Route 66 Mural Park operates as a public park, specifically as a touchstone for US Route 66 tourists as well as for local preservers of U.S. Route 66 in Missouri. The park includes two large tile murals proposed by Paul Whitehill, produced by Images In Tile USA and designed by artists Chris Auckerman and Jon White. The park also features a bifurcated red sports car that anyone on pilgrimage can slide up beside and have a quickie photograph taken. Close to the intersection of 7th Street and Main, the mural covers the south side of Pearl Brothers, the iconic green hardware store of downtown Joplin. Near that same intersection, US Route 66 once shifted west and headed into Kansas.HistoryDuring the 1960s and 1970s, urban renewal was demolishing one historical building after another in the downtown district of Joplin, but there were some benefits of the renewal. In 1970, city planners wedged a small park called "Mall Park" between some of the major 7th street buildings. The park connected a large back-alley parking lot to the downtown district, shifting the focus from wheel traffic to foot traffic and making the high-rise merchandising stores more accessible to any who parked off of the main drag.Over time, the intricate brickwork of this park began to deteriorate and work was required to breathe new life into once heavily trafficked public space.
