By Sheila Stogsdill
news@joplinglobe.com
VINITA, Okla. - One of the relics of the famed Route 66 highway will be razed and its sign sold on an online auction site, owners of the Lewis Motel said Thursday.
The Vinita motel has never been a designated Route 66 attraction or listed as such in any historical directory. It's just a popular place along the old route where people liked to stop, said Jack Lee, the owner.
However, in the next few months, the motel will experience the fate of many other popular spots along the old highway as its abandoned rooms give way to a new auto-parts store. "I wish I had a dollar for everybody who stopped and had their pictures taken outside the motel in front of the sign," Lee said. "I would be a millionaire."
Lee is in the final stages of selling the motel to the O'Reilly Auto Parts store chain.
"They plan to tear the building down," Lee said. "It's not restorable."
News of the motel's demise does not bother Vinita Mayor Joe Johnson, who believes the automobile-parts store will be a welcome addition to the city.
Lee, who bought the motel at an auction in 2000, used part of the motel for offices. Medical problems forced him to close down the 12-unit building in 2003.
It is believed the motel across the road from Clanton's Caf was built in the late 1940s or early 1950s.
According to the Oklahoma Route 66 Association's Web site, it was the Sooner State that gave birth to one of America's most famed roadways. The Chicago-to-Los Angeles route snakes across the state.
Oklahoma also has the distinction of being the first state to knock a section out of the historical route when the Turner Turnpike opened in 1953 and bypassed 100 miles of the famed roadway. By 1984, the last segment of Route 66 was bypassed with the construction of Interstate 40 in Arizona, according to the association's Web site.
Lee is selling the Lewis Motel's 12-foot neon sign. He has it listed on e-Bay for a minimum bid of $50.
"We are saddened to lose any building on the route," said Mike Hickey, Oklahoma Route 66 Association president. "We are saddened because the economics of situations determines most outcomes."
The motel is a vintage, Route 66 landmark, Hickey said. Unfortunately, some such landmarks prove to be money pits, he said.
Hickey expected bidding for the sign to be fiercely competitive and the sign to command a high price. There are a lot of Route 66 sign enthusiasts out there, he said.
The bidding ends Monday.
Thousands of tourists travel Route 66 each year, Hickey said. The association's goal is to persuade more motorists to leave interstate highways and enjoy the sights along what remains of one of our nation's great roadways of the past, he said.
Courtesy/Josh Lee
The neon sign for the defunct Lewis Motel on old Route 66 in Vinita, Okla., is up for sale on e-Bay.
Route 66 sights
Local historian Wanda Norton, of Vinita, Okla., said only four properties in Craig County are listed as official Route 66 destination sites. They are the Vinita Hotel, Randall Tire Company, Spraker Oil Company and the Craig County Courthouse.
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