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Growing up the Valley, I wondered why there are so many mid-century motels on Van Buren. It turns out that this is because it was once US 60. But US 60 wasn't just Van Buren, it ran though much of the Valley. Today we're going to see what's left: the anatomy of a former highway
The US 60 was one of the early US cross-country highways. Starting in Virginia Beach, it at one point ran to Los Angeles, but was shortened to the route below in the 1960’s.
In the Phoenix metro, the route looked this. It ran down Main St. in Mesa, Mill in Tempe, and Van Buren in PHX before reaching Grand Ave. Much of Grand in the NW Valley remains as US 60, but through Central PHX and in the E Valley it has been replaced by more modern freeways.
You can still find some remnants of when US 60 ran through these E Valley communities and that’s what we’re going to explore today. A lot of what’s left is preserved in the form of motels and signs, but there are some pieces of the road itself that give away its former use.
Our first stop is in Mesa at the Buckhorn Baths Motel. Now dilapidated, you can get a sense of its former glory from the sign alone. Home to a natural hot spring, the motel hosted stars and athletes alike.
It was built in the ‘30’s and ‘40’s by Ted and Alice Sliger and housed a huge taxidermy collection, in addition to its mineral baths. The Buckhorn Baths Motel was even the SF Giants home during Spring Training for a period. It was listed on the National Register in 2005.
Unlike the Buckhorn, there are several motels along the former US 60 in Mesa that are still in operation. Take the Starlite Motel, for example:
The Starlite may no longer have its pool, but it’s lovely neon sign, dating from 1960, stands proudly welcoming guests, though in 2010 the sign was damaged by a storm, and returned in 2013. Now in the middle of suburbia, you can see how rural the area was in this aerial from 1969
Just west of the Starlite sits the Deserama Mobile Home Park (what a name!). Another holdover from the days of the 60, this 55+ plus community was built in 1957. It also has this terrific sign:
Closer to Downtown Mesa, the Kiva Lodge Motel is still kicking. It puts the motor in motel too, as it has carports for each room. With its caricature western architecture and less than appropriate sign, it really shows its age. But it also captures a different era clearly.
As a side note, Main St. in Mesa is now home to Valley Metro Rail. In my mind there’s something poetic about the evolution of a street from a former US highway to a high capacity transit corridor.
Light rail using the old US 60 for its alignment isn’t just poetic, it’s smart. The old US 60 route came from an era when highways didn’t bypass cities, the became main streets. In fact, the old 60 bisects DT Mesa, Tempe, PHX and Glendale in the Valley.
You can really see that dynamic in this aerial from 1953. Look how the 60 serves as the spine connecting DT Tempe (left) and DT Mesa (right). There just isn’t much else out there!
This brings us to the first piece of still-existing roadway design that reveals the old US 60 route. In DT Tempe at the intersection of Mill and Apache, there exists a curve in the roadway that would make no sense as a modern intersection design. That’s because it’s not!
You can see that the curve appears as far back as aerials from 1937, though I don’t know the exact data of construction. Prior to the 60 this route was home to the Bankhead Highway, which left the 60 for Tucson along the AZ 79, west of what is today Apache Junction.
This also brings us to the next section that gives away this road’s former highway status. After Mill Ave. crosses the Salt River, it briefly looks and feels a lot like a highway. It has an overpass and everything. You can see what I mean here:
Again, returning to the historical aerials, this makes an appearance in 1959 photos. At the time, the 60 was the main road into PHX, so it makes sense that it would be rebuilt as a highway interchange to keep traffic moving. It’s a precursor to more modern interchanges in PHX.
Moving into Phoenix as Mill changes to Van Buren, motels start reappearing as markers of the road’s past. Many of these are in worse shape than those in Mesa, like the Relax Inn, pictured here.
From the Relax Inn we move to one of my favorite buildings/signs/pieces of history along the way. The Deer-O Paints building. This building dates back to 1958, when it was built by the Deer-O company, who made paints that could withstand the Arizona weather.
You’ll notice that at some point the sign was changed to read “Salsa” instead of “Paint.” Apparently it was a salsa club at some point in its history and the owners, thankfully, left the wonderful Deer-O portion of the sign.
Now, as a paint factory from the 1950’s there’s a darker side to this lovely Art Deco style building. It was, in fact, a superfund site, though at this point it has been archived at this point.
Let’s return to the aerials to see what it looked like in 1976. Notice the horseshoe building next door. You guessed it, that’s another motel. I’ll admit, staying in that motel seems less appealing than others, as it was next to a paint factory.
There is much more to explore than can be covered in a humble Twitter thread, but suffice it to say, driving along the US 60 is both a wonderful way to get across the valley and a bit of a trip back in time.
Sources used for this thread include Maricopa County Historical Aerial Photography, real estate listings, http://RoadsidePeek.com , the Mesa Preservation Foundation, the David Rumsey Map Collection, Wikipedia, the EPA, and http://RoadsideAmerica.com
If you enjoyed this thread, please check out my road trip along the old US 60 to Globe here: https://twitter.com/downtownjco/status/1312437949074608134
Or my thread on waterski housing developments here: https://twitter.com/downtownjco/status/1348840811761344513
Or my thread on airport housing developments here: https://twitter.com/downtownjco/status/1353468208217350144
