The City That Took Route 66’s Name as Its Own
Of all the cities, towns, and communities through which Route 66 passes across its 2,448-mile length from Chicago to the Pacific, only one has made the definitive gesture of adopting the highway’s name as the official name of its own street: Glendora, California. In the early 2000s, Glendora renamed its section of historic Alosta Avenue simply “Route 66” — a formal civic declaration that this city’s relationship to the Mother Road was not merely historical but identity-defining. U.S. Route 66 history records the fact: “The city of Glendora, California, renamed Alosta Avenue, its section of US 66, by calling it ‘Route 66.'” It was the first California municipality to do so, and it remains one of the most direct expressions of Route 66 pride anywhere along California’s 314-mile corridor.
Glendora is known locally as the “Pride of the Foothills” — a city of approximately 52,000 people nestled at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains in the eastern San Gabriel Valley, about 26 miles east of Los Angeles. Founded in 1887 by Chicago manufacturer George D. Whitcomb, who named it by blending the word “glen” with his wife’s name, Leadora, Glendora was for decades one of the premier citrus-growing communities in Southern California — a landscape of orange and lemon groves extending south from the San Gabriel Mountains toward the valley floor, where Route 66 eventually came to run. The 1939 WPA Guide to the Golden State described it simply as “another citrus-packing community, was founded in 1887 by George Whitcomb, a Chicago manufacturer, who coined the name from the word ‘glen’ and his wife’s name, ‘Ledora.’ The first commercial orange grove here, planted by John Cook in 1866, is still productive.”
What makes Glendora distinctive on Route 66 — beyond the street naming — is the combination of its two distinct historical alignments, its exceptional downtown district of buildings largely unchanged for a century, the 1912 Frank Chance Building with its baseball hall of fame connection, the eccentric National Register-listed Rubel Castle just north of the highway, and a collection of surviving Route 66-era neon signs and motels that reward the careful traveler. For the Route 66 enthusiast exploring California’s San Gabriel Valley corridor, Glendora is one of the most genuinely rewarding stops — a city that has embraced the Mother Road’s legacy without commercializing it into theme-park inauthenticity.
Where Does Route 66 Run Through Glendora?
Route 66 in Glendora runs along the street officially named “Route 66” (formerly Alosta Avenue) — the 1933–1964 alignment of the highway through the city. This is the primary Route 66 corridor through Glendora today, running east–west through the southern portion of the city. The older 1926–1933 alignment followed Foothill Boulevard through downtown Glendora before continuing west — a shorter-lived routing that is historically significant but less easily traceable today.
From Interstate 210 (Foothill Freeway): Take the Route 66 / Alosta Avenue exit and follow the surface street east or west through the city. Route 66 in Glendora runs for approximately 3 miles through the city from the border with Azusa on the west to the border with San Dimas on the east (at Amelia Avenue), where it reverts to the Foothill Boulevard designation. The historic downtown Glendora district and the Frank Chance Building are on Foothill Boulevard (the original 1926–1933 Route 66 alignment) rather than on the current Route 66 street — a distinction worth understanding before planning a visit.
Glendora’s History: From Orange Groves to the Mother Road
George Whitcomb and the Founding: 1887
Glendora’s founding in 1887 was part of the great Southern California land boom of the late 1880s, a speculative wave driven by the arrival of competing railroads that connected Los Angeles to the interior and made land accessible to buyers from the Midwest and East Coast. George D. Whitcomb was a Chicago manufacturer who purchased land in the Glendora area and established a townsite he named — in a characteristic Victorian blend of sentiment and marketing — by combining the word “glen” (referring to the narrow valley formed by the surrounding foothills) with the ending of his wife’s name, “Leadora.” The nearby community of Alosta, established slightly earlier by former LAPD Chief George E. Gard just south of what would become Glendora, briefly rivaled the new town during the land boom before the real estate collapse of late 1888 ended the speculation and left Alosta to be absorbed into Glendora by the time of the city’s incorporation in 1911. Alosta’s primary east–west street — Alosta Avenue — would eventually become Route 66, and today carries the highway’s name itself.
