaps even odd. Why, after all, shouldn’t a gas station look like a gas station? But this domestic style, common   along Route 66, had a distinct purpose and stems from a time in the early 20th century when gas stations were just beginning to seriously intrude upon the suburban landscape of America. The oil   companies  wisely opted to tread lightly on this new, non-commercial territory. Gas stations were consciously styled to be homey and inviting to customers, as well as inconspicuous in their new residential,   suburban surroundings. In the early 1940s, following a national trend that saw gas stations evolve to full service garages, Mr. Ambler added a service bay of simple concrete block to the north side of the   original building. Although he left the station in 1966, the station continued servicing motorists until nearly the turn of the 21st century, making it one of the oldest continually operated service stations along   The Mother Road.

Over the years, the station naturally underwent a number of changes. Windows were removed and added, fresh paint applied, and new roofing laid down. The tall, elegant red pumps of the 1930s gave way to the squat dispensers of the 1960s; and Marathon Oil eventually superseded the Texaco Fire Chief brand. The station operated as a gas station for 66 years until 1999 and was an auto repair shop until 2002, when the owner Phillip Becker generously donated the station to the Village of Dwight. With the help of a $10,400 matching grant from the National Park Service’s Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program, the Village of Dwight painstakingly restored the station to its former glory, taking the main office and canopy area back to the 1930s and the service bay area back to its 1940s appearance. Today, the station serves as a visitor’s center for the Village of Dwight. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2001 and received a Cost-Share Grant from the National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program in 2002.

Arcadia Round Barn
Arcadia, Oklahoma

 Sitting atop a low terrace overlooking the Deep Fork River, the Round Barn in Arcadia has been a center of community activity and curiosity for over a century. William Harrison “Big Bill” Odor arrived in Oklahoma County in 1892, and shortly after, in 1898, oxen cleared the ground for construction of his barn. He built a barn 60 feet in diameter and 43 feet high with a local red Permian rock foundation.  Local burr oak timbers were soaked in water until soft and then banded into the mold to create the rafters. Mr. Odor apparently designed the barn himself, though no one knows how he chose the round design.

After its construction was completed in 1898, the barn housed hay, grain, and livestock, but almost from the start, it served as a community center. During the barn’s construction, three young workers, realizing what a fine place it would be for dances, persuaded Mr. Odor to let them pay the difference between planed rough flooring and hardwood, which was more suitable for dancing. From time to time for the next 25 years, barn dances drew crowds and musicians to Arcadia from a wide area. Mr. Odor compared the barn’s acoustics with those of the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, and it became a popular rallying point while Arcadia flourished.

With the U.S. Highway 66 alignment through Arcadia in 1928, travelers along the Mother Road were only a stone’s throw from the architectural curiosity. The barn quickly became a Route 66 landmark.

Although the barn decayed and was only partially standing by the late 1970s, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. Restoration efforts began when the Arcadia Historical Society acquired the property in 1988. A committed group of volunteers repaired the collapsed roof and restored the barn using many of the original construction methods.  In 1992, the barn opened to the public, and in that same year, the Society received a National Preservation Honor Award for its efforts. By 2005, the barn again needed repairs, which dedicated volunteers completed with funding assistance from the National Park Service’s Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program. Today, the barn remains open as an important community resource and popular resting stop for Route 66 travelers.   

Ariston Café
Litchfield, Illinois

 Starting up a business in the depths of the Great Depression during the 1930s might strike most people as foolhardy at best, but this is exactly what Pete Adam and his partner Tom Cokinos did in 1935, when they opened the Ariston Café along Route 66 in Litchfield, Illinois. Upon closer examination, however, their venture was far from rash. 

During the Depression, even though millions of people were out of work, some pockets of the economy remained afloat. A service sector start-up such as a café remained a relatively inexpensive venture, and founder Pete Adam was no novice. As a veteran restaurateur, he knew the viability of a good restaurant even in hard times. He also seemed keenly aware of the business possibilities of Route 66 in Illinois. The original Ariston Café opened in 1924 in nearby Carlinville, a town along the original Route 66. After 1930, the highway realigned to the east, bypassing Carlinville and going straight through Litchfield, which prompted the move of the café to Litchfield.  The Illinois segment of the Mother Road at this time was a major transportation corridor between Chicago, then the nation’s second largest city, and St. Louis, at that time America’s seventh largest city. Even during the Depression, traffic on this well paved road remained steady.  In 1936, the State of Illinois reported that Route 66 was the heaviest traveled long-distance highway in the State.

Henry A. Vasel built the current Ariston Café at a construction cost of $3,625.36. The café opened its doors along Route 66 on July 5, 1935. Adam installed two gas pumps in front in hopes of attracting more customers, a practice typical of Route 66 restaurants during this period. A full service menu from 1938 offered diners porterhouse steak at 85 cents, bacon and eggs or a BLT for a quarter, and a glass of Budweiser for 15 cents.  Today, the café is still going strong, although the gas pumps are gone and the food prices have risen.  Over the decades, there have been some changes and renovations to the café, but the visitor to the Ariston Café still makes a step back in time. Despite the addition in the 1970s of a banquet wing on the north facade and some new front doors and awnings, the original building--in its stark, utilitarian commercial style of the period-- still stands proud.  Noteworthy is its Alamo-like parapet with glazed terra cotta coping and its finely crafted exterior brickwork. Two original metal and neon signs announcing the Ariston Café and advertising Budweiser beer adorn the front façade. The interior dining room, which seated up to 100 customers in 1935, still retains much of its original décor, including a stunning Art Deco wall cabinet along the north wall, chrome stools, and original light fixtures in the booths. The original dining section still retains its 1935 acoustical tile ceiling.

The rear exterior of the restaurant tells an interesting story about the need for adaptation and creative thinking when doing business along the Mother Road. In 1940, as the Depression lifted and traffic became congested, the two lane Route 66 that passed in front of the café was replaced with a four lane bypass running behind the restaurant.  Physically turning the restaurant around was not an option, so Pete Adam simply put up attractive neon signage on the rear of the building, beckoning Mother Roaders to drive around to the front. It worked, and the restaurant has been open for business since 1935.

When founder Pete Adam died, his son Nick took over the operation, and he remains at the helm today.  The Ariston Café thus stands out as a rare survivor of family-run restaurants that flourished along the Mother Road during the mid-20th century.  The Ariston Café was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in May 2006. It received a Cost-Share Grant from the National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program in 2007.

Road Segments
Arizona

Arizona Route 66 has its roots in the ancient past with aboriginal trails that linked trade partners from the Great Plains to coastal California. Used for centuries, these trails followed gentle terrain and led to water sources. After the United States acquired lands in the Southwest from Mexico in 1848, Congress sent exploratory parties to the area to assess its resources and search for transportation routes. Between 1857 and 1859, Lieutenant Edward Fitzgerald Beale traversed one such route, when he constructed a wagon road between Fort Smith, Arkansas and the Colorado River along the 35th Parallel, a relatively level terrain with a mild climate. In the final decades of the 1800s, the Beale Wagon Road guided thousands of settlers, ranchers, military personnel, and others west. Railroad engineers followed the path of the Beale Road when surveying for the 1883 transcontinental Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. Towns and settlements soon grew up along the railroad, and roads linked the towns’ main streets. Route 66 stems from these foundations.

During the Territorial years from 1863 to 1912, Arizona had an inadequate road system.  Individual counties had authority over road construction but generally lacked the tax revenues or organization to carry out an effective road construction and maintenance program. Arizona became a State in 1912. The advent of the automobile in the early years of the 20th century revolutionized the concept of road building in Arizona and ushered in a boom in road construction activity. In the second decade of the 20th century, coast-to-coast and regional highways developed, largely due to the influence of the Good Roads movement. The Arizona Good Roads Association published a tour book with road maps in 1913 to publicize the State’s roads. In it, the publishers proclaimed that, “… Arizona has … the best natural roads in the Union,” but also conceded that, “… some difficulties are encountered in the remote sections.”  These difficult sections included the future path of Route 66.

Years passed before travelers in the northern part of Arizona saw any substantial improvement in the roads. Arizona could not keep pace with the enormous demand for roads by a public increasingly fascinated with the automobile, and counties did not have adequate funding or organization to take on the responsibility. After Congress passed the Federal Aid Road Act (also known as the Bankhead Act) in 1916, Arizona received $3.7 million. Dirt roads were graded, cinder surfaced, and widened, and new bridges and culverts were constructed at canyon and river crossings. The road across northern Arizona, known as the National Old Trails Highway, was part of a transcontinental route that linked segments of old trail. The United States Government considered several routes to pave as part of the nation’s first system of Federal highways, and promoters of the Old Trails Highway eventually convinced the government of the route’s worthiness leading to its designation as part of U.S. Route 66 in 1926. Some 400 miles of Route 66 passed through Arizona, and in 1926, virtually none of it was paved.

Abandonded Section of Arizona Roadway National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program

Arizona, as elsewhere, experienced an explosive increase in automobile use during the 1920s, and as traffic increased, engineering standards were no longer adequate for the heavy road use. The outmoded 1920s roadways needed rebuilding, straightening, and reengineering. Paving of Route 66 began with the main streets of towns, which helped fund the projects, making Route 66 the “Main Street of America.”  Arizona received more than $5 million of National Recovery Administration highway funds in 1933 as part of President Roosevelt’s sweeping unemployment relief programs, and by 1938, Route 66 was completely paved from Chicago to Los Angeles. 

