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Retro revival taking place on Route 66

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Contributed by: Kevin Hamm/YourHub.com staff on 2/26/2008

In 1926, a road was established that would lead straight into the American psyche. It would become known as the Mother Road, and it would link small town America along its 2,400-mile path from Chicago to Los Angeles. That road was Route 66.

During the highway's heyday, hundreds of motels lined its path: the Wigwam Motel, the Blue Swallow, the El Vado. Neon was king, and the glow of the signs guided travelers as they drove through the night.

Over the years, many of the historic motels have fallen into disrepair. But if one Centennial man has his way, that will change.

Richard Talley is the president of Smalltown America, and his goal is to buy, renovate and reopen some of the motels along the old Route 66. His first project is the Motel Safari in Tucumcari, N.M., a 23-room structure built in the 1950s. Tucumcari is 175 miles east of Albuquerque near the New Mexico-Texas border.

He purchased the motel in December and has spent the last few months overseeing the restoration to its glory-days condition. The motel partially opened Feb.18 and is scheduled to be completely open in June. When it's all said and done, Talley will have put about $200,000 into the property. A room at the Motel Safari will set you back - what else? - $66 a night.

Many of the historic structures along Route 66, however, are suffering from neglect. Route 66 has been placed on the World Monuments Fund list of 100 Most Endangered Sites, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation put the Route 66 motels on its 2007 list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

Traffic on Route 66 and the businesses along it began to fade when the Interstate Highway Act was signed in 1956 making way for multi-lane highways that bypassed the small town centers. By 1970, nearly all segments of Route 66 were bypassed by interstates. The road was officially removed from the U.S. highway system in 1985.

But Route 66 always remained vital in peoples' memories and to the die-hards who formed clubs, swapped stories and created Web sites about the road. Johnnie Meier, the special projects manager for the New Mexico Route 66 Association, thinks the historic road might be staging a comeback.

"Staying at a vintage Route 66 motel is part of the charm and mystique of the Mother Road," he said. "When you travel, you should make memories. Staying at a franchise motel is not making a memory."

Talley agrees with that.

"There's still a lot of families and highway traffic that comes through town that love the old motels, but doesn't want to be on a 50-year-old mattress with the springs popping through it," he said.

Better beds and flat-panel TVs aside (Talley said he checked into putting vintage Philco TVs into the rooms, but they cost $1,700 each), Talley is taking pains to recreate the retro atmosphere of the Motel Safari. The rooms will feature the original desks and chairs that were custom-made by the builder when the motel first opened.

"This is kind of retirement" for Talley, who has spent 20 years in the hotel business, and his goal is to restore a motel in all eight states that Route 66 runs through. He is presently looking at the Boots Motel in Carthage, Mo.

From John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath to (Get Your Kicks on) Route 66 to the animated movie Cars, Route 66 has a solid footing in American culture. Ron Warnick, the news editor of www.route66news.com, said that cultural significance, and the fact that Route 66 has created so many memories for so many people, gives Talley's venture a chance to succeed.

"I've always felt that a chain that specialized in restoring vintage Route 66 motels and offered modern amenities had a lot of potential," he said. "Now we'll see whether that's truly the case."

Editor's note: For Arvada blogger Gladys Mercier's memories of traveling the Mother Road, click here.

Return to Route 66 exhibit

What: Return to Route 66: Photographs from the Mother Road by Shellee Graham

Where: Lonmont Museum & Cultural Center, 400 Quail Road, Longmont, CO 80501

When: Exhibit runs through March 9

Info: www.ci.longmont.co.us/museum/exhibits/route66.htm or 303-651-8374

Contact Kevin Hamm at hammk@yourhub.com.

A comment from Nancy Wright, Centennial:

My parents were married in June 1954 and since they lived in Chicago, they decided to take a road trip along the entire Route 66 to Los Angeles/Santa Monica! Without air conditioning, in the middle of summer, they set out. Dad did all the driving because mom didn't know how to drive. Dad always had a movie camera going, so there are a lot of silent movies (in color, too!) of their road trip. You can see some of the famous hotel landmarks along the way like the TeePee Hotel in Arizona. It's very cool.

Dad died in 1990, so when Route 66 celebrated it's 75th anniversary some years back, my mom & I went down to Albuquerque to take part in the celebration. We drove as much of the Route as we could to Las Vegas, but most of it isn't driveable anymore. But we DID get a TeePee room at the still-functioning TeePee Hotel in Arizona!

I want to see Route 66 restored as much as possible. Whenever I watch the movie "Rain Man" I think of how cool those secondary roads really are.

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Showing 1 of 1 comments

Submitted By: Gladys Mercier

posted on 2/27/2008 @ 6:01:20 PM

Rated Story

That is a good story Kevin. Thanks for putting my blog in the links.

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