Let’s continue our dive into Missouri’s Historic Highways, this time going to Springfield, Missouri, approximately 1956.
This picture was taken at the corner of Glenstone and St. Louis Avenues. At this point in time, St. Louis Avenue was also known as Route 66.
Here is a Google capture of this location from May 2019. The Rail Haven Motel is still there. I’ve been to Springfield countless times and never seen so little traffic at this location; it’s always like that seen in the first picture. This picture must have been taken at an odd time, like Sunday morning.
Incidentally, my family and I stayed at the Rail Haven in April of last year. That green 1956 Ford has a blue 1955 Ford mate; both are open for exploration and sitting in. They await their own write-up someday.
Nice pic. The black car on the far left, next to the ´55 Chevy, what is it?
Chevrolet ’52, seen in the curbside traffic lane.
It is a 1952 Chevrolet, but I’m not sure why it is missing its badge and bright trim rings around the headlights. Perhaps it is customized.
thanks
It is customized. “Nosed and decked and skirts”!
That could have been my ’52 Chev, but I was living in Connecticut at the time!
I can almost smell the oil and raw leaded gas fumes as these machines loudly roll by with their holey mufflers and exhaust fumes! Remember the leaks? Some of these rides were road snails, leaving greasy trails behind them. Remember the rust?
The photos are B/W, but the colors these cars were painted were glorious! And the chrome! The glare from some of these cars blinded you. No air conditioning! Roll those safety glass windows down and let that road fragrance assuage your sweaty backsides!
And you drove at speeds that were below 50. The cars accelerated at speeds you could time with a calendar.
This is why I love this web site!
I love these photos!
I like the shots of 50’s-60’s CA freeways that you can find online, you can see the black stripes down the middle of the road from road draft tubes and general leaks.
VanillaDude, the flashback registered.
How about the strong sweet smell of road-draft blow-by, that in the right (wrong?) conditions could bring the eyes to tear?
Oh, come on VD, no self respecting youth of that time would have lived with leaks and greasy trails. The mufflers, though…..probably. LOL
Stayed at the Rail Haven a few years ago. Retro-roadside motel. Highly recommended.
“That green 1956 Ford has a blue 1955 Ford mate; both are open for exploration and sitting in. ”
Very cool. I’d like to read about them.
It’s true – Chevy and Ford ruled back then. Is that the back end of a Nash behind the restaurant on the corner way over to the right?
It looks like a 1953-55 Rambler wagon.
You’re right about how dominant Chevrolet and Ford were in those days. There are no less than THREE 1956 Chevrolets on the right side of the photo!
This is the Middle America I recall. Not a foreign car in sight!
Gas stations on every corner!
That Ford in back of the Chevys looks at least one generation of automobile older. How did Ford manage to sell anything in the late 40’s? Price? Postwar market? Flathead V8? Dad had a ’48 Chevy Fleetline, so I know almost everything was updated from pre-war; it’s just that in this line up the Ford looks ancient.
I would say postwar market. People were desperate for new cars. It took several years to satisfy the demand.
The all-new 1949 Ford actually debuted in June 1948. Ford beat both Chevrolet and Plymouth to market with an all-new postwar car.
New cars were so scarce immediately after the end of World War II that the established manufacturers had no trouble selling whatever they could push out the factory door. The first postwar Fords were outdated in the chassis department (no independent front suspension). Their styling, however, wasn’t necessarily behind that of the Chevrolet and Plymouth.
Would have been nice to see a derelict Duesenberg or a clapped out Cord plying the streets. Maybe a stagnant Airflow getting a drink at the filling station. After all , these were just used cars at the time. Heck, someone raced a Tucker as a stock car. But it was a DNF, with a broken axle.
Well, if Springfield was like Pittsburgh, PA where I grew up in the 50s and 60s (and became car aware in 1957-58), you simply did NOT see any prewar cars. I’m sure some existed, but they must have been hidden in garages. There was a very clear cutoff — nothing older than 1946. Harsh winters, road salt, and air pollution were undoubtedly in play at the time.
Could be that the Duesenbergs and other cars from the ’30’s and older were scrapped for the war effort as well.
Yes, I had thought about that after posting. They were regarded as old cars at time, more useful for the war effort rather than preserving them.
What are the chances that the ’56 Ford in the modern photo is the same one that is in the vintage photo under the ‘Standard’ sign? You never know…
Thanks for another good photo – keep them coming.
Surprising that so much is unchanged – the Rail Haven Motel is still there, as is the converted house on the opposite corner with its postwar side addition.
“Surprising that so much is unchanged.”
Pretty typical for the Midwest, as there’s lots of space to work with- It’s cheaper to move a mile down the road and develop open land rather than tearing down existing structures and starting over.
Here in Cali, those 40’s era buildings would have been torn down and redeveloped at least once and maybe twice.
Not necessarily; we are almost as quick to tear down buildings as you folks in California! 🙂
About a mile north of this location a 1970s era mall was torn down some years ago for another shopping center. For Springfield, this location tends to be more of an exception than a rule.
wonder if the same Ford is in both pictures?
I love this then-and-now stuff, Jason.
I suppose we could colorize the 1956 photo, but here’s a postcard from roughly that time to bring it to life:
Oh my goodness. This looks identical to how it does now.
Perhaps I need to do my post about the Rail Haven.
Happy to give you a “frozen in time” moment, Jason.
I can’t tell if these earlier incarnations were the same property or owners, but who knows: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=%22rail+haven%22+motel&_sacat=0
Me, I’ve just gotta accept that space-age 1959 is now 60+ years ago—the same interval further back in time would be 1898. Yikes!
I hope you do… I’d never heard of the Rail Haven before reading this post, and I was intrigued enough to look it up. They seem to have done a good job of retaining the charm of a period motel without being overly retro. Looks like an interesting place.
There’s an old motel here in Fairfax, Va. that was built in the 1950s along a nautical theme. I’ve often felt that someone could restore it pretty effectively and that such a place would be successful. But unfortunately, it’s turned into a fleabag motel and it’ll probably be torn down for luxury condos before long.
Although the gas stations are long gone, both the buildings are still there. My friend Lynn’s dad owned the Standard across from the Rail Haven.
Bugger! It’s west of St Louis. We’re road tripping from Detroit to St Louis next year, I’ll have to cross it off the list. Thanks for the story.