The Town of Carthage, MO. has a rich history and features a Civil War Museum and battle sites, elegant old victorian homes, Bed & Breakfasts, antique shops, a magnificent courthouse and the nearby Precious Moments Chapel and attraction, but best of all, it has Route 66!
Unfortunately, visitors must be prepared or they might get lost . Parts of Route 66 on the east side of town are highway 96, not 66. In town it's Garrison and Oak. Directional Route 66 signage recognizing the Mother Road is not adequate today.
A few businesses on the Route display Route 66 signs, but most do not acknowledge the famous road at their front door. Some buildings that thrived during the roads boom days are slowly decaying as solid restoration efforts have yet to materialize. The greatest risk is that the famous Boots Motel will be sold and razed for a new business. See the article below for more on this 66 icon.
Room #6 where Clark Gable stayed.
Rear building with rooms.
Covered parking & room entrances.
Front of Motel on Garrison St. 7-30-06
North Side 7-30-06
South side of Boots Motel
Boots "Owners House" just south of Motel
BELOW: Across the street from the motel, the former Boots Drive-in, sans wrap-around canopies. Now a Credit Union.
The Boots Motel now offers "weekly" rentals, and is no longer a motel.
The structure seems to be in an original and restorable condition, and with matching restoration funds from the National Park Service's Route 66 Corridor program, it could easily be restored to it's original condition.
Unless efforts are made soon, this landmark could disappear.
The Pancake Hut is just south of the Boots Motel and features a 1930's era "Band-Box"!
Just west on Oak is the old G&E Tire Co.. The sign above the street sign says "DeSoto Plymouth".
House or Business? on
Oak St.>
The Route 66 Antiques and Flea Market was
demolished after the Ice Storms of '06-'07.
The Powers Museum is on Oak St. as you head west out of Carthage. There is a Route 66 exhibit here. Plus, it's free!
The 66 Drive-In Theatre is located between Carthage and Carterville. It was a popular attraction until Route 66 was de-commissioned. It became an auto salvage yard, but was restored a few years ago. The original signs, ticket booth and neon were fortunatly saved and reinstalled. A few post speakers remain as sound is transmitted to your car's FM radio. The snack bar is great, and prices are fair. The drive-in shows double features and is only open weekends during the summer months.
Did you know about this nationally-aired radio broadcast from Boots Drive-In?
What a great idea. This could be done again, on-the-road, and webcast worldwide!
F
View of Courthouse from corner of Garrison & Oak Streets.
(Route 66). See a closer
view below.
The Jasper County Courthouse, also on the National Register of Historic Places, was built of Carthage stone in 1894-95. There is a mural insided the courthouse depicting the history of Jasper County. This building is the second most photographed structure in Missouri.
Numerous local buildings, in addition to the courthouse, were built in the late 19th and early 20th century out of stone from local quarries. The stone is hard enough to be polished into "Carthage marble" and was used in both the interior and exterior of the state capitol building in Jefferson City.
U.S. Highways 66 and 71 came through town in the 1920s, and for a time the town saw a stream of cross-country traffic. Route 66 was eventually re-routed, and then replaced in the 1960s with Interstate 44 running south of town.
In the late 20th century, the town began actively courting tourism, emphasizing its history (the Battle of Carthage, Victorian architecture, and Route 66), as well as its proximity to Precious Moments and country music destination Branson, MO.. Regretfully, Route 66 is only lightly promoted, and many Carthage residents don't even know where it is!
