Route 66 Interpretive Center

Chandler's Route 66 museum begins with a building the road nearly lost. The Works Progress Administration raised this armory from local red sandstone between 1935 and 1937, employing more than 250 men at the quarry and rotating small crews through labor-intensive construction. Workers dressed and lifted the stone by hand, then cut and laid more than 156,000 wood blocks for the drill-hall floor. The result pairs projecting Art Deco-influenced stonework with truck bays, classrooms, an ammunition vault, a stage, a rifle range, and a barrel-vaulted military roof.Battery F of the Oklahoma National Guard's 160th Field Artillery trained here before its 1940 mobilization and wartime service in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. After the Guard moved in 1971, the building slipped into severe decay and faced demolition. Local volunteers organized as Old Armory Restorers in 1998, assembled transportation and preservation funding, and reopened the east half in 2007 as the Route 66 Interpretive Center. Its experience favors moving-image storytelling: Oklahoma highway history unfolds through virtual motel rooms, vintage billboards, and period footage watched from a 1965 Mustang, while the rehabilitated drill hall continues as a community event space.Public hours change through the year: November–February, Thursday–Saturday 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; March–May, Tuesday–Saturday 10 a.m.–5 p.m. and Sunday 1–5 p.m.; June–August, Monday–Saturday 10 a.m.–5 p.m. and Sunday 1–5 p.m.; September, Tuesday–Saturday 10 a.m.–5 p.m. and Sunday 1–5 p.m.; October, Tuesday–Saturday 10 a.m.–5 p.m. The center closes December 24 through January 5 and on major holidays. Check the live site before a detour, follow staff direction and event boundaries, and do not assume admission, a particular exhibit, the drill hall, or the historic brick outbuilding is available. More

Chandler's Route 66 museum begins with a building the road nearly lost. The Works Progress Administration raised this armory from local red sandstone between 1935 and 1937, employing more than 250 men at the quarry and rotating small crews through labor-intensive construction. Workers dressed and lifted the stone by hand, then cut and laid more than 156,000 wood blocks for the drill-hall floor. The result pairs projecting Art Deco-influenced stonework with truck bays, classrooms, an ammunition vault, a stage, a rifle range, and a barrel-vaulted military roof.Battery F of the Oklahoma National Guard's 160th Field Artillery trained here before its 1940 mobilization and wartime service in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. After the Guard moved in 1971, the building slipped into severe decay and faced demolition. Local volunteers organized as Old Armory Restorers in 1998, assembled transportation and preservation funding, and reopened the east half in 2007 as the Route 66 Interpretive Center. Its experience favors moving-image storytelling: Oklahoma highway history unfolds through virtual motel rooms, vintage billboards, and period footage watched from a 1965 Mustang, while the rehabilitated drill hall continues as a community event space.Public hours change through the year: November–February, Thursday–Saturday 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; March–May, Tuesday–Saturday 10 a.m.–5 p.m. and Sunday 1–5 p.m.; June–August, Monday–Saturday 10 a.m.–5 p.m. and Sunday 1–5 p.m.; September, Tuesday–Saturday 10 a.m.–5 p.m. and Sunday 1–5 p.m.; October, Tuesday–Saturday 10 a.m.–5 p.m. The center closes December 24 through January 5 and on major holidays. Check the live site before a detour, follow staff direction and event boundaries, and do not assume admission, a particular exhibit, the drill hall, or the historic brick outbuilding is available. More