As the economy improved in the late 1930s, Americans began to take vacations by automobile, and the scenic wonders along Route 66 were a major destination. Arizona offered many attractions: National Parks like Petrified Forest and the Grand Canyon, cool mountain vistas, and the Navajo reservation. America had a love affair with American Indian culture, fueled by popular “Cowboy and Indian” motion pictures. Western movies conveyed a stereotyped image of Indian tribes, one perpetuated by business owners along the way. Although teepees and war bonnets associated with the Plains tribes were not authentic to Arizona, they became the banner of Route 66 found in curio shops and on neon signs and billboards.

After World War II, tourism, growth, and development boomed in Arizona. Post-war prosperity brought an unprecedented increase in automobile travel to the State, and to Route 66 in particular. Towns once again buzzed with activity, and cash registers rang the chime of good times.

Although Route 66 received constant maintenance through the years, traffic congestion worsened, especially in the small towns along the way. One in seven accidents in Arizona occurred on Route 66, giving rise to another, less flattering, name for the road: Bloody 66. The realignment of some sections straightened out particularly dangerous curves--the famous Ash Fork Hill in 1950 and the Oatman grade in 1951 are two notable examples. Nevertheless, the highway was obviously out of date and too congested.

The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act, appropriated billions of dollars to build interstate highways. The new system of interstates would conform to new design standards that included limited access, a minimum of two traffic lanes in each direction, and bypasses around every city and town along the way.  Work soon began on the new highway in Arizona, now designated Interstate 40. It took more than a decade and over $375 million before much of it was open to traffic. By bypassing several sections of winding road, Interstate 40 reduced the mileage across Arizona from 376 miles to 359 miles. The final section of the entire national length of Route 66 to be bypassed was a six-mile stretch through the town of Williams, Arizona on October 13, 1984. This momentous occasion was marked by a ceremony in Williams in which Bobby Troup sang his famous song “Route 66.”

Pine Springs National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program

The Road Segments
Route 66 road segments listed in the National Register of Historic Places are described in geographical order from east to west. Of particular interest are the road segments in the Parks area where visitors can view the evolution of Route 66 through this small community. Abandoned segments dating from 1921 and 1931 are still extant, illustrating the various alignments and the road’s relationship to the town of Parks.

Brannigan Park to Parks (1931)
The most recent iteration of Route 66 through the area, this 6.5 mile segment passes through the scenic high country of the Coconino Plateau, beginning at the open watered meadows of Pitman Valley, ascending Oak Hill to Garland Prairie Vista, and ending at the small community of Parks. During the Mother Road’s heyday, this segment offered travelers many scenic attractions and amenities. Midway between Flagstaff and Williams, the community of Parks had a small store, gas station, restaurant, school, post office, spring water, and campground. Just north and west of Parks, the Fireside Inn offered tourist cabins, gas, and a barbeque lunch counter. Continuing west, campers could stay at Spitz Springs Forest Camp or the scenic Garland Prairie Vista with its spectacular view of the San Francisco Peaks. In Pitman Valley, the McHat Inn provided guest cabins and a filling station. The Elmo Dance Hall was across the road.  The one tourist amenity remaining in operation is the Pines General Store and Post Office in Parks, which opened in 1933. This road segment was built in 1931 and replaced a circa 1920 alignment located to the south. Arizona Highways Magazine proclaimed in 1931 that construction of this section would “… eliminate 18 miles of narrow, crooked, poorly surfaced road which is particularly dangerous in dry weather due to raveling and innumerable potholes.” The new road featured a straight alignment, improved road surface, and standard concrete box culverts. Upgraded again in 1939 with new pavement, this section still has several miles of Portland cement still in place. A slight realignment in 1941 abandoned about a mile of the road. Coconino County assumed responsibility for this overall segment with the completion of Interstate 40 in 1964.

Abandoned Route 66: Town of Parks (1931)
Built in 1931, this abandoned .85-mile segment of Route 66 was part of the realignment connecting Brannigan Park and Parks (described above). When the road was realigned again in 1941 near Parks, this segment was abandoned. This section retains its asphalt pavement and concrete culverts, and despite some deterioration of the road surface has changed little in appearance since its 1931 construction.

Abandoned Route 66: Town of Parks (1921)
This .35-mile segment predates the 1931 alignment of Route 66. Constructed in 1921 and designated as Route 66 in 1926, it was abandoned during the 1931 realignment. Although pre-1930s alignments were generally unpaved, this section appears to have a bituminous surface, formed by spraying hot oil on pebbles or cinders. Arizona Highways Magazine referred to this segment in 1931 as a “narrow, crooked, poorly surfaced road which is particularly dangerous in dry weather due to raveling and innumerable potholes.” A sharp curve just west of this segment earned the dreaded title of dead man’s curve in the local newspaper after numerous accidents. The 1931 realignment that abandoned this segment straightened and widened Route 66, necessitating a shift in the roadbed (described above). This short section of road is an excellent example of one of the earliest alignments of Route 66. It is the best-preserved section of the circa 1921 roadway in the Parks area and although it is only .35 miles long, the segment presents an unbroken view of the roadway to the horizon.

Williams
Williams has the honor of being the very last town on Route 66 bypassed by the interstate.  In 1921, downtown Williams had a 1.6-mile graded and cindered roadbed that had replaced an earlier muddy track. It was paved with Portland cement in two separate projects: the west end in 1928 and the east end in 1932. Population centers tended to be the first parts of Route 66 to be paved. Organized towns not only lobbied hard for pavement but also had the money to pay for it. Construction of motels, restaurants, curio shops, and gas stations soon boomed on the east end of Williams creating the Williams Historic Business District.

These businesses far outnumbered the traveler-related businesses on the west end of town, supporting the theory that towns along Route 66 tended to expand eastward to capture the abundant westbound traffic. In 1957, the Arizona Highway Department built a new overpass on the east end of town and dedicated Route 66 for westbound traffic. On October 13, 1984, Interstate 40 bypassed Route 66 through the center of town. Williams still looks much as it did in the 1940's with its numerous curio shops, motels, and cafes.  In both function and appearance, Williams embodies the spirit of historic Route 66.

Pine Springs Section
This 1.1-mile section of Route 66 dates from 1932-33. In 1950, realignment up Ash Fork Hill bypassed this segment, but local access to Pine Springs Ranch on the south side of the road was maintained. In 1966, ownership of the road transferred to the Kaibab National Forest. The Forest Service requested that the Arizona Highway Department fulfill its right-of-way permit obligations to remove all structures and improvements and restore the site to its natural appearance. The Forest Service requested to “have this old highway ripped up, the concrete culvert ends demolished, and the entire area revegetated.”  Only this 1.1-mile section survived the obliteration of the roadway east and west of Pine Springs Ranch.

Ash Fork Hill
Two road segments are located in the Ash Fork Hill area, one dating back to 1921-22 and the other to 1932-33. Both segments were designed to ascend Ash Fork Hill, a 1,700 foot incline that was one of the steepest sections along the entire length of Route 66. The 1921-22 road was built in two sections and was never paved. The western section was 4.8 miles long and the eastern section 2.8 miles in length. The 1932-33 road, which was eventually paved, was an 8.2 mile long stretch and followed the same general direction of the earlier road. Despite the 1932-33 realignment, the Ash Fork Hill roadway plagued travelers, especially when traffic increased in the 1940s. In 1950, the road was again realigned and a steep grade was built straight up the canyon. Interstate 40 was later built on top of the 1950 alignment. The two earlier segments were officially abandoned in 1964 to the Kaibab National Forest, but the roads were left intact and even the guard rails still stand along sections of the 1932-33 roadway. These roads are closed to the public today except for a short section of the 1921-22 road that is used

Avant's Cities and Jackson Conoco Service Stations
El Reno, Oklahoma
 

Jackson Conoco Service Station National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program

Driving along the old alignment of Route 66 in the western Oklahoma town of El Reno, travelers will come to a sharp turn at the corner of Wade and Choctaw where two very distinctive reminders of the service station business along Route 66 remain. At 220 North Choctaw is the old Avant’s Cities Service Station, and immediately to the south, at 121 West Wade, is the Jackson Conoco Service Station. Both businesses began in the 1930s, a favorable time when the paving of Oklahoma Route 66 west of Oklahoma City neared completion.

There seem to be no dramatic stories of cut-throat commercial rivalry between the establishments' long time managers Tom Avant and Carelton Jackson, even though their two stations were constructed at nearly the same time along the same highway, and within sight of each other. Perhaps this was because as long as the Mother Road reigned supreme, it channeled a constant and growing stream of traffic through small towns such as El Reno, seemingly bringing enough customers for all. Products of their time, the stations represent two contrasting examples of the oil and gas industry’s practice of achieving brand recognition through distinctive service station architecture. 

