Baxter Springs Route 66 Visitor Center

940 Military Ave., Baxter Springs, KS
Phone:

East < GO > West

This 1930s cottage style gas station was placed on the National Registry of Historic Places in 2003 and restored to its 1940s look a few years later. It now serves as the Baxter Springs Kansas Route 66 Visitor Center and Gift Shop. The walls inside are covered with the signatures of hundreds of Route 66 travelers.

A pair of vintage Phillips 66 gas pumps stand in front of the station. They appear to be from two different design periods, or at least two different manufacturers.

The original station was built in early 1930 as a Independant Oil & Gas Station but soon after the company merged with Phillips Petroleum. It remained a Phillips 66 gas until 1958 It was originally much smaller that the building is today. In the early 1940s the service bay and center section were added. The original station ended where the chimney is on the roof now.

Ownership changed several times before it became the Visitors Center in 2005. By then it had already been placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. In 2007 it was restored to the way it look in 1940.

Photo(s): 2012