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The old Triangle Motel still needs a lot of work, November, 2008, Michael
Gay.
Built in 1945, the Triangle Motel was
one of the first tourist courts built on Amarillo’s piece of
Route 66.
Complete with pull-in garages, the motel was built with hand-cut bricks
oven-dried in Amarillo, featured ten units in its two buildings, which
surrounded a courtyard filled with gardens, a children’s playground,
picnic tables, and a horseshoe pitching court. The rooms featured
bathrooms with large tiled showers, a luxury for many a Route 66 traveler.
The motel continued to operate for
several decades, even as Route 66 was relocated to I-40 and the area
declined. Finally, in 1977, it closed its doors for the final time. The
old lodging facility, along with numerous other buildings on this old
stretch of the pavement, sat abandoned and deteriorating in the
Texas sun.
In May, 2006, the crumbling buildings were condemned and ordered to be
demolished. However, a last minute buyer and members of the
Texas
Historical Commission saved the building from certain death. Though the
new owners, with the help of grants from the
Route 66 Corridor
Preservation Program and from the National Trust for Historic Preservation
have slowly been restoring the property, but there is a long way to go.
The owners are also raising funds locally where one can pledge a donation
and adopt a brick from the motel. See their
website to help.
Future plans are to reopen the site as
a motel, with each unit restored individually to meet city codes. The old
Triangle Motel is located at 7954 Amarillo Boulevard East.
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