By Lookout Staff

April 6 2015 -- When Pacific Park officials were brainstorming on a concept for a new gift shop for Santa Monica Pier, they sought something representative of both the Pier and its famed status as the end of historic Route 66.

They found it in the iconic Airstream, the streamlined, silvery trailers that were the kings of the road during Route 66’s heyday. A new custom AirStream Route 66 gift store at the Pier highlights its prominence at the western terminus of the “Mother Road,” Pacific Park officials said.

“We’ve been looking for something completely distinctive and synonymous to the Santa Monica Pier,” said Jeff Klocke, Pacific Park’s vice president. “Pacific Park celebrates the Route 66 legacy with a custom Airstream that truly reflects America’s love for motor travel and the great outdoors -- both of which can be found right here on the Santa Monica Pier.”

Opened on a 1,200-square-foot open-air corner space on the Santa Monica Pier, the new 16-foot Airstream store is fitted with display shelves filled with Route 66 memorabilia – more than 200 novelty and collector items ranging in price from $2 to $200, said Cameron Andrews, spokesman for Santa Monica Pier.

Merchandise includes everything from “handbags and shot glasses to clocks, artwork and coffee table books,” Andrews said. “The interior is enhanced by an automotive décor with three old-time gas pumps, a license plates map of Route 66 states and specialty wood deck flooring.”
 
It took Timeless Travel in Denver more than six months to design and build the custom Airstream. Iconic signs on the gift store’s door pay homage to cites along historic Route 66’s 2,200 miles, including the Chicago Theatre sign, the St. Louis Gateway Arch, an oil well derrick, a saguaro cactus and the Santa Monica Pier arch, among others, said Andrews.

Completed in 1938, Route 66 provided motorists with the first open highway from Chicago to Los Angeles, ending at the Santa Monica Pier. A few years earlier, in 1931, Wally Byam opened the first Airstream factory in Culver City. By the 1950s, thousands of the sleek-looking trailers were plying the route, according to Airstream’s website.

Even today, the Airstream’s design “embodies the public’s overwhelming nostalgia for America’s original highway,” said Klocke.

For information about Pacific Park hours of operation, call 310-260-8744, or visit www.pacpark.com.