Abandoned Places

I got word today that Potapov's Service Station on National Trails Highway (Old Route 66) near Helendale, was demolished recently. The entire site was completely leveled and cleared according to the source.

Here's my recent photo set -
http://community.livejournal.com/socal_abandoned/1735.html

News Post -
http://rwarn17588.wordpress.com/2007/09/10/old-potapov-service-station-buildings-are-razed/

Sorry about the delay in posting these, but the last week or so has been something of whirlwind of excitement and activity for me. In fact, its very hard to post photos, when you’re very busily out on the road taking more of them. More on that to follow...

When the road becomes history, where do the vehicles of those past travels vanish to? Nowadays, vehicles go to die in vast impersonal scrap yards where rarely one finds a wreck older than a few years from the current models on the streets. Time moves a little slower on Route 66 and the past refuses to goes gently into that long dark night. With a huge ‘For Sale’ sign in front, found an old graveyard alone and forlorn in the desert. The sign noted 200+ acres of prime land on Historic Route 66 (cars, not included)..



( Sitting in neutral )

(Cross-posted to: abandonedplaces, desert_vision, & socal_abandoned)

Bill Potapov’s Service Station and Motor Court Oro Grande area

We continued northeast on National Trails Highway till we reached this amazing old gas station. References have been found to this place as Popotov’s, Potopov’s, and Potapov’s. According to old timers in the area, it was Bill’s place. AS mentioned before, Bill P was known for a soft heart. In the era before ATM’s, checks and wire transfers weren’t always available or readily accepted from business to business. Bill was well known for fixing traveler’s vehicles even they couldn’t pay. In cases like these, Popotov would merely ask for a ‘security deposit’ in the form of a non-critical part of the vehicle, which he’d hold onto until the owner would come back and pay him the difference for the repairs. Call it a vehicular pawn shop.



( Down memory lane..[+19] )

(Cross-posted to: abandonedplaces, desert_vision, & socal_abandoned)

One of the defining concepts of the Southern California driving culture was US Route 66. Known as “the Mother Road” by many driving enthusiasts, this was the principal route from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles from the 1920’s to the early 1970’s. The highway was gradually replaced from the 1950’s to 1970’s by the US Interstate Highway system. In some cases, the Interstate literally was built alongside or over the top of Route 66. In many cases, remnants of the original road or roads (there were actually several routes) were merely decommissioned, returned to the state they lay in or were by passed.

What makes this road special? It wasn’t the longest US highway. The longest highway distinction belongs to US Route 6 which stretched from Provincetown, Mass, to Los Angeles, CA (and passes through Lancaster, CA where I live). Route 66 was immortalized in books, movies and television as “the route” to the magical route to southern California and the good life. It was on this route that many “Okies” traveled west in the dust bowl and depression. It was this route in which many visitors made their first journeys to Southern California and the attractions here (such as Disneyland). The state of California (after much prodding) recognized the historical significance of the road and designated it the “National Trails Highway” and “Historic Route 66” in order to foster nostalgia, development, and preserve a bit of the history. Out in the desert, history is fading away though as time and the elements wear down the remains of the homes and businesses that once lined California Route 66.

The Snack Shack Oro Grande area



( Read more... )