Mel’s Drive-In restaurant, located at the actual western terminus of Route 66 in Santa Monica, California, might be demolished to make way for a high-rise apartment complex.
Mel’s fate may be decided by a preservation commission hearing in mid-December.
The Los Angeles Times reported:
The owners of the property have filed early paperwork to level the structure and replace it with an eight-story apartment building. Preservationists are pushing for a historic designation that might protect it.
The groups appear headed toward a showdown Dec. 14, when the Santa Monica Landmarks Commission will hold a hearing on the site’s nomination for protected status by the Santa Monica Conservancy and the Los Angeles Conservancy. The allied conservancies contend that the building is “the most significant representation of its style and period in architecture and design in Santa Monica.”
“This isn’t about saving a modern restaurant. It’s about preserving some really important Googie architecture,” said Nina Fresco, vice president of Santa Monica Conservancy. She added that “there’s no reason why housing and historic preservation can’t be partners.”
The Times reports that ValueRock Realty of Irvine, California, purchased the Mel’s property for $6.2 million in 2020.
In mid-September, ValueRock filed an application to replace the 1959 restaurant with an eight-story apartment building, including ground-floor retail space.
ValueRock claimed in its application that the property has no historical or cultural value.
Santa Monica’s and Los Angeles’ conservancies nominated Mel’s to a landmark designation, which can shield such buildings from the wrecking ball.
The California Historic Route 66 Association stated that its board plans to support the bid for a landmark designation.
Mel’s Drive-In remains open, and its manager said it would stay there through at least June 2029, citing its lease.
That particular Mel’s was previously the Penguin Coffee Shop from 1959 to 1991. It closed, but the San Francisco-based Mel’s chain bought the property in 2016 and reopened it two years later.
The Mel’s in Santa Monica sits at Lincoln and Olympic boulevards, the actual western end of Route 66. The restaurant draws Route 66 travelers, who receive a certificate upon the completion of their journey.
Though the famous Santa Monica Pier about a mile away has long been reported as the western terminus of Route 66, the highway never officially ended there.
The pier, however, remains iconic for many Route 66 travelers, thanks to the Route 66 End of the Trail sign installed there about a decade ago.
(Images of the new Mel’s Drive-In in Santa Monica, California, via Facebook)