Mr. Avant’s station is an Art Moderne /Art Deco mixed design favored by the Cities Service Oil Company in the 1920s and 1930s. Its overall streamlined and trimmed down look with smooth walls and a flat roof is typical Art Moderne. Art Deco elements include the prominent zigzag parapet and stepped out pilasters. The circular depression beneath the parapet once held the Cities Service logo. A lonely overhead light socket that illuminated the logo still remains. The station’s original color scheme was Cities Service’s trademark white with green trim. 

The Jackson Conoco Service Station across the street is a sharp contrast. Unlike the 1930s futuristic approach of Cities Service, but very similar to other competitors such as Phillips 66 and Pure Oil, Conoco Oil opted for the welcoming and domesticated look. The station is styled in the Conoco’s house-with-bays style, resembling a residential home or cottage with a steeply pitched gabled roof, chimney, and decorative corbelling at the eaves under the corners. Distinguishing Conoco’s version of this cottage look is the white glazed brick exterior with red brick trim.

Historic Avant's Cities Service Station, ca. 1946 National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program

Both stations had a service bay incorporated into their distinctive designs, a sign that these roadside facilities were transitioning toward full service stations. In keeping with its homey motif, the Jackson Conoco’s bay looks like a residential garage with a gabled roof.  Both stations added additional service bays and gas pump canopies in the prosperous era after World War II.

Each of the stations replaced earlier casualties of the automobile age.  Built in 1933, the Avant Station is on the site of the once flourishing Campbell Hotel, a traditional downtown-lodging establishment that did not appeal to hurried motorists along Route 66. Travelers in automobiles ultimately preferred motor courts and motels at the city’s edge. The venerable hotel was razed to make way for the service station. The early 20th century was a period of increasing competitiveness in America’s oil and gas business, and in 1934, the Jackson Conoco replaced a demolished 1920s state-of-the-art Marland Oil “triangular station” (gas pumps only), after Conoco bought out its parent company.

The stations managed to hold on after the coming of Interstate 40 in the early 1960s, but neither really flourished. The two stations eventually evolved to serve new functions. Today, the Avant’s Service Station is a muffler shop. The Jackson Conoco Service Station serves as a used car dealership. Both stations were listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.

Aztec Auto Court
Albuquerque, New Mexico
 

Aztec Motel courtesy of Chester Liebs

The Aztec Auto Court in Albuquerque was the first motel constructed on East Central Avenue, which became historic Route 66. Today it is the oldest continuously used motel in Albuquerque making it one of the most important Route 66 icons.  Constructed in 1933, four years before Central Avenue became Route 66, the Aztec Auto Court is an example of the Southwest Vernacular style with a stepping parapet, a setback second story, and viga-like porch supports. The motel has a rough stucco finish and small flat roofed stucco porches.

The property consists of two building units constructed parallel to each other to form a linear courtyard. Originally, the auto court had three carports adjacent to the motel rooms. During a 1950s remodeling, the garages were walled in to create more sleeping units, which increased the number of units from 13 to 17. The office/residence is located at the front of the property, protecting much of the courtyard from the street. During the remodeling of the 1950s, a metal canopy with wrought iron support posts was installed over the office entry and a new neon sign replaced the original.

The motel changed hands a number of times. When Interstate 40 bypassed Central Avenue, the booming business of the auto court faltered dramatically, and the motel fell into disrepair and disrepute. In 1991, however, a new owner purchased the Aztec. With patience, hard work, and creativity, the new proprietor brought the motel back to working condition as a short- and long-term-stay motel.

The addition of decorative elements such as velvet paintings, plastic flowers, and other ornaments to the exterior walls has made Aztec Auto Court a bold and eclectic landmark in Albuquerque. One visitor called the “architectural art” of the Aztec, “a cross cultural mélange of broken pottery, old coins, and disparate figurines--all ordered in a manner too artistic to be random, too creative to be mass-produced.”  The Aztec is truly a unique work of art.

The Aztec was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1993 as one of the best examples of a relatively unaltered pre-World War II tourist court on Route 66 in New Mexico. In 2003, the Aztec received cost-share grant funds from the National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program to restore the neon sign. This project was part of a larger effort supported by the National Park Service, the New Mexico State Historic Preservation Office, and the New Mexico Route 66 Association to restore nine neon signs on New Mexico Route 66. This project sparked a revival of neon across Route 66.

Aztec Hotel
Monrovia, California

When it opened in 1925, the Aztec Hotel was not only the most ornate hotel in Monrovia, it was also the first attempt to apply the principles of Mayan art and architecture to modern American buildings. Located along an early alignment of Route 66, the hotel quickly became Monrovia’s premier hostelry and an architectural curiosity in the area. Today, it is the most highly visible landmark in the city, the first of a very few remaining Mayan-styled buildings in the United States, and one of the more unique lodging establishments on Route 66.

Inspired by John L. Stephen’s book, Incidents of Travel in Central America: Chiapas and Yucatan, architect Robert B. Stacy-Judd designed the building, which he named the ‘Aztec’ because he believed that the general public was better acquainted with that tribe than with the Maya. Mr. Stacy-Judd constructed the building on a modest budget concentrating most of the ornamentation along the rooflines, on the building corners, and around the entrance structure to the lobby. Stepped projections, square spires, and geometric designs are reminiscent of Mayan pyramids and art in Mexico. Mr. Stacy-Judd also included Mayan mosaics, murals, and reliefs in the interior to continue the theme inside. The lobby furniture completed the effect with Aztec, Toltec, and Inca designs, and even the electrical fixtures exhibited a Mayan motif.

The publicity associated with the hotel’s completion spurred an almost immediate response, influencing the design of buildings across the country including the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles, the Beach and Yacht Club in La Jolla, and the Mayan Hotel in Kansas City. New companies sprung up manufacturing furniture, tile, fixtures, and other items of Mayan design.  The Mayan style proved to be a short-lived phenomenon, however, and effectively died out by the end of the 1920s. 

In 1931, the realignment of Route 66 bypassed the Aztec Hotel. Although its lifespan on a commissioned Route 66 alignment was brief, the hotel remains a popular icon on the route.  It is now one of only a few remaining Mayan styled buildings in the country.

The Aztec Hotel was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. With grant assistance from the National Park Service's Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program, the hotel’s owners began restoration in 2000, by removing the façade’s stucco using water pressure to reveal the original Mayan glyphs. Work on the building has focused on preserving as much of the original ornamentation as possible.

Barelas-South Fourth Street Historic District
Albuquerque, New Mexico
 

Welcome to Barelas National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program

The Barelas-South Fourth Street Historic District near downtown Albuquerque is a linear corridor running along South Fourth Street-Historic Route 66-through the heart of one of the city's oldest areas, the Barelas residential neighborhood. Buildings in the district reflect the different phases of development along South Fourth Street and convey three interrelated stories. The Hispanic farming village of the early 19th and 20th centuries was modernized when the Atchinson, Topeka, and Santa Fe (AT&SF) Railroad built tracks through the Middle Rio Grande Valley. The railroad arrived in Albuquerque in 1880, and the Atchinson, Topeka, and Santa Fe located its repair shops and a roundhouse in the Barelas neighborhood stimulating the local economy and urban development. In 1926, Fourth Street, the main north-south corridor through the area, became U.S.Route 66, giving rise to automobile-oriented development.

After the designation of Route 66 along South Fourth Street, commercial development began in earnest. Over the next 30 years, the district flourished. The Barelas-South Fourth Historic District reached its commercial peak in the mid-1950s as a thriving automobile commercial strip serving the local community as well as travelers. The commercial strip offered local residents and farmers from Albuquerque’s South Valley a full line of businesses with bilingual proprietors. It also provided Route 66 motorists a range of gas stations, grocery stores, and curio shops. At the height of activity, 4,000 to 6,000 cars traveled the road each day.

The mixture of residences and a variety of commercial building types in the district create a varied streetscape pattern. For the most part, the commercial strip buildings and supermarkets at the edge of the sidewalk define a traditional commercial, walled corridor. Owner-built, utilitarian structures and vernacular interpretations of popular architectural styles account for the majority of buildings, although a handful of high style buildings form the visual landmarks of the district. Most of the commercial strip stores have little or no overt architectural detail, but achieve their effect through a straightforward presentation of standard elements--door, windows, and sign panel--enlivened, perhaps, by a textured walls surface material. Kandy’s Supermarket and Piggly-Wiggly Market are examples of this type of design. After the designation of Route 66 in 1926, some builders drew from the Mission-Mediterranean genre in an attempt to attract the eye of the auto tourist.  Curvilinear or stepping parapets and terra cotta tiles, such as those on the Magnolia Service Station, are the most common types of details.  One service station combines a tile roof with Bungalow style brackets to strike a domestic note appropriate to the neighborhood.

Barelas-South Fourth Street Historic District National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program

A number of prominent Streamlined Moderne buildings provide the strongest visual note. Driving along South Fourth Street, motorists see rounded corners and windows, white stuccoed or tile walls, glazed tile kick plates, projecting flow lines, pipe railings, porthole windows, and a faceted tower. Note the 1200-1300 block, Durand Motor Company and Service Station, and Arrow Supermarket.

