West Hollywood Marks Route 66's 100th With Classic Cars, New Street Signs

Classic cars lined Plummer Park on Sunday as West Hollywood threw its official Route 66 Centennial Celebration, marking 100 years since America's most storied highway first stretched across the country. The free event ran from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at 7377 Santa Monica Blvd., mixing a car showcase, historical presentations, an art show, and live music, according to a video report from CBS News.

The celebration was organized by the City of West Hollywood, which scheduled the classic car showcase for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and a free closing concert from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Plummer Park sits directly on Santa Monica Boulevard, the very stretch of pavement that carried Route 66 traffic into Los Angeles for decades. At 11:30 a.m., city officials unveiled new custom “WeHo 66” centennial roadway signage designed by graphic artist Sküt, who has previously collaborated on public art in the city's Rainbow District, according to the Beverly Press. The signs are slated for installation along Santa Monica Boulevard later this year.

A Corridor Built for Road Trips, Then and Now

Route 66 was established in November 1926, linking Chicago and Los Angeles, and the route was extended 13 miles west to Santa Monica in 1936, sending it straight through West Hollywood via Santa Monica Boulevard, per National Geographic. The highway served as the main western migration corridor during the Dust Bowl and mid-century eras, funneling travelers past what would become some of the city's most enduring landmarks. Barney's Beanery, which opened in 1920, and the Formosa Cafe, which opened in 1939 and still seats diners in a restored Southern Pacific trolley car, both trace their roots to that era of travel-worn motorists and Hollywood regulars, according to Visit West Hollywood.

The boulevard itself has its own municipal history. Santa Monica Boulevard was designated California State Route 2 in 1964 before West Hollywood acquired municipal control over its segment from state transportation authorities in the late 1990s. The city then completed a $34 million streetscape overhaul in 2001 that earned recognition from the American Planning Association as one of the nation's 10 “Great Streets,” the Beverly Press reports.

Slide Shows, Sculptures and a Tri-City Art Push

Inside Plummer Park's Fiesta Hall, pop-culture historian Charles Phoenix delivered a retro slide show titled “Los Angelesland,” spotlighting mid-century roadside attractions along Route 66, including the hot-dog-shaped drive-in Tail o' the Pup, per the Beverly Press. The city's Creative Plan also commissioned new public art tied to the centennial, including Luciana Abait's window vinyl mural “Road Trip” at 8315 Santa Monica Boulevard and Sylke Meyer's camera obscura sculpture “Past Tense / Future Perfect” at Plummer Park, according to the City of West Hollywood, which said the pieces were commissioned to explore movement and memory along the historic corridor.

Four days before the festival, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and Santa Monica launched Path Discovery, described as a first-of-its-kind collaborative public art initiative by artist Vinnie Hager featuring customized light-pole vinyl wraps and banners running along Santa Monica Boulevard all the way to the Pacific Ocean, as reported by WeHo Times. It marks the first joint public art project shared by the three Westside cities.

Music Closes Out the Centennial Weekend

The day wrapped with the season finale of West Hollywood's 2026 Summer Sounds concert series, the city's long-running free outdoor summer music program. The lineup featured R&B revue The Soul Space, led by former “The Voice” contestants Tamara Jade and Orlando Dixon, alongside musician Mark Evich and DJ RoseGawd, the Beverly Press reported.

West Hollywood's celebration is one piece of a much larger national commemoration. The 2026 centennial marks 100 years of the 2,448-mile Route 66 spanning eight states from Illinois to California, with nationwide rallies, cross-country car caravans, and local municipal anniversaries planned throughout the year under coordination from the Route 66 Centennial Commission, which Congress established to oversee the programming. Neighboring Santa Monica has been marking the milestone in its own way too, hosting a poolside Route 66 movie series earlier this month, while cities as far away as Chicago and Oklahoma City have staged their own centennial kickoff events this year.