Route 66 in the News
Bringing Back the Glory Days of 66
2007-09-09 18:08:37
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - Flagstaff officials are trying to lure more tourists to get their kicks on Route 66.
The storied highway has long been overshadowed by Interstate 40 and the newer hotels along it. Flagstaff is hoping the Route 66 Motel Preservation Program will attract more people to The Mother Road.
City officials are encouraging hotel owners along Route 66 to apply for state and federal historic preservation grants to help restore their hotels to the glory days of Route 66.
Six of the 26 local hotels they have appealed to have expressed interest.
Karl Eberhard, Flagstaff's historic preservation officer, pointed to the La Posada Hotel in Winslow as a successful example of the strategy.
Allan Affeldt and his wife Tina Mion bought the dilapidated property from Santa Fe Railway in the 1990s and spent an estimated $12 million to restore the hotel.
"He turned around an abandoned hotel,'' Eberhard said. "It is a very persuasive business model.''
Eberhard said if local hotels embrace their historic roots, they could tap into Route 66 aficionados looking for boutique, niche lodgings.
He said the city has already set aside about 10 Internet domain names to possibly advertise the hotels and has also spent roughly $1,000 on the program.
Route 66 began in 1926 but wasn't paved the entire way until 1937. It eventually traversed 2,400 miles across eight states from Chicago to the Los Angeles area.
Its heyday lasted through 1970. But as interstates were built, more and more of the route was decommissioned as a federal highway, and the last stretch disappeared from official maps in the mid-1980s.
~Associated Press, via KTAR.com
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