The Citrus Capital: 1880s–1950s
Glendora’s economic identity for the first half of its existence was defined almost entirely by citrus agriculture. The combination of the San Gabriel Mountains’ reliable water supply, the valley’s fertile alluvial soils, and Southern California’s Mediterranean climate made the Glendora foothills ideal for orange and lemon cultivation. By the turn of the 20th century, Glendora had become the center of the citrus industry in the eastern San Gabriel Valley, with the Glendora Citrus Association’s packing house processing more than 2 million boxes of fruit annually at its peak. A famous distinction: Glendora’s citrus grower Hamlin was the first to ship oranges to the Taft White House (1909–1913), and the original Hamlin House — now the California headquarters of the Daughters of the American Revolution — survives in Glendora today.
By the time Route 66 was commissioned in November 1926, Glendora’s citrus groves were at their peak productive years, and the intersection of the highway and the agricultural landscape created the character that the 1939 WPA Guide captured: a prosperous, fragrant, quintessentially Southern California community through which the cross-country highway passed, offering travelers the specific pleasure of driving through orchards rather than desert. By the 1950s and 1960s, suburban development was replacing the groves, and Glendora — like all the San Gabriel Valley communities — transitioned from agricultural town to bedroom suburb. But the Route 66 infrastructure built during the citrus era — the motels, diners, gas stations, and commercial strip — survived, and with it the community’s connection to the highway.
The Two Alignments: 1926–1933 and 1933–1964
Glendora is the first community in Los Angeles County in which Route 66 had two distinct alignments — a distinction that matters for travelers wanting to understand the full highway history of the city.
The 1926–1933 Alignment via Foothill Boulevard followed the National Old Trails Highway alignment that preceded Route 66. Entering Glendora from the east on Foothill Boulevard, the road followed a route that required two sharp 90-degree turns in the downtown area and a grade crossing of the Santa Fe Railroad tracks — both significant hazards for the growing volumes of automobile traffic. This alignment passed through the historic downtown core of Glendora, including the area of the Frank Chance Building, before continuing west.
The 1933–1964 Alignment via Alosta Avenue / Route 66 — the current Route 66 street — was created in 1933–1934 to address the problems of the original alignment. The new routing required significant precondition work: flood-control dams on the San Dimas Wash and Big Dalton Creek in the mountains northeast of Glendora had to be completed first, controlling the seasonal flooding that had made the lower terrain impassable. Once the dams were complete (Big Dalton Dam was finished in 1929), the new straight alignment on Alosta Avenue could be built — eliminating the sharp turns and the dangerous railroad grade crossing of the original route and providing a faster, safer passage through the city. This is the alignment that became Route 66’s permanent course through Glendora until the highway’s 1964 decertification in this area.
The Frank Chance “Cub Building”: Baseball History on Route 66
The most celebrated single landmark on Route 66’s passage through Glendora — and one of the more unexpectedly distinguished historical connections on California’s Route 66 corridor — is the Frank Chance Building, also known as the “Cub Building,” located at the northeast corner of Glendora Avenue and Foothill Boulevard in downtown Glendora. The building stands on the original 1926–1933 Route 66 alignment rather than the current Route 66 street — a one-block detour north of the primary alignment that every Route 66 traveler interested in history should make.
Frank Chance: The Peerless Leader
The building’s namesake is Frank Chance (1877–1924) — the first baseman and player-manager of the Chicago Cubs who was one of the most celebrated figures in early 20th-century baseball and who is enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Baseball enthusiasts will recognize the name immediately from one of the most famous lines in baseball poetry: “These are the saddest of possible words: / Tinker to Evers to Chance.” The poem, written by journalist Franklin P. Adams and first published in the New York Evening Mail on July 18, 1910, immortalized the infield double-play combination of shortstop Joe Tinker, second baseman Johnny Evers, and first baseman Frank Chance — the trio that anchored the Cubs’ dynasty years of 1906–1910, during which Chicago won four National League pennants and two World Series championships.
Frank Chance grew up in Glendora, where his family had established roots in the citrus community, and his connection to the city was lifelong. In 1912 — at the height of his fame as both a player and manager — he built the Frank Chance Building on Foothill Boulevard, housing his Cub Grocery and Cub Pharmacy businesses, the names reflecting his Cubs identity. The building still stands at its original corner, making it one of the oldest surviving buildings on the Route 66 corridor in the San Gabriel Valley and the most direct physical connection between Route 66 and the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Chance died in 1924 — two years before Route 66 was commissioned — but his building survived to become a landmark on the highway that ran past its door.
