Disappearing History: Visitors flock to Springfield to glimpse a past that is quickly fading away

If Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural masterpiece Fallingwater were plunked right down onto the Springfield square, preserving the iconic home would be a no-brainer.

The relevance of the archeological artifacts that are actually peppered throughout the Queen City, however, can be far less clear, and that’s a factor that threatens their survival.

“As a community, we hang so much of our hat on being the Birthplace of Route 66, but the other side of that coin is that much of the Birthplace of Route 66 has been torn down – more often than not, there’s a parking lot there now,” said Jason Nunn, a real estate agent with the Heintz & Nunn Group at Murney Associates.

Nunn said he loves architecture, and he loves Springfield history, and he believes there is a value to the buildings associated with the heyday of the Mother Road.

That value is not just in the appreciation of cool old stuff.

“The biggest problem is incentivizing developers to want to save an old building instead of tearing down and building new, which is cheaper and less of a headache,” he said. “I see both sides – but we have to remember, we can’t get it back once it goes.”

Phyllis Ferguson, who restored Rockwood Motor Court on the West College Street stretch of Route 66, said her visitors tell her they love stepping into a piece of history when they stay in her separate, restored cabins, all decorated in a different theme.

All around her business, Ferguson sees other landmarks that draw traveler interest every day, including other motor courts on what she said used to be the city’s motor court row, with names like the Skyview, Brown’s Tourist Camp, the Shamrock Court, Mack’s Court and the Rock Fountain Court Motel, all within a few blocks of each other with about five old gas stations in between.

“I do think something needs to be done to preserve these buildings,” Ferguson said. “Once they’re gone, we don’t get them back, and at some point, we lament their loss too late.”

Rock Fountain Court, built in 1945, is located at 2400 W. College St. and is closed to the public, serving instead as long-term rental property. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with the National Park Service website touting its nine gabled-roof frame cabins, all finished in a distinctive Ozark sandstone veneer. All are a little different, NPS notes, some with brick chimneys and all with slightly different floor plans and window locations.

“In the time before corporate standardization, proprietors along Route 66 did not hesitate to put their unique stamp on construction and design,” the NPS website states.

In east Springfield, at 1544 E. Kearney St., a vacant field marks the place where the Rancho Court Motel once stood. The 24-unit motel, finished in the Missouri giraffe stone that is distinctive to this region’s stretch of the Mother Road, was demolished in October 2025, following a nuisance declaration by the city of Springfield. The landmark missed the centennial celebration by less than a year.

Citywide issue
Nunn said the problem with Route 66 exists throughout the city, with neighborhoods on the north side of town falling into disrepair.

“I don’t think community investment has kept up in those areas,” he said. “We need a few brave souls who are willing to breathe life into those spaces.”

Although blight undoubtedly exists, Nunn said he sees opportunity in its midst.

“I drove down College Street a few days ago, and that area of town could be amazing,” he said. “I wish we had a few more people who believed in that vision.”

Nunn said preservation-minded people need to figure out how to fit into the purview of investors. He points to the example of the Moxy Hotel, the eight-story downtown gem developed by O’Reilly Hospitality Management in the Marriott brand and opened in 2024, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting.

Nunn gives credit to developer Tim O’Reilly.

“He didn’t have to buy a historic building, but he did, and look how awesome it is,” he said. “How much cooler is that than tearing it down and putting a new hotel in?”

Nunn noted he sees a market for architecturally significant properties.

“How do you make it monetarily make sense?” he said. “There’s a middle ground, and we need to find it.”

Mixed legacy
Realtor and historian Richard Crabtree of Murney Associates Realtors loves historic architecture, but he noted Route 66 has posed challenges since it was established.

In Springfield, Crabtree said, some of the city’s most opulent homes were once located on St. Louis Street, an alignment of the historic route. There were mansions, some with eight to ten bedrooms plus servants’ quarters, and they offered a glimpse of slate roofs and stately columns tucked back behind a row of trees.

But then, in 1926, Route 66 was routed through the neighborhoods and with it came traffic. That traffic included potential customers, and restaurants and motels began popping up where open spots existed. People started leaving, Crabtree said, heading for the houses in the Rountree area, and one by one, the mansions of St. Louis Street became vacant.

Car dealerships set up shop, Crabtree said.

“Used car dealers started buying the big houses and started putting parking lots in front of them,” he said. “They wouldn’t use the houses; they’d build a shed to sit in to do business, and they’d let the house sit there.”

The houses deteriorated further, and one by one, they were torn down.

“Who wants to live by a used car dealer?” Crabtree said.

Some of the houses were torn down for purposes that made more sense, he said – like the Shrine Mosque and the Kentwood Arms Hotel. Sears tore some properties down for a store at the current site of the Springfield Expo Center, and Crabtree said developer John Q. Hammons brought down the rest.

Compounding the tragedy is the relatively short life of the Mother Road, established in 1926 but supplanted by Interstate 44 three decades later.

“By the time the interstate came in, it had decimated everything,” Crabtree said. “It ruined part of Springfield.”

But Crabtree acknowledged the Mother Road is also a fascinating part of the Queen City’s history, and many of its architectural artifacts are worthy of preserving.

“Why do people flock here from other countries? They appreciate the old stuff, and we have tons of old stuff,” Crabtree said.

He added that Route 66 captures a feeling in visitors – a sense of families motoring down the route and pulling over to eat sandwiches while seeing quirky things, from kitschy tourist traps to national parks.

“The concept for them coming here is that this must have been what all Americans did, and it must have been so cool,” he said.

There were songs written about that feeling, Crabtree said, and the songs remain, even when much of Route 66 is a memory.

“That’s just what it was – a feeling in about a 30-year window,” he said. “By the time the ’60s rolled around, most places had dried up, and nobody was coming off the highway to go see Route 66.”