Many Route 66 travelers will be surprised to learn that the Route 66 Drive-In in not actually on the original route. Even though the state's signage indicates that your are on "Historic" Route 66, the original 66 ran behind the drive in, not in front of it. The photo of the home below shows the theater's screen on the left, and was taken from the original roadway, now "Imperial Road". The photo on the right shows where highway 71 later cut Route 66 off, forcing it to a bypass that passes the Drive-In and crosses over 71 to rejoin 66 to Carterville. (See the Carterville page). If you want to see this nice piece of the original road, and are heading west on Oak out of Carthage, keep to the right at the "Y" and continue till you see the house below (don't follow the curve over 71, turn left back onto 66), then the dead-end sign. Turn left on 66 at the next marked street which will take you to the "newer" route. Turn left (east) to see the drive-in just ahead. Then continue back west on to Carterville. (Reverse these instructions if heading east.) When you cross the highway overpass, do not turn left on the access ramp! Continue to 66 at the "T" intersection and turn left.
End of the Road. Carefully turn around without taking a mailbox out.
You should turn left before reaching this point unless you want to photograph it.
Route 66 Drive-in Theater screen.
See a recent NEWS ITEM about this community below.
Below: Shaded lawn and picnic area.
SAVE THE BOOTS!
Update/Press Release, 7-2-07
7-2-07 UPDATE:
The Boots Motel
Right and above: Boots of years gone by, as shown in this original Boots postcard.
Take a side trip to the re-created community called RED OAK II, locate on the East side of Carthage.
Click on the red tank!
CARTHAGE
HISTORIC COURTHOUSE & 66 Museum
BOOT'S MOTEL-ahead on right
Powers Museum & Old 66-right on Oak
ROUTE
CARTHAGE
MISSOURI
Proposed sign to indicate turns through Carthage >
Historic Downtown
Suggested sign for southbound traffic after turning off of Central Ave.
(A similar sign could be placed at Oak and Garrison for eastbound Route 66 traffic)
Free directional signs have been offered to the City to temporarily mark the Route, but they have declined the offer, and today, many travelers get lost, some bypassing the town, and it's Route 66 corridor altogether.
Don't get lost in CARTHAGE....
On Monday, July 2nd., Rod Harsh, owner of Visit 66.com and the Carterville Route 66 Visitors Welcome Center, met with Carthage Chamber of Commerce President John W. Bode and Kate Massy, Executive Director of the Carthage Convention and Visitors Bureau, to discuss the present status of the Boots Motel, a Carthage landmark on Route 66. (The article below by John Hacker of the Carthage Press, was recently published and will bring you up-to-date on the status of the Boots Motel.)
The meeting was to pass along the Chamber's interest in finding a buyer for the historic structure before it is demolished. It appears that the Carthage historic preservation district does not cover properties on Route 66, an oversight the city seems willing to ammend. Hopefully this can be accomplished before someone buys the property to clear away the motel.
If you know of anyone who might be interested in purchasing the property (selling for around $225,000.), please do not hesitate to contact Mr. Bode (or Kate Massey) at 866-357-8687. These preservation-minded folks will assist you in obtaining whatever information you may need to expedite the purchase of the Boots Motel. In the meantime, Rod Harsh will soon speak at a local Chamber gathering to seek a community-wide effort to find a buyer (or buyers). Updates will be published here as soon as available.
(Carthage Press article, 6-20-07, by John Hacker):
Carthage's historic Boots Motel could probably be turned into a profitable tourist destination, but the current owner says he's not the guy to do it.
Vince Scott, Carthage, bought the Boots Motel almost four years ago as an investment - he originally intended to sell it to the Walgreen's pharmacy chain, which was looking to build a new store on the corner of Garrison Street and Central Avenue - but the deal fell apart. Walgreen's ended up building at Garrison Street and Fir Road, and Scott is stuck with a historic motel he'd really rather not have.
"I bought it to turn around and make some fast money, and now I've still got it," Scott said. "Now I've got lots of advice from people, but not many people stepping up with any money to back up that advice."
The Boots Motel is one of a number of properties Scott and his family own in Carthage and in other locations in Southwest Missouri and Northwest Arkansas.
The Boots Motel was built in the 1920s, about the time Route 66 received its official designation from the federal government. Route 66 snaked its way across the country from Chicago to Los Angeles. The old route came into Carthage on Central Avenue, then made an abrupt turn at Garrison, and another quick turn and left town on Oak Street bound for Brooklyn Heights, then Carterville, then Webb City, then Joplin.
