Roy's by Mornin' - a photo on Flickriver

Roy's by Mornin'

            In 1938, founder Roy Crowl opened Roy's as a gas and service station along the legendary U.S. Highway 66, in Amboy. At the time, Route 66 was "The Mother Road" and "Main Street of America" - the primary east-west highway artery crossing the nation from Chicago through the Southwest to Los Angeles. The construction of Roy's was one consequence of a Route 66 realignment through Mountain Springs Summit, bypassing Goffs to directly connect Needles and Essex, and continuing west to Amboy.

In the 1940s, Crowl teamed up with his son-in-law, Herman "Buster" Burris. They expanded the business, as Roy's Motel and Café, to include a café, an auto repair garage, and an auto court of small cabins for overnight rental by Route 66 travelers. Buster Burris himself almost singlehandedly created the town's infrastructure, some of which remains semi-functioning today. Burris even brought power to Amboy and Roy's all the way from Barstow by erecting his own poles and wires alongside Route 66 using an old Studebaker pickup truck.

Postwar business boomed as families discovered the joys of motor travel after the World War II years of tire and gasoline rationing and new cars not being manufactured. Roy Crowl and Burris kept Roy's Garage and Café operating 24 hours a day - seven days a week; so busy was Roy's that Burris took out classified ads in newspapers across the country in the hope of recruiting help.[2]

By the opening of the 1950s, Roy's complex employed up to 70 people; the town's entire population then was 700.

Some very significant and lasting aesthetic changes came to Roy's Motel and Café in 1959: with the February 1 erection of the infamous towering neon "Roy's boomerang logo" sign visible for miles approaching Amboy; and with the construction of the motel's new Mid-Century Modern Style - MCM "inclined roof flying over a glassed wedge" guest reception and office "theme building." They all were a vital beacon milepost and "modernist refuge" for more than a decade.

The 1972 opening of Interstate 40 in California, unconnected and a fair distance north of Amboy's section of Route 66, quite literally meant the overnight loss of business. Burris himself was quoted as saying that his business "went down to zero" the day I-40 opened. Roy Crowl died in 1977, with Buster Burris continuing the business for what comparatively few travelers now used decommissioned but scenic Route 66. Burris had strong prejudices against "rowdy bikers and men with long hair" and chased off many "unacceptable patrons" at gunpoint.[2]

During Amboy's decline, Roy's Motel and Café became the town's only business besides a post office and Bristol Dry Lake's chloride works, and continued to attract visitors including some well-known people, long after the town's overall decline.

Some rights reserved

Taken in: United States / California / Amboy (show map)

Taken on: March 1, 2015

Tags:

Amboy

Desert

Roy's

RT 66 « less

Sets appears in: • Amboy • Arcanum Meetup more » • Out There « less

Groups appears in: • Lost America • US Route 66 (The Mother Road) more » • Route 66 The heartbeat of America (No 30/60 limit) « less

Camera: OLYMPUS E-M5, 0.4 sec, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	OLYMPUS E-M5
Exposure Time:	0.4
ISO:	200
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CC 2014 (Macintosh)
Show full info

Stats: 5,515 views

go back

Link to this photo view:
Link to this photo large view: