The Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program this week announced what will be its final cost-share grants, barring a very unlikely renewal of the program by Congress.
Since 2001, the program awarded $2.27 million with $3.57 million in cost-share matches to 152 projects, totaling $5.84 million in public-private investment toward the revitalization and commemoration of Route 66.
The Route 66 Corridor Program is scheduled to legislatively sunset later this year. It originally was supposed to last just 10 years after Congress enacted it in 1999, but it received an extension in 2009 amid a severe recession.
Here are the 2019 cost-share grants:
Monterey Motel window restoration
Location: Albuquerque
Applicant: private owner
NPS grant: $30,000; cost-share match: $34,294
Hill Top Motel historic neon sign and swimming pool restoration
Location: Kingman, Arizona
Applicant: private owner
NPS grant: $30,000; cost-share match: $37,000
Williams’ Store (aka Nelson’s Old Riverton Store) exterior brick tuckpointing
Location: Riverton, Kansas
Applicant: private owner
NPS grant: $2,500; cost-share match: $2,500
Route 66 engineering course
Location: El Paso, Texas
Applicant: The University of Texas at El Paso
NPS grant: $17,844; cost-share match: $17,844
Texas Route 66 road segment National Register nominations
Location: Wheeler County
Applicant: Texas Historical Commission
NPS grant: $5,172; cost-share match: $5,600
“Route 66 Women” multi-episode documentary film
Location: Santa Monica, California
Applicant: Cinefemme
NPS grant: $14,475; cost-share match: $22,025
No grant program, other than the usual federal and state grants available for eligible historic properties, so far is slated to replace the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program.
The Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona recently announced it would consider preservation grants in the wake of robust funding through a state license-plate program. And the national Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership is planning a grant program, though none yet has been announced.
(An image of the Monterey Motel sign in Albuquerque by Thomas Hawk; an image of the Hill Top Motel’s neon sign in 2012 by el-toro, both via Flickr)