The Frank Chance Building is on the original 1926–1933 Route 66 alignment through Glendora — the Foothill Boulevard route — and requires a short detour from the current Route 66 street. From the Route 66 street, turn north on Glendora Avenue; the building is one block north at the Foothill Boulevard intersection. The building’s exterior retains its early 20th-century commercial character and is identified by historic markers.
Rubel Castle: A National Register Landmark of Folk Art Near Route 66
A short distance north of the Route 66 alignment, at 844 North Live Oak Avenue in Glendora, stands one of the most eccentric and wonderful buildings in California: Rubel Castle — a homemade castle complex built over 26 years (1959–1986) by Michael Rubel, who began the project at age 18 when he purchased a citrus packing house near Route 66 with the ambition of building his childhood dream of a real castle. Rubel had no architectural training. He had abundant vision, patience, and a remarkable community of friends, supporters, and volunteers who helped him realize one of the most ambitious works of amateur construction in California history. The Rubel Castle Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013 — recognized both as a surviving example of the citrus-era packing house that forms its core and as a significant expression of popular art.
What Is Rubel Castle?
The castle complex encompasses the original citrus packing house that Rubel purchased, transformed into a habitable structure, and surrounded with buildings, towers, and architectural fantasies constructed entirely from salvaged materials — concrete, broken glass, discarded machinery, wine bottles, miscellaneous hardware, and found objects of every description. The complex includes a clock tower, a dungeon, a Tin Palace Museum, a Bottle House (walls made of embedded bottles), a Santa Fe Railroad caboose on the property, and the central castle structure itself — a composition of towers, arches, and parapets that delivers, in its accumulated strangeness, something genuinely castle-like.
The castle attracted an extraordinary roster of visitors during Rubel’s lifetime: Alfred Hitchcock, Prince Albert, Sally Rand, Dwight Eisenhower, and Bob Hope were among those documented as having visited. Television host Huell Howser of California’s Gold featured Rubel Castle on his program and described it as one of his favorite places — high praise from a man who spent decades documenting California’s most extraordinary places. The castle is now managed by the Glendora Historical Society, which offers guided tours by appointment. Visitors should contact the Glendora Historical Society at (626) 963-0419 to arrange a tour. Sturdy footwear is required; the touring route includes uneven surfaces, stairs, and gravel.
Landmarks Along the Route 66 Street Alignment
The Golden Spur: A Neon Icon Now Standing Still
At 1223 East Route 66, the Golden Spur Restaurant was one of Glendora’s most beloved Route 66 institutions — a restaurant that began as a ride-up hamburger stand for the equestrian crowd and evolved over nearly a century into a full steak-and-seafood establishment. Legends of America described its history precisely: it served the “who’s who along the Citrus Valley” for generations, and its vintage neon sign — a cowboy boot with a large spur in glowing neon — became one of the most recognized Route 66 signs in the San Gabriel Valley. The restaurant closed in October 2018 after approximately 95 years of operation, and the building now serves as a facility for disabled adults. The neon sign — described as “a classic from the 1950s, with its boot sporting a large spur” — was removed from its original position facing the highway. It remains one of the most photographed neon memories of Glendora’s Route 66 era, and the building’s site continues to be marked on Route 66 guides as a landmark of the highway’s commercial character in the citrus valley.
The Palm Tropics Motel
At 619 West Route 66, the Palm Tropics Motel is one of the best-maintained surviving Route 66 motels in Glendora — a mid-century motor court that has been preserved in good condition and continues to operate. The Palm Tropics represents the style of postwar California motor court architecture that defined Route 66 lodging in the late 1940s and 1950s: the L-shaped or U-shaped layout of individual units around a central parking area, the palm trees planted to evoke the tropical California atmosphere that postwar travelers sought, and the compact efficiency of a building designed specifically for the automobile traveler. For Route 66 travelers who want an overnight experience connected to the highway’s mid-century character, the Palm Tropics is Glendora’s most accessible option on the alignment.
The Art Deco Gas Station at Loraine Avenue
At the southwest corner of Route 66 and Loraine Avenue, a 1940s service station survives — camouflaged behind a tall evergreen hedge and a chain-link fence that make it invisible to drivers who do not know to look. The station is one of the most genuinely hidden Route 66 artifacts in the San Gabriel Valley: a complete mid-century service station structure that has simply been overlooked by developers and road wideners, preserved by obscurity. Travelers who slow down, look over the hedge, and take a moment to see what is behind it will find an intact piece of Route 66 commercial architecture from the highway’s golden era.