After World War II, Albuquerque builders turned increasingly to the more angular International style, made more at home in the American West by the use of textured brick piers and modest Territorial Revival brick cornices. See Mike’s Food Store and the Tasty Freeze Drive-in, a drive-in restaurant erected about 1960 with articulated I-beam columns and beams and single pitch roofs that echo that era’s structural expressionism, sometimes referred to as Exaggerated or Mannered Modernism. Some pre-World War II buildings were remodeled with veneers of variegated-colored cast stone. Stone or cast stone veneers, polychromy and rich textures are all components of an aesthetic, streetscape style popular in Mexican-American neighborhoods across the Southwest following World War II. See the El Coronado Café and Red Ball Café.

The Barelas-South Fourth Street Historic District suffered an economic decline after the AT&SF converted from steam to diesel locomotors.  Repair shops closed causing dramatic unemployment and the movement of residents out of the district. Completion of the interstate in Albuquerque also added to the neighborhood’s decline.  The decline in the 1970's led to the demolition of boarding houses and homes on South Fourth Street and the displacement of families.  In 1974, construction of the Civic Plaza closed Fourth Street to through traffic downtown, which hastened the social decline in the community.  The diversion of traffic to the interstate devastated the commercial district, which was entirely dependent on tourism and shopping. Owners boarded up storefronts and crime increased.

Revitalization efforts began in the mid-1990s when the New Mexico Legislature appropriated $12 million to construct a Hispanic cultural center at the southern end of the Barelas-South Fourth Street Historic District. In 1999, dignitaries from Spain, Mexico, and the United States attended groundbreaking ceremonies for the National Hispanic Cultural Center. This major public investment was an impetus for additional revitalization projects in the Barelas neighborhood, including façade improvements and business renovations. Now rejuvenated, the corridor today is home to popular shops and restaurants like the Red Ball Café and Barelas Coffee House. The district was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

Baxter Springs Independent Oil and Gas Service Station
Baxter Springs, Kansas
 

Baxter Springs Independent Oil and Gas Service Station National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program

Not even 13 miles, 12.8 miles to be exact --that’s how long Route 66 is in Kansas. Despite its short length, the route passes through three towns that are rich in cowtown, mining, and route 66 history -- Galena, Riverton, and Baxter Springs.  In Baxter Springs, motorists will find a bold example of its Route 66 history in the Independent Oil and Gas Service Station.

The stock market crash of 1928 and the Great Depression that followed left major oil companies in disarray.  Some companies failed, and others were bought out.  The survivors struggled to attract and hold customers in order to rebuild their damaged brands.  In a savvy public relations move, oil companies began establishing uniform station designs that immediately identified their brand to car-driving customers.  For good reason, many of these new station designs had a distinctly domestic flair.  The homey, cottages designs sought to appease local customers by blending into the surrounding neighborhood and provided travelers with a sense of security and comfort during an economic era fraught with uncertainty and discomfort. 

Baxter Springs has a prime example of just such an “automotive cottage.” Small and square when it was built in 1930 at the north end of the Baxter Springs commercial district, the station featured brick and stucco walls, a pitched roof, a chimney, and shuttered windows.  A small copper-roofed bay window was located next to the entrance, and Tudor Revival influence was apparent in the cross-timbered gables and deep eaves.  In 1940, the building was enlarged without seriously disrupting the building’s original plan, form, and materials.  A tall, shield-shaped Phillips 66 pole sign still stands at the southwest corner of the property.  The station’s design clearly conveys its original use as an early service station as well as the intentional “welcome home” iconography of its owners--first Independent Oil and Gas and later Phillips Petroleum.

Citizens of Baxter Springs have had a strong interest in local history and preservation for a long time.  In 1980, the Baxter Springs Heritage Society opened a museum.  The society became interested in the gas station, which had stopped selling gasoline and been used as a gift store, dog-groomer’s shop, and chiropractor’s office.  In 2003, the National Park Service listed the station in the National Register of Historic Places, and the heritage society acquired it the same year.  Grants from the National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program and the Kansas Humanities Council and local volunteer labor and in-kind contributions assisted with the repairs and cleaning needed in order to reopen the building as the Kansas Route 66 Visitor Center. The center had its grand opening in 2007. Occupying a corner lot, the building continues to communicate its 40-year association with Route 66 and to offer services to the travelers of today

Beckham County Courthouse
Sayre, Oklahoma

Built in 1911, the Beckham County Courthouse is one of the few courthouses in Oklahoma topped by a large dome. One of the tallest buildings in Sayre, the courthouse has been the center of civic and legal activity for nearly a century, and remains a landmark in this community of approximately 4,000 people.

The three-story, brick-and-stone courthouse with massive Tuscan columns replaced an earlier two-story brick building just four years after Oklahoma became a State and Beckham County was formed.  Officials chose a location just half a block from the train tracks for the court square. The railroad was the most crucial link between the town and outside commerce, and the substantial Neoclassical courthouse sought, through design and placement, to provide railroad travelers from within the county or further away with an impressive first encounter with Beckham County and its government.

Beckham County was, at the time of its founding, largely agricultural, producing cotton, wheat, alfalfa, kafir, milo maize, and broomcorn.  Agricultural processing became important to the town.  By 1909, Sayre boasted two cotton gins, and by 1918 two more, and two grain elevators and a flour mill operated in town as well.  In the 1920s, companies drilled oil and gas wells around Sayre, and within a decade, five oil companies and a gasoline plant operated there.

The courthouse stood on Sayre’s main square for less than 20 years before the routing of Route 66 through the town in 1928. That was when Sayre changed. Within a couple of years, the town tied its fate to feeding and fueling the steady stream of people exploring the country in automobiles on the east-west Mother Road. In the 1930s and 1940s, the town built and maintained a public library, a hospital, a forty-acre city park, a golf course and swimming pool, baseball and softball fields, a racetrack, and rodeo grounds. Sayre Junior College opened in 1938 and merged with Southwestern Oklahoma State University in 1987. By 1937, Route 66 was paved through the entirety of Oklahoma.
 

Beckham County Courthouse photo by Andrea Trickey

During the 1930s and 1940s, Sayre felt and looked like the beginning of the real West to travelers from Chicago to Los Angeles. The town’s website still boasts of being the place where the spirit of the West is still alive. Working ranches are common in this part of Oklahoma. You might hear somebody’s spurs rattle on the courthouse square and not think much about it.

In the midst of that change, the old courthouse that the architectural firm of Layton, Smith, and Hawk designed provided a formal and fitting centerpiece. The north and south sides of the building have wide pilasters, and the third floor is distinguished by a cornice of copper sheeting. Dentils and pearl molding line a brick parapet. Twelve Doric columns support the large clock dome, which in turn is topped by 12 Doric columns supporting a smaller dome.  This beautiful and distinctive design won the courthouse a 30-second appearance in the final cut of John Ford’s movie, The Grapes of Wrath. The courthouse was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

The building is not Sayre’s only feature associated with historic Route 66. The highway meanders through the town’s historic district, centered on Main and Fourth Streets, which is listed in the National Register. Many of the area’s buildings are being refurbished to reflect their original appearance. The old Owl Drug Store served milkshakes to Route 66 travelers for many years, and the old Stovall Theater entertained them with movies on its wide screen. Even more unusual is the pedestrian underpass at the center of Fourth and Elm Streets, a walkway that provided safety from congested Route 66 traffic. In 1975, Interstate 40 replaced Route 66 through Beckham County, diverting through traffic away from the downtown core.


Bekins Storage Co. Roof Sign
Pasadena, California

The Bekins Storage Company Roof Sign, which today reads “A. American Storage Co.,” may well strike viewers as unusually large.  Mounted 60 feet above the street, the rectangular sign is 32 feet long and 12 feet high and is visible for several blocks in both directions along Pasadena's South Fair Oaks Avenue. Bordering Route 66 when it used Fair Oaks Avenue from 1926 until 1940, the Bekins sign’s size made it impossible to miss, even from the window of a passing automobile.

The sign represents the influence that automobiles had on businesses all across the country.  The owner installed the original Bekins sign, which used light bulbs to spell "STANDARD FIREPROOF STORAGE CO," the same year that Route 66 was routed past the building.  In 1929, its owner replaced the bulbs with neon and the text became "BEKINS STORAGE CO."

Designers made signs this high and this large to be read from passing cars.  They were meant to be viewed from a distance and at cruising speeds.  This particular sign represents not only the ascension of automobiles as the chief mode of transportation, but also the introduction of neon to signs in Los Angeles in 1923.  Scale, speed, and the flash of neon created a whole new way of attracting attention and customers.

Roof-top and projecting signs had an early association with theaters, movie palaces, and department stores, all dependent on attracting large crowds.  The Bekins sign illustrates the adoption of bigger, flashier signs by other businesses as well.  Large illuminated signs became more practical and widespread with turn-of-the-century advancements in electrification.  They became a near necessity when commercial establishments could no longer rely solely on foot traffic for business by virtue of the increased mobility of customers.

The early decades of the 20th century saw more and more signs designed to be visible from greater distances, at greater speeds, and during the night.  Signs and lettering grew, and locations of signs became more prominent.  The Bekins sign, colorful, large, high, and elaborate, exemplifies the impact of transportation on commercial history.  Because of its significance, the National Park Service listed it in the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.  Today, the sign is Pasadena’s only pre-war example of the once-popular massive projecting roof signs designed to attract customers in automobiles.

