Route History

Who’s ready for lunch? We’re heading west on Route 66 and pulling off in Amarillo, Texas, for a stop at Tom’s Place. 🚗

Open the 1949 Green Book to page 67 and follow West Third Street. You could stop for a meal at Tom’s Place, fill up at Carter Bros. service station, and visit Knighton’s drugstore, all on the same street.

Tom’s Place first appeared in the Green Book in 1948 and was still listed nearly two decades later. Flip to Amarillo in the 1957 edition and you’ll see two hotels and just one place to grab a bite. That was Tom’s Place.

The building is gone today, but this page still lets us trace the stops a traveler could make just a few blocks off Route 66.

🚗 As we continue heading west, let’s slow down and take in a moment along Greenwood Avenue in Tulsa, Oklahoma!

This historic photograph captures a parade moving past neighborhood storefronts, with musicians marching down the avenue and The Oklahoma Eagle’s sign overhead. It’s a glimpse of community life in Greenwood, the district widely known as Black Wall Street.

Greenwood was home to a thriving network of Black-owned businesses, alongside schools, churches, and community organizations. This street scene invites us to pause and appreciate the neighborhood beyond any single destination.

Now… anyone hungry? Our next virtual stop is Art’s Chili Parlor at 110 North Greenwood Avenue! Swipe to see its listing under “Restaurants” in the 1952 Green Book.

A little sightseeing, a little history, and a food stop before we hit the road again. Who’s riding with us?

📷 Historic Greenwood Avenue parade. Credit: Tulsa Library, via Our Legacy Tulsa.

🚗📸 Let’s pull over our next stop has a story worth remembering!

We’ve left Chicago and arrived in Springfield, Illinois, where we’re stopping to explore the historic Dudley Hotel as a tourist rest. Grab your camera we’re looking back at a place that helped Black travelers find lodging along their journeys.

During segregation, choosing a hotel wasn’t simply a matter of finding a vacancy. Majority of white-owned hotels in Springfield excluded Black guests. The Dudley offered an alternative, appearing in multiple editions of the Green Book, which helped travelers locate businesses that welcomed them.

Alexander L. Dudley moved his hotel operation into this building in 1936. The address already had a long history of serving Black patrons, and the Dudley continued that legacy. Across the different businesses that occupied the building, it served Black guests for more than 40 years.

That’s why we’re pausing here on our virtual Route 66 tour. A hotel’s place in the Green Book tells us something about the decisions Black travelers had to make and the businesses that made those journeys possible.

Today, archival photographs give us a chance to study its appearance and remember its place in Springfield’s Black history.