Business Spotlight: Parallel Histories

“History is not highly profitable,” says Gordon Elliott, owner of the 75-year-old Best Western Route 66 Rail Haven motel in Springfield.

A self-professed history buff, Elliott speaks of the 92-room property at Glenstone Avenue and St. Louis Street with the reverence reserved for a labor of love.

“I never started out wanting to adopt a distressed property,” he says, “but I’m always watching for quality that I think ought to stay around.”    

The Rail Haven has stuck around long enough to be considered one of the oldest properties in the Best Western chain, a feat celebrated in conjunction with the third annual Birthplace of Route 66 Festival on Aug. 10.

Elliott says although the Rail Haven has remained profitable each year since he purchased it in 1993, it has not been what he calls “a real moneymaker.” But with 2012 revenue topping the $1 million mark for the first time, Elliott considers the motel a good investment in the Elliott Lodging chain, despite rehabilitation costs double the $700,000 purchase price.

“I’ve known a few real money holes in my time,” he says. “But the Rail Haven isn’t one of them.”

Mother Road offspring
The Rail Haven Motor Court opened in 1938 with eight small cottages and rapidly expanded to 28 rooms by 1946. That same year, Texas hotelier M.K. Guertin formed the association of independently owned hotels that would eventually become Best Western. Still comprising independently owned business units, there are 4,000 Best Western hotels in operation across more than 100 countries.  

Despite the international clout of the Best Western brand, the Rail Haven owes its long-term success to the enduring popularity of Route 66, the 2,448-mile Mother Road running from Chicago, Ill., to Santa Monica, Calif. Also known as the Main Street of America, the route crossed seven states and in Missouri connected St. Louis, Springfield and Joplin, running on a parallel path just south of where Interstate 44 lies today.

In the car-happy culture that emerged from post-war America, countless thousands of people traveled the highway while following the westward pull of the Golden Coast. Although it has been functionally fading into the sunset since President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s National Highway Act of 1956, the lore and the allure of Route 66 remains.

Today, Elliott’s company manages 20 properties under the Best Western, Baymont, Candlewood Suites, Lamplighter, Greenstay, Arbor Suites and Eagle’s Lodge banners. However, he’s most often asked about the Rail Haven property, most likely, Elliott suspects, because so many old-timers during the years stayed there on their first trip to Springfield. The hotel also carries some notable heritage of its own, chronicled by local historian Reta Spears-Stewart in her 1998 book, “Route 66 Rail Haven: An Offspring of the Mother Road.”

In 1951, she writes, a wayward tractor-trailer took out part of the hotel’s signage in one of the most spectacular accidents in the city’s history. Famed actress Loretta Young visited during the same era, but the Rail Haven really hit the map on May 17, 1956, when an up-and-coming rock ‘n’ roll star named Elvis Presley played at the Shrine Mosque.

According to legend, after a spat with his band following the concert, the King of Rock and Roll refused to stay with them at the Kentwood Arms and walked the 1.4 miles along St. Louis Street to the Rail Haven. He stayed in room No. 409, which has since become the Elvis Suite, complete with a pink Cadillac-themed bed and photos of the legendary performer. Local native and Presley rhythm guitarist John Wilkinson, who died in January of this year, also has a dedicated theme room paying homage to the music of the era.

Old meets new
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Rail Haven remains popular with baby boomers who have a Route 66 trip on their bucket lists, even though the iconic highway was officially decommissioned in 1985.

“As one of the few hotels in town that never really changed its look, we’ve become quite a landmark for these tourists,” Elliott says. “It’s really rare for (a hotel) to go that long and keep its same original character.”

Elliott Lodging’s marketing efforts also focuses on a growing segment of interested Europeans, Elliott says, pointing to an active social media presence and targeted online marketing. Birthplace of Route 66 Festival organizer Dave Eslick estimates more than 6,000 foreign visitors come through Springfield each year, in part, to tour Route 66.

The Rail Haven provides more than 17,000 room-nights annually, about half of which are Route 66 travelers. Nightly room prices range from $60 to $200 – for the Elvis Suite – and the hotel’s estimated 25,000 guests stay an average of 1.5 nights.

German tourists Andreas and Manuela Neppe took part in the Rail Haven’s anniversary celebration. Beginning their travels from Munich, Springfield was their second stop on a three-week drive along the historic trail, carefully planned to coincide with Springfield’s Route 66 Festival. It’s their fifth trip to the U.S. since 1996, having previously toured the Pacific Coast Highway, Appalachian Trail and the Florida Keys.

“Why do we come here? Great history. And look at these cars,” says Andreas Neppe, pointing to the restored GTO and Chevelle parked outside his Rail Haven room. “Very cool.”

The event included a revealing of a new sign to replace the one destroyed by that vehicle wreck decades ago. The new sign, created and installed by Pinnacle Sign, is simple with a white neon arrow outlining the word “Springfield,” which historically helped direct tourists west on St. Louis Street toward downtown.

During the festivities, Elliott addressed the crowd of 150 while a middle-aged man in a Birthplace of Route 66 T-shirt took pictures of classic cars – with an iPad.

“We’re really onto something here,” Elliott says. “But I think we’re just scratching the surface.”