A piece of Route 66 history in Springfield is truly a labor of love for one local couple.
Phyllis Ferguson and her husband Tim Phillips have offered old-fashioned hospitality at the Rockwood Motor Court since just before the calendar switched to 2020.
The motel at 2200 W. College features cottages with giraffe-style rock facades. A few years back, the buildings had fallen into disrepair, and while many likely overlooked the former motel as they drove by, Phyllis Ferguson saw a diamond in the rough.
"I always say it was a frayed extension cord and a space heater away from not being with us," she said. "It was in a pretty fast spiral. It was pretty blighted, and I always have just loved Route 66. Tim and I both have traveled it since we were little kids and have a passion for it. So, to think about yet another little roadside court going down at some point past the point of no return was really hard to think that could happen."
Ferguson found the motel through some other work she was doing at the time. She said she went home and told Phillips, "I think I'm going to buy a little motor court, and he's a good egg, and he said, 'what are you talking about?' Took him over, showed it to him, told him what, you know, I saw, and he pretty soon had the same vision and off we went. Friends thought we were nuts but wasn't the first time."
The Rockwood Motor Court dates to the early days of the Mother Road, which carried travelers between Chicago, Illinois and Los Angeles, California.
"Deverne Ruckman and family, and there's some debate whether Deverne was a woman or a man, built it in 1929, opened it just prior to the Great Depression, heading in October of '29, so they operated it for a little over a year, year and a half and then it changed hands. Most likely, they lost ownership of it because of the economy. To give you an example of how rough it was during those times, from 1929 when the Ruckmans opened to 1948, there were 13 different owners of Rockwood Motor Court."
Ferguson said it had various names but was generally called a tourist camp, and whoever owned it tagged their last name on it. It’s survived two fires over the years.
Originally, the cottages weren’t rocked – that was likely done in the late 40s after World War II, according to Ferguson. They had wood lap siding, which Phillips and a friend uncovered in the restoration. And many of the cottages had an attached one-car garage.
"So, you had a sleeping room with a kitchenette and a bathroom and then the other side was the garage that you pulled into," she said.
On a tour of the grounds, Ferguson said that the rock and brick masons who created the giraffe-style rock work had different styles and left their mark in each.
She pointed out rocks shaped like a cat, a pig and a butterfly.
"That's what we encourage our guests to do," she said, "just sit and look at the rock and find the animals or look up at the clouds and find them."
Back in its early days, if you wanted to stay at the motel but couldn’t afford a room, you could pitch a tent out back and stay for around $.50 a night, according to Ferguson.
And there was a Shell filling station out front – Ferguson and Phillips have converted it into another option for lodging.
"It will sleep up to five people, has a kitchen, living room area in it, is a fun place," she said. "I mean, how many people have spent the night in a gas station before, right?"
The Rockwood Motor Court sees people from all over the U.S. – and around the world – every year. Some are traveling along Route 66 to try to imagine what it was like in its heyday. But many are in Springfield for various reasons and choose to stay there regardless of its location along the Mother Road. Phillips said they’ve had guests from Great Britain, Spain, France, Australia, Russia, Quatar, Israel and Iceland to name a few. And the couple enjoys getting to know everyone.
"Oh my gosh. We have like the best guests in the world. They, I mean, they are sweet, sweet people and they are so kind to us," said Ferguson. "In fact, yesterday evening, the couple from Nevada had gone up to Lindbergh's on C-Street to eat. We always recommend local places, and they had the — they said they had the best bread pudding they've ever had in their lives. And so, they brought us one back. That was so sweet. The day before, one of a guest that travels through here on his way out west a couple times a year, he sent us this big coke bottle sign to go outside. What is it, a thermometer? Because he knows Tim collects these old signs. I mean, you know, when you are working the counter at McDonald's, nobody's shipping stuff to you like that. And that's not the first time. I mean, we get spoiled."
She said they have loyal customers who’ve become lifelong friends. People who are just traveling through will stop and take photos – and some will tell others about the motel. A family from Italy exploring Route 66 called their travel agent back home to tell them about the Rockwood Motor Court.
Part of the appeal for younger people, said Phillips, is the chance to feel what it was like in the old days when families packed up the car and hit the road.
"It's an experience now that — it's like a generation missed it," he said, "so I think people are kind of yearning or wanting to — I mean, doing the experience is kind of the buzzword these days as far as vacations. They want the experience of whatever that is."
Phillips and Ferguson live onsite in a house that has been used as both a residence and a restaurant. Phillips says, while it took him time to see Ferguson’s vision, he wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
"Just the renovation process in general, you get to be very intimate with the building, each individual building so you can see how they did it, why they did it, the strong points, the weak points," he said. "And you kind of fall in love with it. You know, that's kind of what we've done. She fell in love with it at first sight. It took me a while to get there, but it's very much a part of me now."
The Rockwood Motor Court recently received a huge honor – inclusion in the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Historic Hotels of America – and signs at the motel proudly proclaim the designation. Ferguson applied, not expecting to hear back.
"The next thing I knew, somebody with Historic Hotels at the National Trust emailed me and said, 'although the Rockwood Motor Court is not the typical hotel listed, we are interested in talking to you about it so,'" she said. "So, I was like, 'geez. I'd better look at this deal.' "
Upon further investigation, she realized how exclusive the designation is.
"I googled it, and I was like, 'what have I gotten myself into?' I mean, the Plaza Hotel in New York, Union Station in St. Louis, the Peabody," she said. "I mean, all of these places that they have like, you know, George Washington stayed there or, you know, whomever or they have like these 5-star Michelin restaurants, and I'm like, 'well, we've got a snack basket.' "
The designation ensures that everyone knows the Rockwood Motor Court is the oldest motel on Route 66. The Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba, Missouri is the oldest continuously operating motel on the iconic highway.
Ferguson and Phillips have made the Rockwood Motor Court not only an inviting place to stay for themselves with lots of flowers and trees, but also for the many visitors who come to stay with them.
They even have a resident Russian blue tortoise named Billy that is a favorite of guests. Ferguson said he escaped once and traveled a little way down Route 66 before they caught him.
It’s the little touches that have led to the popularity of the Rockwood Motor Court. When the announcement was made that the National Route 66 Kickoff Celebration would be in Springfield, the motel’s 10 rooms sold out in just over an hour. And Ferguson said they’re usually booked out two years in advance. The old filling station is booked through 2029.
