By Roger McKinney
rmckinney@joplinglobe.com
BAXTER SPRINGS, Kan. — Nearly six months after volunteers began work to restore a 1930 gas station as a Route 66 Visitor Center, the Baxter Springs Historical Society is ready to open the doors.
A grand opening is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at the visitor center on Military Avenue downtown. About 2 p.m., a reception will be held nearby at the Baxter Springs Heritage Center and Museum, where the program will include some Route 66 oral histories.
The project is the result of a $26,202 grant from the National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program to the historical society. The historical society matched the money with $26,202 in volunteer work and material.
Carla Jordan, of Cape Girardeau, Mo., wrote the grant application for the historical society.
“We’re just about there,” said Dean Auman, a board member of the historical society, on Wednesday. “It’s unbelievable how it’s changed.”
Volunteers were busy Wednesday putting final touches on the building, an old Phillips 66 station. Auman said the original 1930 building had two additions to form the current building.
Auman said that by Saturday, he expects the building to be stocked with tourism brochures and Route 66 souvenirs.
Most of the building has been painted tan, with doors, door frames and window frames painted maroon. The roof is orange. Auman said it is the color scheme the Phillips 66 stations used from 1947 to 1959.
Auman said Mike Kertok, an architect from Norman, Okla., assisted with the project. Kertok specializes in restoring the old Phillips 66 stations.
Carolyn Pendleton is the director of the Route 66 Visitor Center. She said it will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. The phone number is (620) 856-2066.
“It brings back the nostalgia,” Pendleton said of the building. “Hopefully it will cause more people to stop.”
Pendleton said another goal is to create a cohesion along the 13 miles of Route 66 in Kansas. She said she has been working closely with 4 Women on the Route at a restored gas station along Route 66 on Main Street in Galena. That station has had dozens of visitors from across the country and several other countries since it opened.
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