The boot-shaped neon sign at 1223 E. Route 66 advertises a restaurant that closed years ago. The Golden Spur began in 1918 as a hamburger stand where riders could pull up on horseback. It got its building in 1932 and became a steakhouse in 1954. It closed in October 2018 after roughly a century. Route 66 was not numbered until November 11, 1926, so the hamburger stand had already been serving customers for eight years by then.
The road turns 100 in six weeks. Glendora sits on two of its alignments. Most of the pieces that remain on this stretch have one thing in common. Someone kept using them.
A Sign Saved by a Line in a Planning Approval
The Golden Spur sign survived because of paperwork. Easterseals of Southern California bought the closed restaurant for $2.16 million and planned to turn it into a day facility for adults with developmental disabilities. As Route 66 News reported in January 2019, city planner Mark Carnahan said a condition of approval for the new use required the sign to be saved or donated. The same report said the restaurant building had been updated so many times that it kept no historical character. That left the sign as the only piece of the Golden Spur with a legal claim on the future.
The Adult Day Services Center held its grand opening in February 2025 with a western-themed party. It had live music, tours of the facility, tacos and a photo booth, and representatives of several local politicians came to offer congratulations. The Glendora Public Library's entry on the site calls the neon boot and spur a historical marker for the restaurant's place in Route 66 history.
Accounts differ on where the sign sits now. A Route 66 site photographed it on the ground in 2021, after it had been taken down from its spot facing the highway. The library's entry from 2025 describes it as preserved and visible on Route 66. Drive past before you plan a stop around it. The address is worth a look either way, since it shows what happens to a landmark when the business behind it ends.
Almost nothing else on Glendora's stretch depended on a permit.
The Landmarks That Kept Their Doors Open
The Donut Man opened in 1972. The Glendora Public Library's centennial tour on the Clio history app describes it as a culinary icon and a cultural example of the American Dream. A travel writer's 2018 post described it as famous for doughnuts filled with fresh strawberries or peaches. It sits on Foothill Boulevard. Confirm hours before you go. A bakery that sells out early keeps its own schedule.
The Hat is at 611 W. Route 66. The pastrami dip sandwich chain began in Alhambra in 1951. According to the library's tour, the Conzonire family has grown it from that single location to 11 across Southern California. One Route 66 history site says the Glendora diner opened in the early 1960s and still serves pastrami sandwiches. It also says the retro neon sign out front is a replica of the original. Even here the neon is a copy, and the sandwich menu is what has carried on.
Neither place is a museum. Both are working businesses, and nothing in the research suggests either needed a permit condition to keep its sign.
A Jail That Became the Archive
The Glendora Historical Society Museum at 314 N. Glendora Ave. follows the same pattern. The building dates to 1913 and once held the city's original city hall, its volunteer fire department and a holding cell, all under one roof. City Hall moved to its current home in 1922. The space that is now the museum's kitchen was the holding cell.
The Historical Society was leasing the building by early 1952, and its minutes from October of that year describe it as redecorated, repaired and ready to serve as a museum. The first open house was on Sunday, January 9, 1955. More than 200 visitors came to see the collection and have tea. A building that once held a jail cell now holds Glendora's Route 66 record.
That record is substantial. The museum's collection description lists Route 66 history, roadside architecture, signage, tourist brochures, maps, postcards and photographs. The museum is open Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., except holidays. The Historical Society also runs Rubel Castle, the hand-built folk-art castle made from recycled materials that the California Historic Route 66 Association lists among Glendora's attractions.
The Building With No Name in the Story
Not every survivor has a documented history. At 408 W. Foothill Blvd. there is a store with a gull-wing roof and a neon sign topped by a star, with blue and white panels. The aerial photographs a Route 66 history site consulted put it there since the early 1960s. That site describes the design as Googie, an Atomic Age and Space Age style that appeared in California in the late 1940s and stayed popular until the mid 1960s. The sources do not name the current tenant, and the building has no story attached the way the Golden Spur does.
That gap is where the library's Route 66 Centennial Tour is useful. The Glendora Public Library built it on Clio in June 2025 as a driving or biking tour. It covers the Golden Spur, The Hat and The Donut Man. It also reaches into neighboring cities, including Monrovia's Aztec Hotel, which opened in 1925, and Azusa's preserved Foothill Drive-In sign.
One Route 66 history site, Legends of America, calls Glendora very easily the proudest Route 66 town on this stretch. It says Glendora was the first California city to change Alosta Avenue back to Route 66.
A Saturday Before November 11
November 11 falls on a Wednesday this year. The Saturday before it is November 7, and the museum is open that day. The sources do not confirm a Glendora event on the centennial date itself. The city posts its events at the City of Glendora event calendar, and the Glendora Historical Society lists its programs on its own site. Check both before the week starts.
| Stop | Where | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Glendora Historical Society Museum | 314 N. Glendora Ave. | Open Saturdays 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Route 66 photos, maps, postcards and signage |
| The Hat | 611 W. Route 66 | Pastrami dip; the neon sign is a replica of the original |
| The Donut Man | Foothill Boulevard | Opened in 1972; known for fruit-filled doughnuts, so check hours |
| Googie-style store | 408 W. Foothill Blvd. | Gull-wing roof and star-topped neon sign; early 1960s per aerial photos |
| Golden Spur sign | 1223 E. Route 66 | Restaurant closed in 2018; sign kept as a condition of the site's reuse |
The museum's short Saturday window sets the order of the day. Start there at 11, when it opens. From there The Hat is the natural lunch, The Donut Man works for a second stop, and the Golden Spur address is the end of the route on the east side of town.
What Already Happened This Summer
Glendora has been marking the centennial for weeks. In August the city ran Taste of History: Route 66, a registration-only program of classic roadside food, and the library hosted Sipping through Stories on Route 66, a mocktail demonstration paired with related literature at the Bidwell Forum. On August 15 the Kiwanis Club and the Chamber of Commerce held the 38th annual Flashback Classic Car Show on Glendora Avenue. It drew more than 250 classic cars, trucks and hot rods, with a new 4 to 9 p.m. schedule. The proceeds go to scholarships, local charities and business improvement projects. The Flashback site has details on the next one.
The library, the city and the Chamber of Commerce all built centennial programming out of what they already run.
The most useful thing to do before November 11 is to read the Clio tour, pick two stops from the table, and go on a Saturday when the museum is open.
If you are planning a Saturday on Route 66 and want a local hand with Glendora, get in touch with Michael and Lisa Mucino at Camden McKay Realty. You can also sign up for local updates on what is opening and changing along Foothill Boulevard.
