Route 66, “America’s Main Street” running from Chicago to Los Angeles, traverses the Texas Panhandle from Shamrock at the Oklahoma border to the New Mexico state line, passing through Amarillo. Organized in 1926 as part of the national route system created by the Federal Highway Act of 1921, Route 66 was cobbled together from existing road systems. During the 1930s a tourist boom and the expansion of cross-country trucking increased traffic on the road. In the 1960s and 1970s, Route 66 was supplanted through Texas by I-40, though portions of the old road became business routes. Most of the extant historic architecture is related to automobile traffic and tourism.
Route 66 entered Amarillo from the east on Amarillo Boulevard (now U.S. 60), turned south on Pierce Street (returning northbound on Buchanan), thence west on 6th Avenue. SW 6th Avenue was incorporated into Route 66 in 1926. Stretching for thirteen blocks between Georgia and Forest streets, the avenue was intensely developed with one- and two-story commercial buildings, many of which survive, along with a scattering of housing units and institutions. The street was paved with brick in 1927, and concrete sidewalks were constructed by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression.
East Amarillo Boulevard was the quintessential Route 66 of the 1950s and 1960s, before through traffic was rerouted to I-40. A handful of vintage 1950s motels in the 2800 to 3000 blocks continue to operate: the Redwood, Route 66 Inn, Palo Duro, and Hillcrest. All are single-story strips perpendicular to the road, with their rooms facing onto parking. The decline of SW 6th was only arrested by its designation as a Historic District in 1994. Although the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, a few representative structures survive.