The Alta-Dena Dairy Store
At 437 East Route 66, an Alta-Dena Dairy store building from the early 1960s represents the certified dairy industry that was closely connected to Glendora’s agricultural history. The Alta-Dena Dairy was founded in 1945 in Monrovia by the three Stueve brothers and became a certified dairy in 1953 — at exactly the moment when Route 66 through the San Gabriel Valley was at its peak traffic volume and its commercial strip was its most active. The Googie-style Alta-Dena store on West Foothill Boulevard (the older alignment) — described as having an “amazing Googie style” — is the more architecturally distinguished of the two Glendora Alta-Dena survivors, and is worth a detour to see.
The 20th Century Motel
Another surviving motel from Glendora’s Route 66 era, the 20th Century Motel provides a second option for travelers seeking historic roadside accommodation in Glendora. Like the Palm Tropics, it reflects the mid-century motor court aesthetic of the Route 66 corridor through the San Gabriel Valley — a period when the stretch of highway between San Bernardino and Pasadena was one of the most heavily trafficked sections of the entire Mother Road.
Downtown Glendora: A Century of Preservation on the Original Alignment
The original 1926–1933 Route 66 alignment through downtown Glendora on Foothill Boulevard passes through a commercial district that has retained an extraordinary number of buildings from the 1890s through the 1930s — a concentration of historic architecture that is unusual even for the San Gabriel Valley. The 1939 WPA Guide’s description of Glendora as “a curious blend of the present and the past — a past carefully preserved” was written specifically about the region, and Glendora’s downtown is one of the places where that description still holds. Several buildings have not changed substantially for over a century, and the downtown district retains a walkable, small-city character that the Route 66 alignment through the area never fully lost.
The Glendora Historical Society Museum
At 314 Glendora Avenue, the Glendora Historical Society Museum occupies what was originally Glendora’s first City Hall, jail, and firehouse — a building that has housed civic functions since the city’s earliest years. The museum was first opened on January 9, 1955, and is open on most Saturdays from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The collection is described as “an eclectic assortment of items from the 1800s through the 1900s” — tools for the home and farm, furniture, household accessories, office equipment, documents, photographs, and clothing. Many items have been contributed by local residents and have direct connections to the Upper San Gabriel Valley and its history. Route 66, the citrus industry, and local history are all represented in the museum’s collections.
The Santa Fe Railroad Station Site
The Glendora Santa Fe Railroad Station — built in 1887, the same year Glendora was founded — was the infrastructure that made Glendora’s development possible. The station no longer stands in its original form, but the Glendora Metrolink/Gold Line station continues to serve the same corridor, connecting Glendora to downtown Los Angeles via rail transit. The station site is directly across from the California Route 66 Museum in Victorville on the same timeline: both the railroad and Route 66 shaped the communities they served, and both continue to be served by transit at the same general locations.
Glendora is part of the ongoing Metro A Line (Gold Line) extension project that will add stations in Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne, Pomona, Claremont, and Montclair — bringing rail transit back to cities that the Pacific Electric Railway served before its 1951 closure. For Route 66 travelers, the eventual A Line extension will make Glendora accessible by train from downtown Los Angeles without a car — a return to the mobility patterns that sustained the city before the Interstate era.
Glendora’s Route 66 Heritage Celebrations
Glendora celebrates its Route 66 identity through several annual events that draw visitors from across the San Gabriel Valley and beyond:
Flashback to the ’50s: An annual celebration of mid-century American culture — the era when Route 66 through the San Gabriel Valley was at its peak traffic and commercial vitality. Classic cars, period music, and the aesthetic of the Route 66 golden age are the focus of this community event.
The Great Glendora Festival: A community-wide celebration honoring Glendora’s heritage and present-day community life, taking place in the historic downtown district of the original Route 66 alignment.
The Route 66 Mile Run: A community running event specifically named for and organized around the Route 66 designation of the Alosta Avenue corridor — one of the more direct expressions anywhere on the highway of Route 66’s integration into a city’s community identity.
