Historic Murphysburg
Shamrock Inn Filling Station / Dale’s Ole 66 Barber Shop
A circa-1928 cottage-style filling station on Joplin’s Route 66 alignment, later operated for decades as Dale’s Ole 66 Barber Shop.
At a Glance
- Address
- 2312 Utica Street, Joplin, Missouri 64801
- Year Built
- Circa 1928–1929
- Architectural Style
- Cottage-style filling station
- Current Use
- Historic roadside building; former filling station and barber shop
- Public Access
- Exterior viewing only
- Preservation Status
- Standing
- District / Designation
- Joplin Local Historic Landmark; Missouri Route 66 survey property JP.023
Story
This small cottage-style building is a rare survivor from the early automobile era in Joplin. Constructed around 1928 or 1929 on Utica Street—an early alignment of U.S. Route 66—it began as a roadside filling station serving motorists entering Joplin’s Royal Heights neighborhood.
The station was associated with Phillips Petroleum and sold Shamrock gasoline, a lower-priced Phillips brand. Its compact form combined a service-station office with a broad canopy for fuel pumps. The gas station closed in 1959. In 1962, barber Dale Holly purchased the building and converted it into Dale’s Ole 66 Barber Shop, preserving the roadside landmark through decades of adaptive reuse.
Joplin designated the former station a local historic landmark in 2007. It also appears in Missouri’s architectural and historic survey of Route 66 as inventory property JP.023. The building illustrates how modest service stations became neighborhood businesses after highway travel patterns changed—and why intact examples are increasingly valuable along the Mother Road.