Belvidere Café, Motel, and Gas Station
Litchfield, Illinois
 

Belvidere Motel photo by Thomason and Associates

As Route 66 emerged as a national east-west artery, thousands of mom-and-pop businesses sprang up in the dusty lots lining the highway.  The Mom and Pop of the Belvidere Motel and Café were Albina and Vincenzo Cerolla, European immigrants who bought roadside property in Litchfield shortly after Route 66 received its designation as a national highway.  In 1929, the Cerollas built a one-room, frame gas station with a single pump, offering oil, grease and fan belts for travelers on Route 66. By 1936,the Cerollas had expanded their tiny gas station into a one-stop, multi-service, roadside complex.  Vincenzo and Albina built a new brick gas station, a café, four motel rooms with individual automobile garages, and a small house for themselves and their two children.  Now travelers could gas up their cars with help from Vincenzo (called James by then), sleep the night in the motel, and get up in the morning to sample Albina’s breakfast biscuits.

In the café, the Cerollas splurged on a streamlined Art Deco interior--black lacquer counters trimmed in chrome, padded chrome barstools, and handsome Deco cabinets behind the counter.  Here the Cerollas built a thriving trade, assisted in the business by their daughter Edith and, after she married, her husband Lester “Curly” Kranich.

During the 1940s and 1950s, the Belvidere Café was an especially popular stop along the highway.  As one resident recalled, “The Belvidere was the Cheers of its time.  You know, where everybody knows your name and they’re always glad you came.” Edith became known for her roast beef, pork, and outstanding fried chicken.  The Belvidere had a small dance floor, a juke box, and the occasional small combo.  But most of all, the Belvidere had Mary Levy.  Considered a treasure at the Belvidere, Mary played the piano and sang.  No customer was a stranger to Mary.  Locals and Route 66 travelers alike felt welcome at the lively Belvidere.

Belvidere Motel historic postcard courtesy of Joe Sonderman

By 1950, Vincenzo and Albina had passed away, leaving the business to Edith and Lester.  Their two children recall that, in the tradition of family-run enterprises, Edith and Lester “did everything.” Lester primarily ran the gas station while Edith managed operations of the café, which at one time had a revolving sign in front promoting Chicken in a Basket.  Following his retirement, Lester Kranich recalled, “Oh, it was busy in those days.  When 66 still went by, you met people–you talked to them.  This was the best place in town to eat and I’m not bragging."

The hard work of the Kranichs proved successful.  They built a new home on the property and expanded the motel, just in time to take advantage of the increase in Route 66 traffic following World War II.  The 1950s and even the 1960s were good to the Belvidere, but the following decade was not.  The Belvidere was successful because it looked out on America’s Highway.  When use of Route 66 waned, so did the fortunes of the Belvidere.  The Belvidere Café, Motel, and Gas Station closed soon after the completion of Interstate 55 west of Litchfield in the 1970s.

Today the buildings are used primarily for storage, although some still serve as motel rooms, but they are well worth a stop as you travel Route 66.  While many motels, cafes, and gas stations have been documented along the historic highway, the Belvidere is one of the best preserved complexes of its type.  It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2007, and is a classic example of a family-run roadside enterprise that for two generations and three decades served as a gathering place, a respite, and a memorable stop along the way

Big Chief Restaurant
Wildwood, Missouri
 

Big Chief Restaurant photo by Bill Eltzholtz

Originally called the Big Chief Hotel, the Big Chief Dakota Grill is distinctive for its Spanish Mission Revival styling. Two stories tall, its white stucco walls, terra-cotta tile roofing, exposed rafter ends, and arcaded front porte cochere are unusual in Wildwood, Missouri. The only original feature missing is a prominent false bell tower that rose from one corner, which was removed during the 1950s. Otherwise, the Big Chief looks and operates much as it did when Route 66 passed by the front door.

One key to the success of the Big Chief was pavement. The section of Route 66 through Pond, once the name of this section of Wildwood, was one of the earlier parts of the Federal highway to be paved. After its commissioning in 1926, Route 66 had sections that remained dirt for years. It was upwards of 10 years before travelers could drive from Chicago to Los Angeles on pavement. The road through Pond, by contrast, was paved all the way to St. Louis by 1924.

With pavement came cars. In 1913, Americans owned 1.2 million cars; by 1925 that number had jumped to 19 million. Individual mobility reached a level never possible before, and automobile tourism grew nearly as fast as did the rate of automobile ownership.

When autos first began crossing America on Federal highways, drivers tended to camp by the roadside on their own or to stay in tourists camps. There were few hotels except in major cities.  Built and opened in 1928 as the Big Chief Hotel, the complex wasn’t really a hotel at all—at least not as we think of hotels today--but a solution for the traveler weary of camping out. The Big Chief was actually a tourist cabin court, sometimes called a “cabin hotel”--at the time the latest thing in roadside lodging.
 

Big Chief Restaurant historic postcard courtesy of Joe Sonderman

The Big Chief was unusual in three ways: It was one of the earliest cabin courts in Missouri, it offered full service dining, and it was one of the largest cabin courts. In 1935, a guide to Missouri listed only nine courts with more than 30 cabins. The Big Chief had 62, each with its own garage.  

Advertisements from the period boasted that the Big Chief cabins had both hot and cold running shower baths. Small individual cabins had a strong appeal for families traveling together, and the Big Chief was primarily a family destination. The property featured a large playground. One could spend the night for a dollar and 50 cents, buy a 75-cent steak dinner, a 40-cent special plate lunch, or a 5-cent sandwich. The front porte cochere served as a Conoco gas station, and customers could also buy groceries.  In the evenings, dining room tables were pushed aside to allow for dancing. Bar service was added when Prohibition ended in 1933. By then, the transcontinental Mother Road had been rerouted over more southerly highways, but the Big Chief remained popular as a local destination, sponsoring a series of fall dances and attracting conferences and meetings.

The Big Chief survived the lean years of World War II by furnishing housing for employees of the nearby Weldon Spring Ordinance Works. That change to longer term housing continued after the war, when the cabins were rented to workers at a Weldon Spring uranium processing plant. By 1949, the restaurant had closed. Over the years the rented cabins fell into disrepair and were demolished. The restaurant building, however, survived, and in the early 1990s was restored and returned to its original function as a restaurant. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2003, the Big Chief is one of the few surviving full-service restaurants left on Missouri Route 66 and provides a feel for roadside stops during the 1930s.

Blue Swallow Motel
Tucumcari, New Mexico
 

Blue Swallow Motel at dusk New Mexico Historic Preservation Division

Carpenter W.A. Huggins began construction on the Blue Swallow Motel prior to the outbreak of World War II, and Ted Jones, a prominent eastern New Mexico rancher, opened the motel in 1942. Facing Route 66, the Blue Swallow offers access to motorists from both the highway and a side street. The motel has an L-shaped plan and consists of 14 units with a discreet office and manager’s residence. Garage units, some with wood overhead doors, are located between the sleeping units. With its pink stucco walls decorated with shell designs and a stepped parpet, the façade reflects a modest use of the Southwest Vernacular style of architecture.

When Mr. Jones and his wife died in the 1950s, Lillian Redman and her husband bought the motel and successfully operated it. From the start, the Redmans put their customers first. When guests didn’t have enough money for a room, the Redmans accepted personal belongings in trade or provided the room for free. Ms. Redman and the Blue Swallow became icons of Route 66 folklore.  She described the special and close connection she had with the Route 66 motorists who came in each night this way. “I end up traveling the highway in my heart with whoever stops here for the night."

At the end of the 1960s, Interstate 40, a better and faster highway, took the place of the old Route 66.  The development of this new highway drastically changed the traffic circulation of Route 66 affecting many of the businesses along the way, including the Blue Swallow Motel.  Ms. Redman said of the effect of Interstate 40, which bypassed Tucumcari, “When Route 66 was closed to the majority of traffic and the other highway came in, I felt just like I had lost an old friend.  But some of us stuck it out and are still here on Route 66.”

After owning the Blue Swallow for almost 50 years, Ms. Redman sold the motel in the late 1990s. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1993, the motel continues to operate as a popular overnight destination. The motel received a Cost-Share Grant from the National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program in 2007 for restoration of the neon sign, neon swallows, and office windows.

Bowlin’s Old Crater Trading Post
Bluewater, New Mexico
 

Bowlin's Old Crater Trading Post photo by Thomason and Associates

Located in the high, scrub desert north of Bluewater the Old Crater Trading Post stands as a quiet testimony to the booming trading post and curio shop industry that once lined the Route 66 roadside.  Built in 1954, its stucco walls, viga beams, and flat roof are typical of vernacular construction in the Southwest.  However, this building is distinguised for its connection to an enterprising family with a long trading post history, and also for its colorful, stylized murals that have caught the eye of travelers for more than half a century.

A walk along the façade today reveals a painting of an American Indian holding a hoop.  Another plays a drum.  A man rides horseback; a woman weaves a rug.  Two girls walk with pots balanced on their heads.   Above the paintings are several layers of painted advertising.  Largely faded or superimposed over one another, some are still legible.  “Jewelry,” says one, and “Rugs” another.  “Bargains” and "Bowlin” can both be read along the south wing of the building, along with the Bowlin Company logo, a running Indian holding a tomahawk and wearing a headband and feather.  Colorful and simplistic, the murals illustrate the way native peoples were commonly represented in tourist and popular mainstream culture.

