Back in February, we introduced you to Jim Livingston, a local photographer who created a portrait project highlighting the people who live and work along Route 66.
Now, he's on the verge of another venture that will focus solely on the section of the Mother Road that crosses the Texas panhandle.
Livingston and his business partner, Penny Clark, who's an Amarillo native, have spent the past several weeks supervising the transformation of the old Myers Fried Chicken restaurant on West Sixth Street and Bonham.
"We thought that we could have a gallery that focused on Route 66 art, and we could have an information center where people could stop and get information, specifically, about Route 66,” Livingston said.
"I really haven't traveled much on Route 66. I've known about it for years, but Jim introduced me to it, and it's something that I think you just fall in love with. The stories are just fascinating. The people are fascinating," Clark said.
They say the I am Route 66 Visitor Center and Art Gallery will feature Livingston's portraits and photographs of Route 66, but guest artists will also display their work. He says they're already booked solid through next year. The visitor center will include a 20-foot long map of the path the highway takes through Texas.
"We want to be visual. A 20-foot map! It's for people to say, 'Oh, I want to stop here, I want to stop here,' that kind of a thing," he said.
Boosting tourism is the ultimate goal, to shine a light on the Sixth Street historic district, and even some long forgotten iconic locations on Amarillo Boulevard that will entice visitors to make Route 66 in Amarillo a destination stop.
"We want them to realize between The Big Texan and Cadillac Ranch is this wonderful history. We want to begin to give them a reason to come off the highway. And they already do it. There's already plenty of reasons to come off the highway. We want to be the bait on the hook," Livingston said.
The soft opening is Thursday, December 5th, which will just feature the gallery side. They expect to have the visitor center ready by March, when the Route 66 travel season kicks in.