A Couple Charts a Future for the Tiny Route 66 Town of Spencer, Missouri
Owners Ed Klein and Stephanie Cramer are gradually reviving the three connected commercial buildings of Spencer, Missouri, which are now known as Spencer Station.
From Preservation Magazine: As a free service, Route 66 preservationist Ed Klein often advises business owners on the Mother Road. He counsels them to think carefully about their goals for their historic buildings. “I always tell them [to think about]: What was the heyday of this place?” he says. “What was it that people were most excited about? … Can you make it a viable business?”
After Klein and his partner, Stephanie Cramer, purchased the few remaining buildings in Spencer, Missouri, in 2022, he had to answer these questions for himself. He’d had 15 years of volunteer work on Route 66 preservation projects—all outside of his full-time job—to ponder what it would be like to own a business on the route. On a 2008 road trip he first saw Spencer, about a half-hour drive outside Springfield, Missouri. “I pulled up and it was just the coolest set of buildings,” he says. “The roof was caved in. I thought, ‘We lost another one.’ What I didn’t know was that [new owners] had bought it the year before.”
Popular internet personality calls Ontario gem a ‘tourist trap final boss’
From blogTO: Internet personality and theme park enthusiast Deezy Rides went on an expedition through Niagara Falls’ Clifton Hill, and he was shocked by what he saw, to say the least.
The content creator, who built a following by vlogging about roller coasters and amusement parks worldwide, made a pit stop at one of Canada’s biggest tourist attractions and documented his experience.
In the reel, which he shared on his official Instagram account, Deezy stands at the foot of the hill, looks up, and immediately says, “What is this?!” He then admits he wasn’t expecting to stumble upon the tourist district while visiting the Canadian side of the Falls.
How a historic bowling alley along Route 66 in Maplewood became a global attraction
From First Alert 4: MAPLEWOOD, Mo. – Route 66 is preparing to celebrate its centennial, but some attractions along the historic highway are even older, including Saratoga Lanes in Maplewood.
Located just off Route 66 in Maplewood, Saratoga Lanes remains a fixture on lists of must-see places along the Mother Road.
Built in 1916, it is the oldest bowling alley west of the Mississippi River. Jim Barton has owned Saratoga Lanes since 1989 and has worked to keep the venue authentic.
“I think this is really the heart of the success of Saratoga, is we’re authentic,” Barton said. “So many people try to be retro and try so hard to be cool, when something already is cool, just leave it be.”
Exploring “The Main Street of America”
John Paget in front of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association offices as he traveled the historic highway for his new film. John Paget
From the National Trust: In the early 1990s, John Paget took a road trip on Route 66. While he had no direct connection to the highway, he could see the beginning of a comeback story like nothing he’d ever seen before. He met people all along the road that embraced their history and celebrated the underdog story that is Route 66 in the Interstate era.
“As a filmmaker, those were the stories that pulled me in. For me, Route 66 was never really a road to reminisce about. It was a road of resilience.”
It inspired him to make the documentary Route 66: An American Odyssey, which shared those stories with the world. As the Centennial approached, John felt that the stories of the road were more important than ever; not just to study where we’ve been, but to see where we were going. He wanted to show people that the old highway still matters.
On the eve of the release of his new film Route 66: The Main Street of America, Paget sat down with the National Trust for Historic Preservation to talk about what led him back to the Mother Road and what he found along the two-lane today.
Savannah homeowner seeks to preserve ‘ghost sign’ in Historic District
From WJCL: SAVANNAH, Ga. — A piece of Savannah history is fading from the side of a downtown building, but its new owner hopes to preserve it without making it look new.
The weathered advertisement off Price Street, visible from East Perry Street, is known as a “ghost sign.” The term refers to remnants of advertisements once painted directly onto brick buildings.
The sign promotes Uneeda Biscuit, an early product of the National Biscuit Company, which later became Nabisco.
The Dying Art of Hand-Made Restaurant Signs
From NYT Cooking: Restaurant signs are ubiquitous across New York City, but who’s behind all the iconic lettering? What does it take to design and install something that’s often a customer’s first impression of a business?
Meet the artists behind Noble Signs, a Brooklyn-based design studio that specializes in custom hand-painted and neon signs for restaurants all over New York, from mom-and-pop shops to some of the buzziest new joints. Noble Signs is also preserving and rescuing classic signage from shuttering businesses amid a rapidly changing city.
What makes a good sign? In our latest documentary, we dive into the world of restaurant signmaking, an integral part of the visual language of New York City.