OUR STORY


The Cucamonga Service Station is an award winning, nationally recognized Route 66 landmark, attracting tourists to the Inland Empire region of California from across the country and around the world as they travel Route 66 to relive that bygone nostalgic era.

Photo: Jeff Mittman


Built over 100 years ago in 1915, the station is a fine display of roadside architecture and one of the few remaining original structures of that design and from that era in the Inland Empire.


Closed in the 1970s, the station sat abandoned and deteriorating for decades, though loved by many for its architectural uniqueness. In 2009 the city council of Rancho Cucamonga, recognizing the historic importance of the station and its endangered status, voted to protect it by declaring it a city landmark.


In 2013 the station was obtained by Route 66 Inland Empire California (IECA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of our Route 66 history and heritage. Through the hard work of volunteers, donations of materials and labor, and the funding support of generous donors, the station has been restored to its original look as a Richfield station of the 1930s and 40s and is now open to the public as a museum with artifacts of local and Route 66 history.


Today, Route 66 IECA owns and operates the station and continues to raise funds to rebuild the service garage which originally stood behind the station. The garage, which collapsed in 2011, will add about 1000 square feet of museum and office space to the site enabling the association to greatly increase its offerings of educational and historic displays making a premier attraction in the state for heritage tourism on America’s Mother Road.


There are several ways you can be a part of the effort to save and restore this important historical site. Your gift will enable Route 66 IECA to not only maintain the Cucamonga Service Station but to also complete the restoration of the site by rebuilding the garage.