A new effort is underway to preserve any number of historic structures running alongside famous Route 66 in Arizona.
The National Park Service has awarded $585,000 in grant funding to rehabilitate motels, stores, gas stations, and other structures as part of the effort.
The 2,000-mile-long Route 66, which stretches from metropolitan Chicago to southern California, has become a thing of legend to historians, preservationists, writers, and film makers largely preoccupied with the modernist architecture and many neon signs that line the highway.
The route, popularly known as the Mother Road, cuts across a 385-mile section of north central Arizona, in an east to west direction, where most of the built environment occurred between the 1930s and 1950s.
The grant funding has been awarded to the Arizona State Parks and Trails’ State Historical Preservation Office. Individual grants of up to $100,000 are designed to fund technical and planning support for the rehabilitation work.
In a statement, Jim McPherson, president of the Arizona Preservation Foundation, said the grant funding is not just confined to preserving and restoring buildings, but will also serve to “rebuild economies, restore civic pride, ” and create “sustainable futures for small towns along the Mother Road.”
To date, just over 250 Arizona Route 66 buildings and bridges, among other structures, have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
November 18, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Vintage postcard