Practical Information for Your Glendora Route 66 Visit
Getting to Glendora
From Los Angeles (west via Route 66): Follow Route 66 east through Pasadena, Arcadia, Monrovia, Duarte, Irwindale, and Azusa. When you reach the Azusa city limits, watch for the street name change from Foothill Boulevard to Alosta Avenue (the 1933 alignment) — you are now on Route 66 in Glendora.
From San Dimas (east via Route 66): Follow Foothill Boulevard west from San Dimas. At the Glendora city line (Amelia Avenue), Foothill Boulevard becomes Route 66 (the renamed Alosta Avenue). Continue west through Glendora.
From Interstate 210 (Foothill Freeway): Exit at Route 66 / Alosta Avenue and follow the surface street east or west through the city.
Time Required
A thorough Glendora Route 66 visit — the Route 66 street driving tour, detour to the Frank Chance Building, Glendora Historical Society Museum (if open on Saturday), Rubel Castle tour (by appointment), Palm Tropics Motel, the hidden Loraine Avenue gas station, and downtown Foothill Boulevard exploration — requires a comfortable half-day. The Rubel Castle tour alone takes approximately 90 minutes and must be booked in advance.
Important: Book the Rubel Castle Tour in Advance
Rubel Castle tours are by appointment only. Contact the Glendora Historical Society at (626) 963-0419 to reserve a spot. Sturdy footwear is required; wheelchairs, walkers, and mobility assistance devices cannot be accommodated due to uneven surfaces, stairs, and tunnels. The castle entrance is at 844 North Live Oak Avenue, Glendora, CA 91741.
Glendora Historical Society Museum
Location: 314 Glendora Avenue, Glendora, CA 91741. Hours: Most Saturdays, 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Free admission.
Climate
Glendora has a warm Mediterranean climate — semi-arid, with hot and dry summers and cool to chilly winters. At the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, Glendora is somewhat cooler in summer than the valley floor communities further south and west, and occasionally receives light snow on the nearby mountains visible from Route 66. Spring and fall are the most comfortable visiting seasons for walking the downtown district and exploring the Route 66 alignment on foot.
Nearby Route 66 Highlights in the San Gabriel Valley
Aztec Hotel, Monrovia — About 8 miles west on Route 66 (Huntington Drive through Arcadia and Monrovia), the 1925 National Historic Landmark is the first Mayan Revival architecture building in the United States and one of the most visually extraordinary stops on California’s Route 66. The extraordinary Mayan-carved facade and the building’s turbulent history make it a must-see on the San Gabriel Valley corridor.
Route 66 in Pasadena, California — About 15 miles west on Route 66 (Colorado Boulevard), Pasadena’s Route 66 corridor passes the Norton Simon Museum, the Gamble House, the Colorado Street Bridge (Beaux Arts masterpiece), and Old Town Pasadena. In 2026, Pasadena simultaneously celebrates the Route 66 Centennial and Colorado Boulevard’s 150th anniversary.
Route 66 in Los Angeles, California — About 25 miles west, the Route 66 alignment through Los Angeles follows Sunset Boulevard through Hollywood and Santa Monica Boulevard through West Hollywood and Beverly Hills — the Mother Road’s most celebrated urban stretch.
Santa Monica Pier — End of the Trail — About 38 miles west at the Pacific Ocean, the End of the Trail sign on the Santa Monica Pier marks the symbolic completion of the 2,448-mile journey from Chicago.
The Wigwam Motel, San Bernardino — About 25 miles east on Route 66, the iconic teepee-shaped Wigwam Motel has offered Route 66 travelers one of America’s most distinctive overnight experiences since 1950.
Route 66 in San Bernardino, California — The Original McDonald’s Museum site and the Wigwam Motel make San Bernardino a critical stop on the California Route 66 corridor.
Route 66 in California — Complete Guide — The full overview of California’s 314-mile Route 66 corridor from Needles on the Arizona border through the Mojave Desert, Cajon Pass, San Bernardino, Glendora, Pasadena, and Los Angeles to the End of the Trail at the Santa Monica Pier.
Route 66 Centennial 2026 — The 100th anniversary of Route 66 is November 11, 2026. Glendora — which honored Route 66 so directly that it renamed its street after the highway — is a natural part of the centennial story. Check this page for California centennial events.
Route 66 — Complete Guide — The definitive guide to all 2,448 miles of the Mother Road, from the Begin sign in Chicago to the End of the Trail at the Santa Monica Pier.