Before the current Old Crater Trading Post was built in 1954, an earlier trading post stood in its place.  Owner and operator Claude Bowlin built the original post in 1936, naming it for a nearby volcanic crater that had become a local tourist attraction.  Bowlin had an extensive background in commercial trade, particularly with American Indians, and came from a long line of traders and merchants.

Mural at Bowlin's Old Crater Trading Post photo by Thomason and Associates

Bowlin began his mercantile career in 1912 as an off-reservation trader in Gallup, on the southern periphery of the Navajo Reservation.  The majority of Bowlin’s customers were Navajos.  He quickly became the primary trader with the area Navajo population, dealing in commodities such as rugs, jewelry, sheep, and wool.  Bowlin left the business to serve in World War I, but, by the 1920s, he was back in the trade.  For more than a decade, he continued to develop a trusting relationship with Navajos, particularly artists.  In 1936, he sold his interest in a trading company based in Gallup and built the Old Crater Trading Post on unpaved Route 66 just about a mile north of Bluewater.

Bowlin’s enterprise reflected the traditional trading posts of the late-19th and early-20th centuries.  The grounds contained corrals, dipping vats, and shearing sheds.  Inside, a pot-bellied stove warmed a pot of coffee, and a roof support post studded with nails held cups.  Horse bridles, canned peaches, pants, and shawls were on the shelves.  Claude Bowlin, whom the Navajo called Nahtsonahi or “Mouse,” was in his element.

In addition to being the local mercantile, the trading post became the center of community life for the surrounding Navajo population.  The Bowlin family sponsored a number of activities such as chicken pulls, buckboard races, and card games.   Claude Bowlin was well-respected among the Navajo, and likewise he held the Native Americans in high regard.  When a local Navajo asked the Bowlins to raise his child so that he would become familiar with the white man’s world, Claude and his wife, Willa, agreed.  Their “adopted” son, Tom, grew up to become the first Navajo elected to the New Mexico Senate. 

By 1938, the entire length of Route 66 had pavement and traffic increased dramatically.  The nature of Bowlin’s business began to change.  Bowlin added gas pumps.  He marketed Navajo dolls and souvenir moccasins to passing tourists and hired silversmiths and rug weavers to work at the trading post.  Change was gradual at first, and most of Bowlin’s customers continued to be local Navajos.  But during the years following World War II, tourism boomed and Bowlin’s focus shifted to accommodating travelers along Route 66.   During the 1940s, he and other family members built three more stores in southern and eastern New Mexico.  The chain of stores expanded further in the 1950s with two stores near Las Cruces and another north of Alamogordo. 

In the face of a growing number of curio shops that often called themselves “trading posts,” Claude Bowlin sought to distinguish his stores as true to the ways of old-time traders.  He continued to deal with area Native Americans and made a strong effort to educate passing tourists about tribal cultures.  He hired artists from area reservations to work in his stores and he printed and distributed pamphlets that taught tourists how to identify authentic Navajo jewelry.  Bowlin became a member of the United Indian Traders Association (UITA), which set standards for the creation of American Indian arts and crafts, and sold only UITA silverwork in his stores. 

With the success of their chain of stores, the Bowlins decided to demolish the first Old Crater Trading Post and construct a new building on the site.  The building that stands there today was completed in the spring of 1954.
 
Twenty years later, Interstate 40 was built across New Mexico, and Route 66 was largely abandoned.  The Old Crater Trading Post closed in 1973.  Claude Bowlin had been enjoying retirement for several years by that time. He died shortly after his trading post on Route 66 closed, and his widow, Willa, sold the property.  The deed stipulated that the property be conveyed for religious purposes only.  The building was home to the Bluewater Bible School and Church during the 1980s and 1990s, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

Route 66 Bridge over the Chicago, Rock Island, and Gulf Railroad
Shamrock, Texas
The Route 66 Bridge over the Chicago, Rock Island, and Gulf Railroad is a Route 66 landmark that travelers might miss if they’re not looking for it. The bridge stands in the arid plains eight miles east of Shamrock, five-and-a-half miles west of the Oklahoma State line, and 12 miles southeast of Wheeler.

The Kiowa and Comanche Indians once lived in the area, hunting great herds of buffalo.  Anglos arrived in the late 1800s, replacing the buffalo with crops, sheep, and Hereford cattle.  During the 1920s, agriculture in the Texas Panhandle boomed. The oil industry emerged, generating substantial growth in Amarillo, which became a commercial and corporate center of the region.  Highways had to be built to connect the relatively isolated Panhandle to the rest of the country.

Paved in 1932, Route 66 was the primary road in this development. The highway passed through numerous small towns, most of which had fewer than 500 residents. The high plains of the Panhandle are relatively flat, so the area didn’t require many bridges, which makes the bridge in Wheeler County somewhat unusual. Another unusual feature is that the bridge carried both automobile and train traffic. Designed as a double-decker, the bridge has train tracks for the Chicago, Rock Island, and Gulf Railroad running along a deck 25 feet below the roadbed of Route 66.

The only problem with this useful arrangement is that the blast from locomotives below could play havoc with the integrity of the steel I-beams supporting the deck above. (Not to mention that motorists could get the paint sandblasted right off the sides of their cars.) To correct these problems, the engineers did something a little unusual for 1932. They encased the steel beams in concrete. The result is a 126-foot bridge with a main span of concrete-encased beams.  Other spans are made of reinforced concrete girder units resting on reinforced concrete pile bents. If you’re an engineer, you’ll know what all that means. Otherwise, just enjoy the view from the middle of the bridge.

The Route 66 Bridge in Wheeler County has not been altered since its construction, allowing visitors a good look at the design, workmanship, and materials of its era. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.

Broadway Theater and Commercial District
Los Angeles, California

Bradbury Building courtesy of Jim Winstead

The many buildings and myriad of architectural styles in the Broadway Theater and Commercial District reveal the exuberance of the early entertainment industry in Southern California. When commercial activity in Los Angeles turned south down Broadway early in the 20th century, it created a thoroughly modern environment for extravagant shopping and flamboyant theaters. As the western terminus of Route 66 between 1926 and 1936, the district was a portal to coastal California for a national audience ranging from Dust Bowl refugees to pleasure-seeking tourists.

Broadway is the ultimate example of the explosive growth of Los Angeles and Southern California between 1900 and 1910. Prior to the turn of the century, Los Angeles’ commercial center was the intersection of Spring and First Streets, and Broadway below Third Street was primarily residential. The construction of a new city hall between Second and Third Streets in the late 1800s was a catalyst in reorienting the commercial district south, along Broadway. The street’s most dramatic turning point, however, was the 1905 announcement that Hamburger’s would build a large department store at Broadway and Eighth Street. Despite concerns that its Eighth Street location was too far south, investors followed Hamburger's to the area.

Perhaps the concerns of skeptics were allayed when Hamburger’s new store opened with its dramatic Beaux Arts exterior and deeply recessed, arched entryway surrounded by an upper frieze and flanking Doric pilasters.  The five-story building boasted largest store aisle in the United States, and the Los Angeles Herald asserted that on the first day of business, 35,000 people came to ride the building’s escalator, the only one west of St. Louis. By the time Hamburger’s was complete, multiple-story retail and office buildings surrounded it, and Broadway was the commercial thoroughfare of the city. Nearly two dozen major department and clothing stores and manifold smaller venders operate in the Hamburger’s building and other historic retail buildings today, and the district continues to bustle with buyers and sellers.

Bradbury Building detail courtesy of Rob Corder

The development of Broadway as a commercial district coincided with its emergence as a theatrical center.  At the turn of the century, the major theaters of Los Angeles were along Main Street, which parallels Broadway two blocks to the southeast.  In 1903, however, the Mason Opera House opened on Broadway.  As various theater owners vied for the title of city impresario, theaters along Broadway became larger and more numerous.  The Orpheum, now the Palace, was one of the first theaters to locate within the present district.  The Palace Theatre’s French Renaissance appearance established the early preference for that style, and its terra cotta façade included eye-catching carved figures.  Theater architecture became increasingly flamboyant, creating a diverse and colorful streetscape.  The Globe Theatre’s gargoyles, the corner clock tower on the Tower Theatre, and the Los Angeles Theatre’s eagles all reflected the ebullient mood of the district.  The Roxie Theatre, constructed in 1931 and a relative latecomer, employed the popular Art Deco style for its flowery patterns and grillwork.  Twelve of these 1910 to 1931 movie palaces remain, many now used as special-event venues, filming locations, and retail operations, and their fanciful exteriors lend elegance to the district.

For decades, Broadway provided a major source of revenue, a location for premieres, and copy for the gossip columns of Southern California, before transitioning into a vibrant Latino shopping district.  In large part, the stores and theaters built on Broadway nearly a century ago survive, but until a decade ago, the upper stories stood vacant.  Since then, the district has become a laboratory for adaptive reuse, as loft-style apartments and condominiums lend new life to former office and retail space.  The National Park Service listed the district in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, and expanded the listed district’s size in 2002.  In 1999, the Los Angeles Conservancy, active on Broadway for 20 years, joined members of the city council, the mayor’s office, property owners, and other stakeholders to launch Bringing Back Broadway, an ongoing effort that focuses attention on and investment in the district’s rich architecture and cultural potential.

