Angel & Vilma Delgadillo's Route 66 Gift Shop & Visitor's Center - Seligman, AZ
Posted by: 
DopeyDuck
N 35° 19.574 W 112° 52.415
12S E 329703 N 3910833
Angel Delgadillo was a barber for nearly 50 years, now retired, he was instrumental in starting the Arizona Rte 66 Association and put Seligman back on the map.
Waymark Code: WM5T7F
Location: Arizona, United States
Date Posted: 02/09/2009
Views: 26
Angel Delgadillo continued the family business as a barber in many cities along Route 66 - he attended the American Pacific Barber College in Pasadena, Calif., and he served his apprenticeship in Williams, Ariz., from 1948 to 1950. Angel began shaving beards and clipping hair in Seligman in 1950 and continued through 1996.
"Seligman joined the list of death-row towns condemned by the very brand of progress that originally energized them - a new, faster highway system. Businesses closed, people left, buildings decayed.
There were talks of trying to attract industry to the town, but Angel Delgadillo had another idea. He was raised on Route 66. He watched caravans of farmers make their way along the road toward a new life in California. Angel knew the power of memory and myth, and he knew that the key to Seligman's survival ran down the center of town.
Angel was one of the moving forces in the founding of the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona and in 1987 successfully lobbied the Arizona Legislature to designate and preserve Route 66 in Arizona as an historic highway. Thereafter, following Arizona's lead, the seven states along Route 66 formed associations (California, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois). At last count, there are seven international associations as well.
Angel has become the unofficial spokesperson and "Guardian Angel" for Route 66. He is passionate about preserving and promoting Route 66, its stories, and its memories so that it will no longer be forgotten.
Angel has retired from cutting hair, though he often obliges visitors. He and his wife, Vilma, sit in their dimly lit museum adjacent to the barbershop, listen to songs of the "Big Band Era" on a phonograph and greet visitors.
Angel and Vilma Delgadillo's memorabilia and barbershop attract thousands of visitors each year from all over the world - from families traveling through.
The building's décor hasn't changed in fifty years. It is filled with antiques, Route 66 memorabilia, an enormous business card collection and stacks of photo albums with pictures sent from visitors who immediately become part of the Route 66 legacy." (
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