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Arlington Hotel

High St. at Arlington Outer Rd., Arlington, MO
Phone:

East < GO > West

The former Arlington Hotel is located at the intersection of Arlington Outer Rd and High St. You can't miss it because if you don't stop or turn one way or the other you'll drive right in the front door, so stop or turn, OK? The building looks pretty much as it did originally except for the gable roof which was added some time after 1981.

In 1926, when Route 66 was named you could rent a room in the hotel for $15.00 a week according to an ad in the St. Louis newspaper. To get to the hotel from St. Louis you could take a Frisco Railroad train for the 123 mile trip.

In 1946 the whole town was sold to R.E. Carney for $10,000 in an auction Carney had big plans for Arlington and seems to have made a real effort to see those dreams come true.

Even after the opening of I-44 in the mid 1960s put the town at the end of the road with no direct access to a bridge across the river he continued to work on his dream. He opened a good sized RV Park that even featured a large swimming pool. But in the early 1970s the gas shortages arrived and hurt leisure travel by car or camper.

By about 1976 the campground was closed. Then in the early 1980s a flood damaged some of the campground, which didn't help it's possible future. Later attempts by others to revive the RV Park and tourist business seem to have fizzled out.

The Carney family had lived in the old Arlington Hotel hotel, but they also converted the former General Store next door into a small seven room hotel which never actually opened because the whole business closed. but there are still folks living in the little community.

Photo(s): 2018