Route 66 initially came through Needles on Front Street through the downtown area but later it was moved to Broadway. In west Needles Route 66 was N Street and then Arch Street as it left town. Later N Street and Arch Street were re-named West Broadway so the singular name of Broadway would carry the traffic from the east side of Needles all the way though town to the west end. Now far West Broadway has essentially been re-named the Needles Highway. The early Route 66 crossed the railroad tracks at grade but today’s Route 66 west of downtown is substantially hacked up by the railroad overpass and Interstate 40 viaduct. About 1/3 mile of the original Route 66 has been lost.
Included within Needles are any matchcovers that say 66 on them and traveler-oriented businesses that are from Broadway or Arch Street or N Street. We also include Front Street businesses if the matchcovers appear to be from the late 1930s or the 1940s. We also include Robinson’s Motor Inn which was on F Street and 1½ blocks south of Broadway since the postcards from Robinson’s reference Route 66. Also, this old business still hangs on after all these decades now as Robinson’s Apartments.
Route 66 always passed through Barstow on Main Street. We do not include businesses on US Highway 466 (now State Route 58) or US Highway 91 like the Idle Spurs and Halfway House. Matchcovers that refer to being west of Barstow may be listed under Lenwood if the matchcover indicates that the business was 5-9 miles west of Barstow or under Hodge if the business was 11-12 miles west of Barstow.
Route 66 in Victorville was on D Street and 7th Street. There used to be a street numbering system that was local to Victorville and so the street address numbers were usually just 3 digits. I think it was in the 1960s that Victorville re-numbered its streets to a San Bernardino County numbering system so street numbers changed to five digits. Here’s just one example: the Red Rooster Café was at 512 D Street in the old days and now this building is the California Route 66 Museum of Victorville and its street address is 16825 D Street.
Route 66 in San Bernardino was on Cajon Blvd., North Mt. Vernon Avenue (500 N and above) and part of West 5th Street. For sometime in the early 1960s there was a Business Route 66 that traveled on E Street and Kendall Drive but no Route 66 guide books even acknowledge this alignment. There are actually many 1960s-era motels on E Street plus the original McDonalds (now a museum) but for this database we are not including any matchcovers from this “Business” alignment unless the matchcover actually says 66 on it. Only matchcovers from the Sleepy Hollow Auto Court/Motel and White Motel meet this criterion.
Some matchcovers simply say Mt. Vernon Avenue and some detective work may be required to verify that the business was north (higher numbers) of the North 500 block of Mt. Vernon (intersection of 5th Street). It’s simple to verify that Bernie Head Texaco and Bob McCalley Texaco were on valid North Mt. Vernon locations. Pete’s Liquor Store is probably on North Mt. Vernon as there still is a liquor store operating at 1101 N. Mt. Vernon today.
The Tik-Tok Café was at the corner of N. Mt. Vernon and Highland but the street address was Highland.
Matchcovers from downtown LA (7th or Broadway) are only included if the matchcover is very, very old as Route 66 was re-routed from these streets in 1936.
The US Highway 66 designation was removed from the west side of LA (i.e., Sunset and Santa Monica Blvd.) in 1964. So we did not include any rear strike matchcovers from Sunset Blvd. or Santa Monica Blvd. unless the business was already represented by a front strike matchcover. (Front strike matchcovers could not be manufactured after 1972 by federal law.) So there are just a few rear strikers uploaded from the west side of greater-LA.
We use a strict criteria for US Highway 66 in Santa Monica. Route 66 stopped short of the Pacific Ocean at Lincoln and turned on Lincoln to Olympic where it officially ended at then-US Highway 101. So matchcovers from Santa Monica Blvd. in Santa Monica are valid only if they are front strikers with street addresses of about 800 and above. Addresses lower than 800 are not included.