Vintage Route 66 service station moved to Marshfield, Missouri

Travelers are rolling down Route 66 in this 2026 centennial year, but so is something else: A vintage service station, once located in rural Webster County, that has now moved to Marshfield. 

The project was made possible by a $180,000 grant from CelebrateMo66 and the Missouri Route 66 Centennial Commission. Marshfield’s service station — now part of a mini roadside park — was one of three “tour stops” funded by the grant program. 

Lyndall Fraker, a member of the Route 66 commission and a Webster County native, says that there’s hope the station will ultimately be open for visitors. In the beginning, though, it will be more “self service” for exterior viewing and photos. The site where it now sits is also where the Webster County Route 66 marker – added in Missouri counties where the road traveled – was installed.

A vintage Route 66 service station was recently moved to Marshfield thanks to donors, Webster County volunteers and about $180,000 in grant funding.

“I think it's really important,” Fraker says of history. “I think it's not as important to a lot of people the way it used to be. I can remember stories of my uncles and grandparents and mom and dad at Sunday dinners at Grandma's and talking about people and stories and things that happened. I always found that very interesting. I'm a history buff, and so I just want to make sure some of those stories get carried on and told on down through the generations. Because if not me, then who?” 

The station’s past life on the Mother Road 

Little is known about the tiny station’s history, including when it opened, but it was likely near the start of the famed Mother Road in 1926.

“It was initially one of several of these (stations) that were built along the highway just about the time the highway was constructed, or as it became completed,” Fraker says. “Vehicles back then, if you think about them, they wouldn't go very far. In some cases, they might not even make it from town to town in rural parts of the Midwest.”

The station is small, but inside, Fraker points to its loft area, where it’s suspected an attendant may have once lived. 

The Webster County service station is shown in 2017 in its original location along Route 66 east of Marshfield.

“We think that it's very possible that there would be someone, even a couple, that could live and sleep in the attic,” Fraker says, “because there's lots of room up there.” 

For about a century, the long-closed landmark sat a few miles east of Marshfield on U.S. 66. Time took its toll, and circumstances came to a crossroads a few years ago, when Gary and Janet Dill, the owners of the property, knew they’d eventually sell. 

With its future uncertain, they approached Randy Clair, a local historian and community advocate, and the Webster County Route 66 Initiative and asked if they’d like to move the station elsewhere. The answer was yes, but no firm plans were immediately in place.

“As we began our meetings and planning for this year, we knew that we had to do something iconic,” Fraker says. “We knew that we had to have some kind of a tour stop.” 

Getting the service station off the rural property was the first step, but what wasn’t ready was a place to put it. For some time, the station sat on a trailer near an exit off I-44, attracting attention and Facebook posts about the “moving” landmark. 

“We got in gear, and we decided that we were going to get the station and get it moved,” Fraker says. “I approached Jason Rost, who has the property out by the interstate roundabout, and he said, ‘Sure, if you can get it up there and park it, that's fine.’”

It remained there until the land and plans were finalized. They settled on a patch of city-owned land along the original roadbed.

The vintage gas station’s interior was still under construction in early May 2026.

“We all came and looked, and we're like, ‘Well, yeah, it makes a lot of sense,’” Fraker says. “So that's how this park came together. And of course, by it being owned by the city, then there will be some perpetuity. It kind of all just fell into place.

“Probably the most remarkable thing about the building: the siding is original. It’s 100 years old, it's redwood, and redwood will last forever. And we've had to piece and patch in here and there with cedar, but it all painted up just fine.” 

Work on the park is still underway, which will ultimately include vintage-vibe gas pumps and signage. Visitors who stop at the park may also want to check out Hidden Waters Nature Park, another public space in Marshfield just about a half-mile away.

The natural oasis is also home to the Callaway Cabin, an 1850s log cabin that was moved to Marshfield in 2009.

Why this matters

Lyndall Fraker, a member of the Missouri Route 66 Centennial Commission, is shown with Webster County’s Route 66 marker, installed at the new Route 66 Plaza.

This Route 66 work marks a moment in the national conversation, but it’s also personal to Fraker who grew up in Marshfield. As an adult, he even lived in a house right on the famous Mother Road.

“I'm at the end of the Baby Boom generation – I was born in 1959,” he says, sharing he lived the shift from focus on the U.S. highway system to the creation of the country’s interstates. He says that went back to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who returned from Germany after World War II, where he had traveled on the Autobahn — a direct highway system. 

“All the U.S. highways went through towns and turns and stoplights,” Fraker says. “It took so much time and effort to move troops and tanks and ammunition and supplies on the U.S. highway system, we needed an autobahn – we needed the interstate highway system.”

That led to a new approach: larger, divided highways that often bypassed rural communities.

Fraker was a kid in Marshfield when I-44 came into play, more quickly connecting the Webster County seat to other towns and cities. But 66 was still a part of his experience, too. In his memory, he recalls the “Crossroads Intersection,” across from the service station, named for the road crossing and remembered for a long-gone cafe. 

“I can remember it as a boy. I can remember turning and coming into town, like if we would go to Lebanon,” he says. “I don't necessarily remember driving the old road all the way to Lebanon, but we certainly were on the divided part. And then if you went to St Louis in the ‘60s, there would be parts of it that you would be on the original road. 

“That process took probably 20 years to get the highway completely divided, and then they had to put the overpasses in. And certainly I remember that very well,” he adds. “There's a lot of memories of traveling what was U.S. Highway 66 but it wasn't necessarily just the two-lane. It was the four-lane before it became an interstate.”

But the history of Route 66 remained.

Fraker took this understanding and a general enthusiasm for history to Jefferson City, where he served for eight years as representative of the 137th district, which includes parts of Webster and Greene counties, and his hometown of Marshfield. Before he left office, that love of place came full circle when he advocated for the establishment of a Route 66 commission. 

“They brought this draft of legislation to me to get Missouri's commission formed,” he recalls. “We actually got that passed before I left the legislature in 2018, so I sponsored the bill that formed the commission. When it came time to actually appoint the commission, I went to Governor Parson, and as I was already out of the legislature, and asked if I could be appointed, he said yes.” 

Now, during this centennial year, he stands at the station that serves as a bridge between past and future.

Want to visit? 

Marshfield’s Route 66 Plaza is located about half a mile north of Hidden Waters Nature Park. Work is still wrapping up at the new park, with an official dedication planned in the coming months.