Brush Creek Bridge
Cherokee County, Kansas

View of Brush Creek Bridge courtesy of Guy Randall

Three and a half miles north of Baxter Springs, Kansas stands the elegant Brush Creek Bridge, the only remaining example of a fixed Marsh Rainbow Arch bridge left on Kansas Route 66. Two other examples, the Spring River and Willow Creek bridges, were dismantled in the early 1990s.

The Brush Creek Bridge, also known as the Rainbow Bridge, was part of a project in the early 1920s to connect the mining communities of Galena, Riverton, and Baxter Springs with a concrete road. The unique and graceful Rainbow Arch design was the brainchild of James Barney Marsh, a bridge designer from Iowa, who patented the concrete and steel truss design in 1912. Marsh spent the next two decades erecting approximately 70 of his Rainbow Arch bridges throughout the Midwest, most of them in Kansas, where approximately 35 still remain. 

The bridge consists of a pair of arches disposed between two abutments, with concrete banister railings aligned parallel with the bridge deck. The original patents called for slideable wear plates, molded into the concrete where the bridge deck came into contact with the beams and abutments. This is important, as one of the main benefits of this design was to allow for the expansion and contraction of the reinforced concrete bridge under varying conditions of temperature and moisture. Built in 1923, the 130-foot bridge carried Route 66 motorists over Brush Creek until it was bypassed by the interstate in the 1960s.

The Brush Creek Bridge was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. In 1992, upon seeing two other Marsh Arch bridges on the short stretch of Route 66 through Kansas dismantled, the Kansas Historic Route 66 Association worked successfully to save the Brush Creek Bridge. At this time, a new bridge was built just to the east of the Brush Creek Bridge to redirect and accommodate the increasing needs of local traffic. Two years later, the Association and the Cherokee County Commission combined efforts to make important repairs to the Brush Creek Bridge. In 2005, the National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program provided additional Cost-Share Grant funds to assist with repairs to the concrete superstructure. Although local traffic has been rerouted around the bridge, it is still possible to walk or drive across the bridge. If you’re lucky, you may discover it in use as a venue for a community picnic or wedding – and you’ll likely be invited to join in. 

Chain of Rocks Bridge
Madison, Illinois to St. Louis, Missouri

Chain of Rocks Bridge photo by David Hinkson

 Chain of Rocks Bridge is one of the more interesting bridges in America.  It’s hard to forget a 30-degree turn midway across a mile-long bridge more than 60 feet above the mighty Mississippi.  For more than three decades, the bridge was a significant landmark for travelers driving Route 66. 

The bridge’s colorful name came from a 17-mile shoal, or series of rocky rapids, called the Chain of Rocks beginning just north of St. Louis.  Multiple rock ledges just under the surface made this stretch of the Mississippi River extremely dangerous to navigate.  In the 1960s, the Corps of Engineers built a low-water dam covering the Chain of Rocks.  That’s why you can’t see them today.  Back in 1929, at the time of the construction of the bridge, the Chain was a serious concern for boatmen.

A massive undertaking in its day, the Chain of Rocks Bridge had a projected cost of $1,250,000.   The bridge was to be a straight, 40-foot wide roadway with five trusses forming 10 spans.  Massive concrete piers standing 55 feet above the high-water mark were to support the structure.  Plans called for a four-mile fill along the road leading to the bridge’s north end.
 

Chain of Rocks Bridge postcard c. 1960 courtesy of Joe Sonderman

All that proved true except for one major change--in direction.  Riverboat men protested the planned bridge because it was to run near two water intake towers for the Chain of Rocks pumping station.  Navigating the bridge piers and the towers at the same time, the river captains argued, would be extremely treacherous for vessels and barges.  Besides, the initial straight line would have put the bridge over a section of the river where the bedrock was insufficient to support the weight of the piers.  Either way, the bridge had to bend.

Construction started on both sides of the river simultaneously in 1927, and the piers were complete by August of 1928.  A grand opening was planned for New Year’s Day 1929.  The Mississippi River had other plans.  Floods and ice slowed the work, and the Chain of Rocks Bridge finally opened to traffic in July of 1929. 

Then, as now, actual expenditures for construction often exceed projected costs.   Chain of Rocks Bridge cost just over $2.5 million--twice its original estimate.  Fortunately, the public got its money’s worth.  The bridge had beautifully landscaped approaches.  A park-like setting around a pool and a large, ornate toll booth anchored the Missouri end.  On the Illinois side, 400 elm trees lined the approach.  The bridge brought travelers into St. Louis by way of the picturesque Chain of Rocks amusement park on the Missouri hills overlooking the river.  On a clear day, crossing the Chain of Rocks Bridge was a real pleasure.  That pleasure became an official part of the Route 66 experience in 1936, when the highway was rerouted over the bridge.

During World War II, Chain of Rock’s colorful red sections had to be painted green to make the bridge less visible from the air.  At the same time, wartime gas rationing reduced traffic.  To offset these costs, the City of Madison increased bridge tolls to 35 cents per car, with an additional five cents per passenger—a fee structure that sets on its head today’s system of special high-speed lanes reserved for cars carrying more, not fewer, people.
 

Chain of Rocks Bridge courtesy of Trailnet

In 1967, the New Chain of Rocks Bridge carrying Interstate 270 opened just 2,000 feet upstream of the old bridge, which closed in 1968.  The bridge deteriorated, and during the 1970s, Army demolition teams considered blowing it up just for practice.  In 1975, demolition seemed eminent.  Fortunately for the bridge, a bad market saved the day.  The value of scrap steel plummeted, making demolition no longer profitable.  At that point, the Chain of Rocks Bridge entered 20 years of bridge limbo--too expensive to tear down, too narrow and outdated to carry modern vehicles.  In 1980, film director John Carpenter used the gritty, rusting bridge as a site for his science fiction film, Escape from New York.  Otherwise, the bridge was abandoned.

Today you might say that the Chain of Rocks Bridge has completed a historic cycle.  Built at the beginning of America’s love affair with the automobile, it is now a reflection of America’s desire not to ride in cars so often.  During the 1980s, greenways and pedestrian corridors became increasingly popular, and a group called Trailnet began cleanup and restoration of the bridge.  Linked to more than 300 miles of trails on both sides of the river, the old Chain of Rocks Bridge reopened to the public as part of the Route 66 Bikeway in 1999. 

Because the bridge has not been significantly altered over the years, a visit there today conveys a strong sense of time and place, an appreciation for early-20th-century bridge construction, and outstanding views of the wide Mississippi River.  The Chain of Rocks Bridge was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

Chandler Armory
Chandler, Oklahoma

Chandler Armory courtesy of Kent Wohler

Among the highlights of Chandler’s Route 66 landscape is the Chandler Armory, behind which stands the only brick outhouse in Oklahoma, thought to have been built between 1903 and 1912 and still containing its original French fixture.  The Chandler Armory is an excellent example of Works Progress Administration (WPA) architecture; it is rich with history. The armory is also significant as the home of Battery F, Second Battalion of the 160th Field Artillery of the Oklahoma National Guard, 45th Infantry division and for its role in helping the men of Battery F prepare for their role in World War II after mobilization in 1940. 

Bryan W. Nolan, an architect and major in the National Guard, served as the supervising architect for the WPA armory construction program in Oklahoma.  Constructed of local sandstone, the armory’s recessed stonework and projecting pilasters give the building a vertical emphasis and an Art Deco influence. You’d never mistake the building for anything but a military installation. There are five big-truck-sized bays with overhead doors, and one section of the building is topped with those barrel vault roofs utilized by so many 1930s military structures.

The WPA built the Chandler Armory in two sections between 1935 and 1937. The eastern half of the building contains offices, locker rooms, truck bays, an ammunition vault, and classrooms. The other half is mostly drill hall. At one end of the hall is an elevated stage, and beneath the stage is a long, narrow rifle range.

Oklahoma is tornado country which may be why the armory was built so soundly. Not only are the walls made of sandstone, but the roof of the drill hall was constructed of half-inch cellutex insulation and five-ply built-up felt and asphalt laid on metal sheeting supported by steel trusses also.

All in all, the Chandler Armory is evidence of the intention and the success of the WPA program. It used native materials, served the public, and employed local workers. More than 250 men worked the local quarry to keep laborers at the jobsite supplied with material. Staggered crews of 14 men were employed on the jobsite, because the schedule provided as much employment as possible for workers in need of jobs. Workers dressed the stone and hoisted it into place by hand. The wooden floor of the drill hall required a great deal of hand labor, too. Workers cut more than 156,000 wood blocks on the jobsite and set them into place manually. During the Great Depression, the armory put Chandler to work.

When the job was finished in March of 1937, the community celebrated with a parade, a banquet, the laying of a cornerstone, an open house, and a dance with music provided by a WPA swing band from Okmulgee, Oklahoma.

