My next stop on the nostalgia highway is hardly a ghost town, although it got a write up and several pictures in Ghost Towns Of Route 66 by Hinkley and James (2011). Its population isn’t even in decline. Halltown had 168 residents in 1946, stated Jack D. Rittenhouse in his seminal A Guide Book to Highway 66, published that year. The 2010 census lists its population at 173.

Closed gas station, Halltown, Missouri. The rain-polished rock remains of the Plano store invite photography, or even poetry. The off-ochre shut-down gas station is just a sad comment on the perilous state of small business. I’m intrigued by it, but it probably goes unnoticed by most Route 66 pilgrims.

Brenda and Dirk pressed their hands in the wet cement where a gas pump once stood in front of the failed station. Two dimes were also embedded in the concrete. One is missing. A loose penny lay on the sculptural commemoration of their relationship. Where are you Brenda and Dirk?

Seal of the Route 66 Association of Missouri. Thelma White, a co-founder, was a retired schoolteacher, librarian and antique dealer who turned the Whitehall Mercantile into a kind of visitors center for Route 66 tourists. Click on the image to enlarge.

West of Springfield to Halltown, old U.S. 66, now Highway 266, runs parallel to I-44 a few miles north. A short distance after exit 58 the interstate bends southwest. A mile from 44 on blacktop Z, which exits at 58, is Halltown, which unlike many bypassed burgs on the Mother Road still functions as a community due to its propitious access to the new highway.

No longer do “15 or 20 establishments line both sides of the highway here: gas stations, cafes, antique shops, stores,” as Rittenhouse described. Today there is a barbershop and the celebrated Whitehall Antiques, a fixture on the Route 66 tour. Thelma White, who opened the store in 1985 and co-founded the Route 66 Association of Missouri, died, but the emporium of antiques, collectibles, and Route 66 souvenirs is still open.

Twenty years ago, when we tore up the back roads looking for underpriced antiques, there were more shops in Halltown. It was too close to the interstate and the swarms of California pickers who were our main competition for good old stuff could access it easily. We never spent a dime in Halltown, but remember how cordial Thelma was.

Click on any image for a slide show.

Old 66 plunged down the Main Street of Halltown, Missouri. The façade of the famed Whitehall Mercantile has been recently replaced.

Front porch of the Whitehall Mercantile.

The commercial buildings of Halltown are generally maintained, even if unoccupied. A few, like the barbershop, are active.

What the small white structure once was we haven’t a clue. Beside it is a foundation with a larger footprint.

t seems the real estate business is good in Halltown. The frame houses are reasonably priced and the interstate provides a twenty-minute access for Springfield workers.

Halltown has a more vital infrastructure than many small towns. The churches and volunteer fire department are in kept-up structures.

At the west end of Halltown are several empty buildings that were once antique stores. They are sufficiently venerable to provide photo ops. At my next stop I would encounter the motorcyclists going over the distant hill. Their identity was a surprise.