Wagon Wheel Motel - Cuba, Missouri - Route 66 - The Mother Road on Waymarking.com

"The Wagon Wheel Motel Historic District in Cuba, Missouri is significant under Criteria A and C. In the area of COMMERCE, the district is significant as a highly intact tourist court on Route 66. The Wagon Wheel Cafe and Gas Station opened in 1936, and the Wagon Wheel Motel, known originally as the Wagon Wheel Cabins, was accommodating nightly travelers by 1938. The Wagon Wheel Motel has been in operation ever since. The motel complex was one of the many tourist courts constructed in response to the surge in automobile travel and tourism during the first half of the twentieth century. Most, like the Wagon Wheel were built by local craftsmen and were locally owned and operated. However, few are still in operation today. Not only does the Wagon Wheel Motel still accommodate nightly travelers, but also it is still locally owned and operated. It is also the earliest tourist court on Route 66 in Missouri still in operation as a lodging facility.

The Wagon Wheel Motel Historic District is also significant under Criterion C in the area of ARCHITECTURE. It is a rare early example of the transition in roadside lodging from individual tourist cottages to buildings with multiple units. In addition, the high degree of formal styling in the design of the motel buildings in the Wagon Wheel Historic District is rare along Route 66 in Missouri. While the use of stone as a building material for tourist courts on Route 66 was fairly common, most are unstyled vernacular buildings. In contrast, the Wagon Wheel Motel buildings have distinctive Tudor Revival features. Furthermore, the buildings in the Wagon Wheel Motel Historic District have additional local significance because they were designed and constructed by Leo Friesenhan, a mason who is well known locally as well as in the St. Louis area.

The period of significance for the Wagon Wheel Motel Historic District runs from 1936, the year the Wagon Wheel Cafe and Gas Station opened for business to 1969, the year the Interstate 44 bypass at Cuba was completed.  The extension of the period of significance past the arbitrary fifty-year cut-off acknowledges the continuing importance of Route 66 in Missouri and in Cuba until the highway was decommissioned in the Cuba area in the late 1960s." ~ National Register Nomination Form

Americana: Motel/Hotel Significant Interest: Road Sign Milestone or Marker: Other Icon Web Site Address: [Web Link] Address of Icon: 901-905 E. Washington St. Cuba, Missouri

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