Finding people who actually know modern roadside design in your area

What to take away

The best guide for modern roadside design is usually not a tour company. It is a preservation officer, an archivist or an owner.
Start with the state historic preservation office. It is free, it is staffed, and it knows everyone locally. The National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers keeps the state-by-state directory.
National Heritage Areas exist specifically to connect visitors with local interpretation along corridors. The National Park Service keeps the list and the coverage maps.
The Society for Commercial Archeology and Docomomo US are the two groups whose members study these buildings for a living.
Email badly and you get nothing. Ask one specific question and you get an afternoon of somebody's time.

Search for a roadside architecture guide and you will find coach tours of famous stops. Those are fine and they are not what you want if the goal is understanding how these buildings work.

The people who genuinely know are scattered across institutions that do not advertise, and reaching them is a matter of knowing where to look and how to ask.

Start with the state preservation office

Every state and territory has one, and answering the public is part of the job. The National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers keeps a state-by-state directory of them, and most sit inside a state historical commission or historical society — the Texas Historical Commission, the Wisconsin Historical Society, and so on. Their staff handle National Register of Historic Places nominations and Section 106 reviews under the National Historic Preservation Act for projects that need federal licenses or money, which is exactly why they know which buildings on your route matter and who owns them.

The Historic Preservation Fund explains the structure behind this: the money that supports state offices, tribal offices and certified local governments, which is why an email to a state office is answered by somebody paid to answer it. They will know which buildings on your route matter, who owns them, and which local person to talk to.

Ask them one specific question rather than for general advice. "Which motels on this stretch retain original signage?" gets an answer. "Any tips?" does not.

National Heritage Areas

Where your route runs through one, this is the shortcut.

National Heritage Areas are places where a corridor's history is coordinated by a local organization rather than owned by a federal agency, and connecting visitors to local interpretation is close to the whole point of them. Their staff know the volunteer guides, the owners who will show you around, and the buildings that are about to change.

The National Park Service keeps the official list and the coverage maps. Check whether one covers your route before you look anywhere else.

The other places good guides hide

County and town historical societies.Volunteers, deep local knowledge, frequently open only two afternoons a week.
University architecture and public history departments.Graduate students have done surveys and are usually delighted somebody cares.
Main Street programs.Main Street America coordinates the national network, and the local program works building by building on exactly this kind of commercial frontage.
Museum curatorsin the towns along the route, particularly small transport or industry museums.
Owners.Underrated. An owner who has restored a property will talk about it for two hours if you ask about the work rather than the price.
Sign companies.The modern roadside design companies that build and repair signage know every sign in three counties. Young Electric Sign Company, which built much of the neon on the Las Vegas Strip, is the classic Western example; every region has one.

The national groups that know this material

Two membership organizations are made up of the people who study these buildings. The Society for Commercial Archeology works on roadside commercial architecture, and Docomomo US is the American branch of the international group that documents and conserves modern buildings — the Googie coffee shops, the neon-clad motel courts, the porcelain-enamel filling stations.

The two scholars whose books define the field, Chester Liebs and Richard Longstreth, are the academic anchors, and most of the people you end up talking to know their work.

Ask either organization for the member in your state who has surveyed the buildings along your route.

How to make contact

Write a short message with one clear question, your dates, and what you are doing. Say plainly that you are visiting to look at the architecture. Do not open with a request for a free tour.

Something like this works: I will be in [town] on [dates], looking at mid-century motels and filling stations. Do you know who holds the survey files for the county, or which owner would talk about a restoration? One question, no attachments, no life story.

Give two weeks' notice for volunteers and a month for anybody institutional. Offer to pay, and expect to be refused by the institutions and accepted by the independents.

If you get no reply, telephone. Many of these organizations still run on a landline and an answering machine.

Vetting who you find

Ask what they will show you, whether interior access is confirmed, and what their background is. A good guide answers all three without hesitation.

Listen for uncertainty. Somebody who says a date is disputed knows more than somebody who has a confident answer for everything.

Two more questions do most of the work: "Which buildings on my list are most at risk?" and "Who else in town should I talk to?" Somebody who really knows the material answers both with names; somebody who is improvising answers with adjectives.

The same test applied to organized tours is set out in how to compare tours built around this material, and what a guide should be able to explain is in the eleven design approaches.

Agreeing on money

Independent guides charge by the half-day and rates vary regionally. Historical societies usually ask for a donation instead. Owners take nothing and appreciate a booking, a meal or a purchase.

Whatever the arrangement, agree it before you arrive rather than at the end.