The corner of Garrison and Central became what it is today, the busiest intersection in Carthage, and Arthur Boots decided to build a motel and drive-in eatery at the corner.
Since it was decommissioned in 1985, Route 66 has become a symbol of America, especially in foreign countries.
The Boots Motel is still much as it was in its heyday, Scott said.
"The rooms really aren't much different then they were when it was a motel," Scott said. "You have the same stucco walls and same tile bathrooms. Some of the tiles might be missing. I put new carpet in the front rooms, but the rooms in the back building were built later and the oak floors are in pretty good shape."
Scott said some of the neon that marks the hotel as a Route 66 icon is broken, but it's fixable.
Last week, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named the hotels along Route 66 as icons worthy of preservation despite pressures from development.
"Affectionately called 'The Mother Road,' Route 66 is known for quirky roadside attractions and unique mom-and-pop motels," the trust said on its Web site, www.nationaltrust.org/11most. "In recent years, Route 66 motels in hot real estate markets have been torn down at record rates, while in cold real estate markets, motels languish and are being reclaimed by the forces of nature."
Scott said owning a Route 66 icon has been interesting. Not long ago, the cable television network HBO filmed a segment of a one-hour show about Mickey Mantle, the late Yankee slugger who grew up in northeast Oklahoma and got his start in professional baseball in southwest Missouri, at the Boots Motel. A Japanese television crew, filming a program about Route 66 for broadcast in their homeland, filmed at the motel.
Scott said he has visitors from dozens of foreign countries ask him if they could stay the night at the Boots. He currently operates is as a weekly rental and all 12 rooms are full.
"There used to be 13 rooms, but rooms one and two were opened up and the manager lived there at one time," Scott said. "They could be separated again to make 13 rooms."
Glenda Pike, with the Route 66 Association of Missouri, said hotels like the Boots are becoming rare and need to be preserved.
"These particular structures seem to be harder to adapt for reuse," Glenda Pike said. "I mean you can just have only so many weekly or monthly apartments made out of them. By virtue of the way they were made, it's very hard to adapt them for reuse. Not all stories are like the Best Western Route 66 Rail Haven in Springfield. That one has been refurbished and kept up and is a very good success story. There are a couple of motels in Albuquerque that have been refurbished."
Pike and her husband Tommy Pike, both of Springfield, were in Carthage in 2003 when Walgreen's was deciding whether or not to buy the corner of Garrison and Central and spoke to the Carthage City Council and Scott about preserving the hotel.
"Our association, especially my husband and I, have been doing everything we earthly do to convince them that this something that needs to be maintained and kept in Carthage because it is such an icon of the road and so well known and in so many Route 66 publications and how important it is to your town," Pike said. "I'm hoping that somewhere in history it will be noted that the Route 66 Association of Missouri had something to do with convincing Vince not to sell it to them."
Scott said more likely economic factors, such as the fact that the company purchased the land on Fir Road for less than half the cost it would have to build at Garrison and Central, probably had more to do with Walgreen's moving south than anything.
Michael Taylor, coordinator of the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program for the National Park Service, said the motel would qualify for a federal cost share grant of up to $50,000 to help preserve it.
Scott said a person could make the Boots Motel a profitable venture on Route 66, but it would take the right person, someone with the money it would take to buy the motel from him and fix it up. The person could live on the property, either in the two rooms that were joined or in the small house immediately south of the two motel buildings.
"It does have a certain cool factor to it," Scott said. "It's a great opportunity for a couple, probably in their 50s or 60s, who had money and were interested in the history of the place."
The Boots
DRIVE-IN
Left: The famous Boots Drive-In was located across Garrison Street from the Boots Motel. Today it is a Credit Union, but the exterior is basically unchanged (Below).
The photos below show the current condition of the Boots Motel, which is in danger of being demolished in the interest of new commercial development.
