The Mother Road in Central Missouri

The Mother Road in Central Missouri. . , On March 15, 1931, Saint Patrick's Day, the city turned out to celebrate the completion of Route 66 in the area. In attendance was Cyrus Avery, president of the U.S. Highway 66 Association, and Governor Henry S. Caulfield. The celebration included dances, dinners, speeches, the highway dedication and a parade that stretched for two miles along the newly paved highway. The paper noted that "A reviewing stand for the parade was erected at the corner of the Edwin Long, the headquarters for the celebration". All of the buildings on Pine, Seventh and Eighth Streets were flags and bunting. The Hotel Edwin Long "looked like a million dollars, colors were flying from every window, clear to the fourth floor". The 65 mile stretch of Route 66 from Rolla to Lebanon was the last portion to be completed in Missouri. , Pennant Hotel / Carney Motel / Carney Manor , On November 4, 1929, the Pierce Pennant Hotel opened its doors for business and was one of the most elegant stops in the area. Henry Clay Pierce, oil baron and founder/president of Waters-Pierce Oil Company, was considered one of the four richest men in the country. He envisioned a chain of first-class facilities for travelers located every 125 miles from New York to San Francisco in a time when most accommodations were rudimentary. , In a November 21, 1929 article of the Rolla Herald, "Pierce Pennant Hotel Draws Celebrities: The new Pierce Pennant Hotel, which opened on November 4, has been averaging about 20 guests per night, with their largest number of guests reaching 37 on November 11, according to W.D. McNichol, the manager. Among the guests have been Arthur Carew, well-known film director from Hollywood, California, and Hector M. Pasmezozlu, Greek consul from St. Louis, who with a party of eight spent Saturday night and Sunday at the hotel. On November 30th Mr. Pasmazozlu will again be a guest at the hotel, and has made arrangements for a dinner and dance for twelve or fifteen couples from St. Louis." The hotel featured a restaurant located away from the main building and a parking service offered in the basement. , Pierce Petroleum Company, which built the Pennant Hotel, was one of the oldest oil companies in the United States. When Sinclair Oil bought into the business, the Pierce Pennant became known as the Sinclair Pennant Hotel. After acquisition of the property in 1956, it became known as the Carney Motel and Carney Manor in 1963. The Drury Inn and Steak and Shake stand on the site today. , Schuman's Cottage City / Schuman's Tourist City / Schuman's Motor Inn , 1928 marked the opening of Richard E. Schuman's "tourist city", a venture intended to capitalize on the upcoming opening of Highway 66 in Rolla. Originally known as Schuman's Cottage City, the establishment was allegedly created by converting chicken coops into cottages. According to an article in the August 29, 1929 edition of the Rolla Herald, "Seventeen clean comfortable cottages, ideally suited at the north city limits of Rolla, will cause thousands of tourists to stop in our city each season. Hot and cold shower baths, lavatories and nicely equipped rest rooms are provided for the comfort of our guests. It is a general comment of tourists that the Schuman Cottages are the nicest and cleanest along the highways. Such a cottage city is a real asset to Rolla". , Improvements such as covered parking, radios and telephone were constantly being made to the guest units and the grounds. By the late 1930s, Schuman's Tourist City included such amenities as a service station, café and two story hotel that could accommodate 100 guests. Schuman's Motor Inn, as it eventually became known, survived into the 1960s. It was demolished to make room for the Budget Apartments and Donut King. , Bell Café and Cafeteria / Reg and Andy's Café , Robert Bell and his wife opened a garage in 1927 that grew into the Bell Café and Cafeteria, which the two owned and operated from the late 1920s until 1941 when it was purchased by Ted Bell (no relation). The building also served as a terminal for the greyhound and the Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma Bus lines in the 30s and 40s. Located on a corner lot, the building was shaped to match the angle of the intersecting roads and had a corner entrance with double doors. , Not far down Route 66, to the east, Pierce had opened a terminal for the Pickwick Bus Line, which stopped at the Pennant Terminal. There was considerable competition between the two establishments. To gain the upper hand, a "modern, new" Greyhound depot was constructed in 1947 on the lot adjacent to the Bell Café, just to the east. Mr. and Mrs. Reg Waters gave up their lease at the Bell café to move to the new building. Andy Waterman managed the new establishment. Reg and Andy's café was "known coast to coast for our famous ham" and could seat 200 people. Waterman said they could feed four busloads of tourists in 45 minutes. The cafeteria closed in the 1950s and later became a flea market. , The café closed in the fifties. Since then it has been a fraternity house, day care center, a flea market and a strip mall. , Pine Street and Downtown Rolla , Rolla began paving streets with brick in 1908, filling