If your household has spent any amount of time watching Cars, you already know the appeal of Route 66: quirky roadside stops, wide-open-road adventure, and the idea that sometimes the best part of a road trip is everything you discover along the way.
Now St. Louis kids can get their kicks on Route 66—without anyone asking, “Are we there yet?”
The Magic House (516 S. Kirkwood) is bringing back its iconic Trike Town exhibit on August 22 with a new Route 66 theme celebrating the Mother Road’s 100th anniversary. Trike Town: Route 66 Highway to Fun transforms the outdoor exhibit into a kid-sized road trip through St. Louis history.
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Sara Saul, chief strategy officer at The Magic House, says the theme was a natural fit: The museum itself sits along historic Route 66 and is a certified stop on the Route 66 Centennial Route.
“Knowing that this year is the 100th anniversary, knowing that Kirkwood has such a part of that story and greater St. Louis, we knew we wanted to really start to incorporate the city of St. Louis into our Trike Town experience,” Saul says.
A pint-sized trip down Route 66
Included with museum admission, the reimagined Trike Town takes inspiration from the historic highway and the businesses that have become part of its St. Louis story.
As kids make their way through the exhibit, they’ll encounter pint-sized versions of Donut Drive-In, Ted Drewes, Crestwood Bowl, and Spencer’s Grill. Sunset Ford, founded in 1912 and still located along historic Route 66 on Gravois Road, is sponsoring the exhibit.
Saul says the museum researched businesses that operated along the route during its heyday, looking for recognizable local institutions that could help tell the St. Louis side of the highway’s story. The businesses themselves helped shape their miniature counterparts, weighing in on details to make each stop recognizable and accurate—down to the doughnuts listed on Donut Drive-In’s menu.
“We really wanted to make sure that this was an accurate representation of what the route looked like in that era,” Saul says.
The result is part pretend road trip, part St. Louis history lesson—and, most importantly for the preschool crowd, an excellent excuse to get their wiggles out on wheels.
The experience goes beyond sightseeing, too. Along the way, kids can stop by a miniature farmers market inspired by the Kirkwood market or pull into a pint-sized drive-in movie theater, adding more opportunities for hands-on play between laps around the Mother Road.
The exhibit arrives as communities across the country celebrate the centennial of Route 66. Established in 1926, the famous highway became synonymous with the great American road trip, and its path through the St. Louis region left plenty of local landmarks in its wake.
Learning history through play
Rather than asking young visitors to simply read about Route 66, Trike Town puts them behind the handlebars.
“Hands-on play is how kids learn,” Saul says. “That’s at the heart of everything that we do—how can we help kids learn, develop, and grow through play?”
As children cycle through the kid-sized town, they can imagine what traveling Route 66 might have looked like generations ago. And while many centennial celebrations are geared toward adults, Saul says The Magic House saw an opportunity to bring that history to its youngest visitors.
“To be able to bring that history and that celebration to kids is something that you won’t find many other places,” she says.
A St. Louis story across generations
For parents and grandparents who grew up visiting The Magic House, the exhibit also marks the return of a familiar favorite. Trike Town has been a recurring experience at the museum, but this iteration gives the concept a distinctly St. Louis—and distinctly Route 66—spin.
It also creates an opening for families to compare memories across generations. Many of the places represented in the exhibit have been part of St. Louis family traditions for decades. “So many families have made memories not only here, but at these other institutions throughout St. Louis,” Saul says.
She hopes parents and grandparents will share their own memories of the places represented as children encounter them in miniature—turning a few laps around Trike Town into a chance to talk about what St. Louis looked like when they were growing up.
For today’s kids, there’s another layer: Someday, they’ll be able to say they were here for Route 66’s centennial.
Saul hopes the exhibit leaves them with a greater sense of pride in the place they call home. “We are part of the history, and we are worth celebrating,” she says.
A Cars-inspired weekend cruises into The Magic House
The Route 66 celebration continues September 12 and 13 with The Magic House’s Kids & Cars Weekend, featuring two days of activities inspired by the Mother Road—and a certain famous red race car.
Families can cruise through Trike Town, catch a screening of Cars in the Storytime Theater, and check out a vintage car show on Sunday. Kids can also pick up a Road Trip Map and make stops throughout the museum, including creating a themed pennant in the Art Studio, visiting the Service Center in Children’s Village, and racing Matchbox cars down a ramp outside Nature Play. All Kids & Cars Weekend activities are included with regular museum admission.
For kids who really want to go full pit crew, The Magic House is also offering a VIP Pit Crew Experience with special access to the Winners Circle and a Lightning McQueen tribute car. The experience includes a Pit Crew lanyard and badge, a keepsake photo opportunity with the car, a Winners Circle trophy photo op, and themed activities in the Play Garden.
The VIP experience requires advance registration and costs $18 per person, including all-day museum admission, or $5 per person for members.
