1926 — 2026 · the centennial
The Mother Road runs through here.
Route 66 turns one hundred in 2026, and Rancho Cucamonga doesn’t need to build a tribute — Foothill Boulevard is the road. Not a commemorative alignment, not a themed district: the actual 1926 routing, still carrying traffic past the same inn, the same neon, the same filling station.
Why this stretch matters
When the highway was commissioned in 1926, Foothill Boulevard was already old — the Sycamore Inn’s site had been feeding travelers since the 1840s, and the vineyards the road passed were the largest wine district in America. Route 66 stitched this valley into the national story: Dust Bowl migrations, war-time convoys, the great postwar vacation.
Most of the route through the Inland Empire has been paved into anonymity. Rancho Cucamonga kept more than its share: a c.1915 service station restored into the route’s only original-design survivor in California, a neon Aladdin lamp that still throws real flame, and dinner houses that predate the interstate that killed the road.
For the centennial, the City is running “Cruisin’ Through Time” — a year of events along the corridor. Klatch, the hometown world-champion roaster, even cut a Centennial espresso for the occasion. This page and the driving tour are your map to all of it.
The two icons
Cucamonga Service Station
Built around 1915, pumping gas before the road had its number, restored by volunteers a century later. National Register, 2018. The one Route 66 stop here you can walk into — free, Thursday through Sunday.
The Magic Lamp
The flame-throwing neon Aladdin lamp is the most photographed object in the city, and the renovated dinner house behind it reopened in late 2024. Come at dusk, when they light it.
Centennial calendar
The confirmed fixture: the Route 66 Pancake Breakfast & Poker Run— September 18, 2026, 7am at the RC Sports Center, $20 a plate, proceeds to the service station’s restoration. The City’s program adds events through the year; our calendar tracks them as they’re announced.