Frontier Motel & Cafe

16118 E. Route 66, Truxton, AZ
Phone:

East < GO > West

The vintage 1951 Frontier Motel and Cafe welcomed guests for several decades and is still standing, but no longer open. The motel and restaurant were established by Alice Wright in the early 1950s and sold to Ray and Mildred Barker in 1957. The motel and cafe closed in 2011. The sign makes a great photo op though. Under new owners there was an effort at renovating the motel and cafe in early 2014, but that seems to have stalled by late 2015.

There was plenty of room to park here for the night or a meal, or both. The motel was only 9 units. That's not many units, but when you're trying to run a small motel and a cafe, it might have been about all the owners could handle.

The sign had been renovated in 2003 thanks to a preservation grant, but by 2013 it was looking a little frayed around the edges again. The cafe was the local polling place for elections for several years beginning about 1982.

This is a cool collection of Street signs featuring the Beale Wagon Road, the Will Rogers Highway and Historic Route 66. The only names missing are the National Old Trails Road, the Mother Road and America's Main Street. But then how many signs can there be before people get lost just standing there?

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Vintage Advertising Highlights

1959/60 AAA Southwestern Tour Book

Frontier Motel
Comfortable Rooms
Individual air-conditioning
Electric heat
Combination tub and shower
7 Rooms
7 Private baths
$6.00 - 8.00 in season
Lower rates Jan 1 to April 1

Note: This motel is commonly referred to as having 9 rooms, but the AAA listing only lists 7. The difference in how many rooms isn't uncommon, in motels of any size room counts often changed for a whole variety of reasons. But the really odd thing about this listing is that it says "cafe across the road", that seems odd because the motel had its own on-site cafe.
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Photo(s): 2013