Seligman offers a tangible way to connect with the history of Route 66: In the Commercial Historic District, you can experience the early road alignment on a drive, while a walk through the original town center takes in historic buildings. Seligman is also the starting point of a long preserved stretch of Route 66. This lets you distinguish between exploring the town and taking a longer road route.

The Early Route Through the Town Center

In the Seligman Commercial Historic District, the 50-foot-wide Route 66 alignment from 1926 to 1933 runs along Railroad Avenue for two blocks and along Main Street for one block, between Railroad Avenue and Chino. Driving this section lets you experience what Route 66 looked like in its early years. The route is not limited to a single point: it extends over several blocks and includes two named streets.

This description of the area helps distinguish Seligman’s local Route 66 history from a single attraction. If you are interested in the historic road alignment, the focus is on the route through the district; driving this section gives you an impression of the early route as it is described for this part of Seligman.

Local History on Foot

The Historic Walking Tour leads through Seligman’s original town center and takes about 20 minutes. Along the walk, visitors see buildings that were already standing around 1900. This gives the tour a different focus from a drive on the route: here, the focus is on buildings in the town center; there, it is on the early road alignment. The approximate duration is a practical guide when deciding how much time to set aside for a walk.

If you want to include the Historic Walking Tour in your visit, check in advance whether the printed tour is available. This lets you plan your walk around the information that is actually available without conflating it with a drive along the historic route.

One Building, Two Historical Connections

Angel Delgadillo’s barbershop and pool hall played a special role in the history of Route 66: The building housed the first headquarters of the grassroots organization founded to make old Route 66 a “historic” road. Today, the building serves as a visitor center, museum, and Route 66 gift shop. It thus connects the organization’s history with several functions for visitors today.

Since operating arrangements can change, check the latest information about operations before visiting. The Historic Walking Tour and the building offer different ways to connect with Seligman’s history: the walk passes through the original town center, while the barbershop and pool hall illustrate the role of an organization that advocated for the historic route.

The historic designations also apply to different areas. On February 1, 2005, the Seligman Commercial Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Separately, in 1987 the State of Arizona recognized the stretch from Seligman to Kingman as Historic Route 66. The first designation applies to the district; the second applies to a stretch with explicitly named endpoints.

From Seligman Toward Topock

Seligman is the starting point of the longest preserved stretch of Route 66, which runs for more than 160 miles to Topock, Arizona. East of Seligman also begins the longest continuously preserved stretch of Old Route 66 in the United States. These route details add a longer-distance perspective to the local one without conflating the town center with the sections beyond it.

When planning your route, it helps to keep the endpoints distinct: the stretch recognized as Historic Route 66 in 1987 runs from Seligman to Kingman; the stated length of the longest preserved stretch extends to Topock. If you are primarily interested in the historic town center, you can focus on the road alignment and the walking tour. If you are looking at the route beyond the town, Kingman and Topock offer two different reference points for the wider route.

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For the main travel overview: Yavapai.