The new armory provided the 58 men and five officers of the 45th Infantry Division of the Oklahoma National Guard with a modern facility, allowing the unit to achieve a greater level of military efficiency and preparedness--skills they would need soon enough. In September 1940, the unit was mobilized and saw action in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy.

Chandler Armory courtesy of Kent Wohler

Eventually, in 1971, the National Guard constructed a modern facility to replace the historic armory and deeded the older building to the town. Despite occasional use as stores, a vehicle shop, and a maintenance building, the building became so decayed that the city council debated demolishing it. Sections of roof and windows were missing; water damage was extensive; pigeons roosted throughout the building, and electricity and water did not work.

Local interest in the building, however, remained. The property was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, and the Old Armory Restorers (OAR), a group of volunteers dedicated to saving, restoring, and reusing the building as a public space, formed in 1998.

In the summer of 2002, OAR was delighted to receive a Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) grant through the Oklahoma Department of Transportation. The grant required a 20 percent match and the combined dollars funded much of the armory restoration. In 2007, the eastern half of the armory opened as the Chandler Route 66 Interpretive Center, with exhibits featuring virtual hotel rooms, vintage billboards, and period video viewed from the seats of a 1965 Ford Mustang.

OAR’s vision did not end with the interpretive center. It also included rehabilitation and reuse of the drill hall, complete with its gem of a wooden floor. OAR continued to apply for funds, receiving assistance from the National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program and the Oklahoma Centennial Commemoration Commission. The Ben T. Walkingstick Conference Center and Exhibition Hall, now open in the rehabilitated drill hall, boasts state-of-the-art technology and design and convenient location right between Tulsa and Oklahoma City.

The facility currently welcomes 700 to 800 visitors a month, approximately 20 percent of whom are international. The building’s transition from National Guard armory to decaying building to Route 66 tourist destination is truly a preservation success story.

Located in the middle of Oklahoma, Chandler (population about 3,000) contains a number of attractions for devotees of The Mother Road. You’ll find the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Museum, a county museum of pioneer history, a cottage-style Phillips 66 gas station, the colorful P. J.'s Bar-B-Que, and one of the remaining painted barns advertising Meramac Caverns. Long gone are other businesses that catered to Route 66 clientele--the Childress Café, the J&E Café, Betty’s Grill, the Red Wing Café, and finally, the Lewis Café where travelers along Route 66 were served what was advertised as “the coldest beer in town.”

This sizable boom in Chandler cafes continued until Interstate 44 was built and transcontinental traffic left town. Today, Chandler’s economy is driven mostly by agriculture and livestock, as well as insurance and some manufacturing. Chandler has become a commuter town, just 30 minutes from the Oklahoma City metropolitan area and 45 minutes from Tulsa.

Chelsea Motel
Chelsea, Oklahoma

Chelsea Motel photo by John Hagstrom

Cafes, motels, and gas stations were the backbone of the Route 66 economy.  The Chelsea Motel--modest and now abandoned, with paint peeling off its once-white walls--is evidence of that vibrant period when Route 66 helped transform the social and economic landscape of Middle America.  All along the length of Route 66, the highway generated social change--first as the stimulus for hundreds of mom and pop motels like the Chelsea Hotel, and later as those same enterprises faded away.

At the time of Route 66’s designation as a Federal highway, Chelsea was one of a string of towns in northeastern Oklahoma connected by the highway.  At that point, Chelsea had a solid commercial district and at least one oil refinery.  The center of town was the railroad depot.  Route 66 shifted the center.  For most of its distance in Chelsea, the highway ran on the east side of the railroad, opposite the business district.  Route 66 did not enter Chelsea’s business district at all but skirted to the southwest toward Claremore and Tulsa.  Route 66 was a powerful magnet, and Chelsea commerce followed the new highway.  Within a few years, several businesses emerged along the east side of Route 66 (Walnut Avenue)--stations, cafes, and motels designed to accommodate the auto traffic that was increasing along the route.

It’s easy to imagine a vacationing family, tired from a long day on hot Oklahoma roads, taking pleasure in the sight of a line of cafes and motels where they could eat, rest, and sort out the back-seat quarrels between the kids.  One of the most prominent of those businesses on Walnut Avenue was the Chelsea Motel, complete with a large, elaborate neon sign.  The simple stucco rectangular building held six motel units.

Perhaps by 1936, but certainly by 1939, the motel was operating at the corner of First and Walnut.  These were good years for small-time motel owners.  The Chelsea changed ownership occasionally during its two decades of operation, but the late 40s and early 50s were a booming time in the mom-and-pop motel industry.  A modest row of rooms on a busy thoroughfare could provide a family with a steady income.

Chelsea Motel photo by Micheal Kesler

By the mid 1950s, however, pressures were increasing on enterprises like the Chelsea Motel. Competition increased as the number of motels more than doubled nationwide between 1946 and 1953. Motels were changing, too, requiring bigger facilities and amenities like telephones and air conditioning. The Chelsea Motel responded to these demands, but an even bigger threat to the survival of the enterprise was building.

Automobile traffic on Route 66 led to the creation of the Chelsea Motel, and paradoxically its success would lead to its demise. During the post-war years, Route 66 in Oklahoma became increasingly congested with cars, trucks, and buses. Federal efforts to improve the highway turned into a project to replace it altogether. In 1953, the Turner Turnpike between Tulsa and Oklahoma City opened, running essentially parallel to Route 66.
 

Circle Theater
Tulsa, Oklahoma

In 1945, Tulsa had 26 movie theaters. Of those, only one remains standing today: the Circle Theater. Built in 1928 on the old 1926-32 alignment of Route 66 through Tulsa, the Circle was part of the central shopping district in Tulsa’s earliest suburban shopping center, Whittier Square. Like almost all historic single-screen movie palaces, the Circle struggled to 

emain viable in the age of the multiplex. By the mid-1990s it was shuttered and threatened with demolition. Thanks to the tireless work of the Circle Cinema Foundation, today the Circle is going stronger than ever, and in July 2013 celebrated its 85th anniversary grand reopening.

The theater, which was included in the National Register of Historic Places in 2003, is located in a two-story brick commercial-style building, quite distinct from the opulence that characterized most theaters of the era. Its suburban location, the fact that it was not designed by a professional architect, and the mixed use character of the building which housed apartments above the theater explain its understated nature. Because the theater was only one part of the multi-use building, the structure was also known as the Chilton Building (named for the original owner), and “Chilton” flanked by the numbers 19 and 28 can still be seen inscribed into the front of the building near the roofline. A beautifully restored neon sign and neon-lit marquee grace the façade, which was recently taken back to its appearance circa 1952, thanks in part to a grant through the National Park Service’s Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program in 2012. The setback of the building is quite shallow, a practice common to theaters that was designed to draw people in from the sidewalk. What was originally a storefront to the north of the theater houses the Circle Cinema Foundation’s offices; another storefront to the south of the ticket window was incorporated into the theater’s lobby sometime after 1957.

Coleman Theatre
Miami, Oklahoma
 

Coleman Theatre courtesy of Jim Ross

Starting in 1929, weary travelers along the recently designated U.S. Highway 66, who arrived in the small Oklahoma city of Miami, received not only the usual hot food and lodgings but also a unique feast for the senses. When it opened on April 18, 1929 along Miami’s Main Street segment of Route 66, the Coleman Theatre was proudly billed as the most elaborate entertainment facility between Dallas and Kansas City. Local mining magnate, George Coleman, who conceived and funded the theatre, determined to give Miami--and Mother Road travelers-- the very best entertainment in the most modern surroundings.  

The Coleman’s Spanish Revival style exterior was a favorite choice of the Jazz Age, and this stucco palace is considered one of the best surviving examples in Oklahoma.  In its heyday, the Coleman rivaled the Spanish Revival theaters found in the “big city” (Oklahoma City) down the road. Above the east, Main Street entrance is a dominating, curvilinear gable topped with three ornate finials. Underneath this gable are compound arched windows with exquisite, hand-carved terra cotta ornamentation. The east façade’s parapet wall with low relief carvings and a central spire-like bell tower are also trademarks of the style. Around the corner, hovering above the south, First Street entrance are twin bell towers with balconettes, wrought iron railings and red tile hip roofs.  In order to diversify income, the design of the theatre’s ground floor included offices and shops along both Main and First Streets.

Entering the theatre, contemporary visitors experience the treat of seeing a remarkable period piece. Restored to its 1920s splendor, the theatre’s gaudy Louis XV decor mightily competes with any entertainment program then or now. The interior offers intricate historical detailing, a fully restored original chandelier, and carved winding staircases flanked by gilded candelabra-toting statues.

Coleman Theatre Oklahoma State Historic Preservation Office Oklahoma Historical Society

Historically, the Coleman’s varied program offerings typified an American entertainment industry in marked transition. Alongside the latest movies from Hollywood, including talkies from the very start, customers could enjoy old time vaudeville, live music from a ten-person orchestra, and a vintage pipe organ called the “Mighty Wurlitzer.” 

Opened in 1929, the Coleman Theatre still remains in business. In 1989, the Coleman family donated the building to the City of Miami. With the support of private and public funding, including a matching grant from the Federal Economic Development Administration, hundreds of community volunteers helped restore the historic Coleman Theatre.  Even the old Mighty Wurlitzer, long thought lost, is back. The theatre was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.