rutted paths and deep holes on Eighth and Pine. These improvements coincided with both the regional and national push to develop a better transportation system. Considerable improvement around Rolla had already occurred by the mid-1920s on Route 14, the main state road that ran from St. Louis to Joplin, but they paled in comparison with the ramification of U.S. Highway 66., When Route 66 came through Rolla, it replaced Route 14 that consisted of an all-weather gravel road that was difficult to travel in all but good weather. Work began on the concrete slab roadway in 1928. The section from Rolla to Lebanon was the last to be paved because of the topography. Rolla had already completed the paving of city streets that would connect with the highway. The great all-weather highway from Chicago to the Pacific, authorized by Congress in 1926, ran down Pine Street before turning west on Sixth Street. The city finished paving Pine Street to the north and Sixth to the west to meet the highway., The highway helped sustain Rolla during hard times and war, but also brought increased traffic and stoplights, and finally new road construction. In just over a decade, traffic through town became heavy enough that the main stem of Route 66 was incorporated with U.S. Highway 63. The junction of Highways 66 and 63 with Kingshighway became a major intersection, while Pine Street became City Route 66. , Missouri Trachoma Hospital , The Missouri Trachoma Hospital was one of only four facilities in the United States devoted to the treatment of trachoma, a contagious bacterial infection of the eye that was the leading cause of blindness in the United States, particularly during the early twentieth century. In an effort to eradicate the illness, President Woodrow Wilson earmarked federal funding for the construction of the first Trachoma Hospital, located in Kentucky in the heart of the "Trachoma Belt". Within ten years, an additional hospital had been erected in Rolla, Missouri in an existing two-story frame building located on Elm Street. , The hospital soon outgrew this existing building, so a site was purchased for $2,000 by the Rolla Chamber of Commerce for construction of a new hospital. J.E. Williams of University City, Missouri was awarded the construction contract and began breaking ground on January 3, 1939. The new brick, two-story building was equipped with 70 beds, facilities for visual training, a recreation and assembly room, a dining room, and a children's playroom and cost $104,573 to build. , By the 1950s, sanitation and improved living conditions had virtually wiped out trachoma in the United States. Because the facility was no longer needed for the treatment of the disease, the Missouri Highway Patrol took over the building for training purposes in 1957 and remained until the construction of the Troop I facility across the interstate. The building currently houses the Missouri University of Science and Technology Rock Mechanics and Explosive Research Center. , Edwin Long Hotel / Phelps County Bank , The Hotel Edwin Long and the National Bank of Rolla building was completed in 1931, replacing the original National Bank location after its merger with the Merchant and Farmers Bank, also of Rolla. During construction, the National Bank occupied the old Merchant and Farmers Bank building. The National Bank occupied the first floor of the building with hotel rooms on the upper floors. City officials in Rolla, Missouri, had been looking to open a hotel in the downtown area, and they agreed with the National Banks Board members to build the hotel above the bank's rebuilt headquarters. Contractor Maurice Ernest Gillioz and architect Eugene Johnson were both natives of Rolla and excellent at their respective trades. The building was named Hotel Edwin Long after Edwin E. Long (1871-1928), a prominent Rolla businessman who was mayor from 1901-1903 and then again from 1911-1915. Long worked in local banking and was president of the National Bank when he died in 1928. The hotel featured 65 guest rooms, at least that many bathrooms, and a coffee shop. With its electrically-lighted sign on the roof, the building was a Pine Street landmark, and remains so today as home of Phelps County Bank., The building was rushed to completion to coincide with the completion of the paving of Route 66 throughout Missouri. The paper stated that the "New Institution Will Serve as Headquarters for Highway Celebration". Just three days after opening, the hotel hosted one of the biggest parties the area had ever seen. The paper reported over 8,000 people came to Rolla for the event, which included a grand parade down Pine Street., Route 66 - Highway 63 Intersection , The photograph of the west entrance to Rolla dates from prior to World War II and looks east; Route 66 and U.S. 63 (Bishop Avenue) curve to the left. City Route 66 (Kingshighway) is shown running past the large letters spelling out "Rolla" on the right. City Route 66 used Pine Street and Sixth Street to Kingshighway Street., The 1950s view of the same spot shows the results of the postwar boom. "Bud" Klinefelter's Ford, later Diehl Montgomery Ford, Denny Ford and currently Sakelaris Ford, is at far left. CVS Pharmacy now occupies the site of the farm implement dealership.