DUARTE >> The route has been dubbed the “Main Street of America.” Cultivated by a car culture synonymous with western wanderlust. Immortalized by a 1940’s rhythm and blues hit as a place where you can “get your kicks.”
Now, Route 66, the road from Chicago to Los Angeles built in 1926 before the advance of the interstate highway, may become the first road to be established by Congress as a National Historic Trail.
Under two bipartisan bills introduced this week by local Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-El Monte, and two Illinois Republicans, Rep. Rodney Davis and Darin LaHood, the status of the Mother Road, as coined by John Steinbeck, would be permanently etched in the history books and would receive a steady funding stream for preservation, rehabilitation and promotion.
A second bill would begin planning the route’s 100th year anniversary in 2026 by establishing a 19-member commission to coordinate activities, celebrations and ceremonies.
“Think of it as a national park but in a linear community,” said Scott Piotrowski, the secretary of the California Historic Route 66 Association. He also described a series of events, signage, and celebrations that could happen with the new designation and funding for this 2,278-mile road passing through eight states. In the San Gabriel Valley, it follows along Foothill Boulevard, Huntington Drive, Colorado Boulevard and the historic Arroyo Seco Parkway (110 Freeway).
Piotrowski, who lives in Glendale, is also executive director of Highway Journeys and a board member of the Route 66 Road Ahead Initiative.
Though extremely knowledgable about the entire Route 66, Piotrowski sees the two bills as a way to re-direct focus on the route’s forgotten California segments.
“In Southern California, we are losing out on tourism dollars on Route 66. The vast majority pretty much ignores the road from San Bernardino to Santa Monica,” he said.
Claudia Heller, a Duarte historian and co-author with husband Alan of “Life on Route 66: Personal Accounts Along the Mother Road to California,” sadly remembers all those original restaurants on Huntington Drive that have disappeared. Even the Duarte Route 66 Parade, which ran from 1995 to 2015 did not take place last year.
“I’ve been pushing for restaurants to put up Route 66 signs,” she said, but many don’t understand the historical significance. She’s asking the Duarte City Council to erect a sign at Mount Olive and Huntington Drive saying “entering historic Route 66.”
On Foothill Boulevard in Rancho Cucamonga — some of the oldest sections of Route 66 — two restaurants honor the road’s legacy: Magic Lamp Inn and the Sycamore Inn, the latter existing when Route 66 was a dirt road.
In Glendora, historic Alosta Avenue was renamed Route 66 in 2003. Piotrowski fondly points to Flappy Jacks, The Golden Spur and The Donut Man as thriving incarnations of the freewheeling American spirit fostered by the roadway.
In Pasadena, the route includes famous Colorado Boulevard. “In fact, you could say the longest running Route 66 parade is the Rose Parade,” he said. Though technically not on the route, Galco’s Soda Pop Stop in Highland Park, which sells 700 varieties of unusual sodas and beverages from bygone eras, is an example of the “fabric of Route 66 culture.” The store spurred a replica on Route 66 in Oklahoma called Pops, he said.
Fair Oaks Pharmacy and Soda Fountain in South Pasadena is a popular place where patrons enjoy nostalgic thirst-quenchers such as cherry rickeys and phosphates.
However, the most famous Route 66 motels and down-home eateries are found in New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona, according to the website Route 66 News. Piotrowski believes the two bills can generate commerce and more tourism geared toward the “idiosyncratic nature of the highway” even in Southern California, where big box stores and banal fast-food chains are wiping out kitschy and originality.
“The bills may help people find the road in Los Angeles, where mom-and-pops don’t even know their business is on the road. It would give them a better opportunity to tap into that market, create more economic impact and more dollars spent in the L.A. region,” Piotrowski said.
Ironically, a road that brought soldiers to the West Coast during World War II and back and jobs to unemployed workers during the Great Depression is more often explored by foreign tourists than Americans, he said.
“International travelers come to spend a night in a hotel that gives them a unique experience,” he said. “They want to eat food from a restaurant cooked by a person who lives around the corner.”
Even if the two bills can’t restore Route 66’s charm, the series of by-roads that connect through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Illinois are worth preserving as a reminder of America’s growth and in Southern California, as homage to a car culture that defined freedom, Piotrowski said.
“As we look to the future of driverless vehicles, the experience on the road will change. But to be able to have that nostalgic experience that so many people are trying to find; that is something worth saving,” Piotrowski said.
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