Missouri Route 66 - Carthage

CARTHAGE, MISSOURI. The Boots Motel on Route 66, decked out in flags of the world to celebrate some major restoration work. A busy Debbie Dee, caretaker extraordinaire, dropped what she doing when I showed up and gave me a tour of the restorations in process. Debbie was as delightful and enthusiastic a host as you will find on Route 66, reminding me again why traveling the old road is so much fun. 
     The Boots Motel was built in 1939 with a Streamline Moderne architectural style, with curving forms, long horizontal lines and a flat roof. The plan is to restore the motel back to a late 1940's appearance, and Bob Boots, son of the original owner Arthur Boots, has been consulted to get things just right. The original flat roof was replaced in the 1970's with one that sloped, so there are plans in the works to re-flatten the roof, to make the motel eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Inside the buildings, five of the thirteen rooms had been restored to a 1940's look at the time of my visit, and the work goes on.
     Along with the tour of the buildings I also soaked up some Boots history, courtesy of Debbie. I learned that poor Bob Boots was assigned to empty the spittoons in the old days, and that big time movie stars such as Clark Gable liked to lodge at the Boots, just for the privacy of the hidden carports. I was not surprised to hear that many people today stay at the Boots to see modern day movie stars, spending an evening at the classic Route 66 Drive-In Theatre just down the road (Route 66) in Carthage.  Thanks again, Debbie, for the tour, and thanks to the new owners, Deborah Harvey and Priscilla Bledsaw, for restoring a large piece of route 66 history.