Old Stagecoach Stop

The Old Stagecoach Stop was built in 1854 by William Walton McDonald, a Waynesville-area pioneer who recognized the commercial opportunity of operating an inn along the active stagecoach route between Springfield and St. Louis. The Springfield-to-St. Louis road had been formalized in the late 1830s as one of the primary overland routes across central Missouri, and by the 1850s it carried daily stagecoach service operated by several competing stage lines. Travelers typically covered 30 to 40 miles per day depending on weather and road conditions, which meant overnight stops every 20 to 30 miles — and Waynesville, sitting roughly halfway between Rolla and Lebanon, was an obvious overnight stop location.

The original 1854 building was a substantial two-story log structure, considerably larger than typical frontier inns of the period. The ground floor included a great room with a large stone fireplace (used both for heating and for cooking before the detached summer kitchen was added), a smaller parlor, and a back room used for storage and supplies. The upstairs was divided into four sleeping rooms, typically rented as shared accommodations — travelers paid for a bed rather than a private room, and four to eight people might sleep in a single room on busy nights. Meals were served family-style at a long table in the great room. The building generally accommodated 15 to 20 overnight guests on a busy night, plus the stagecoach drivers and the McDonald family.

Stagecoach inn operations continued through the 1860s and 1870s. The McDonald family operated the inn through the Civil War period (a complicated time in this border region of Missouri — see the next section), then sold the property in the 1870s as railroad expansion began to displace stagecoach travel. The building passed through several owners across the late 19th century, generally operating as a small hotel or boarding house for railroad workers and traveling salesmen.

The Civil War period (1861-1865) was a complicated time in Pulaski County, which sat along the contested border between Union-controlled and Confederate-sympathetic regions of Missouri. The Union Army established Fort Wayne — a small encampment named after General Anthony Wayne — on the bluffs above the Roubidoux Creek in 1862, partly to control the strategic Springfield-to-St. Louis road and partly to suppress Confederate guerrilla activity in the surrounding countryside. The town of Waynesville takes its name from this Civil War-era fortification.

The Old Stagecoach Stop served multiple roles during the war years. The building was used as a Union hospital at various points, treating soldiers wounded in regional skirmishes; the basement reportedly stored ammunition for the Fort Wayne garrison; and the inn continued limited stagecoach operations for civilian travelers and military couriers throughout the war. Several Civil War-era artifacts recovered from the building during the 1980s restoration — including military buttons, period medical implements, and structural modifications consistent with hospital use — are now displayed in the museum.

After the war, the building returned to standard inn operations and continued through the 1870s. The McDonald family sold the property to subsequent owners in the late 1870s as the railroad expansion reduced demand for stagecoach service across the region. By the 1880s the building was operating as a small hotel rather than a working stagecoach stop — the same building, the same business model, but serving railroad-era travelers instead of stage passengers.

Route 66 was officially commissioned in 1926, and within a few years the original 1854 stagecoach inn was operating as the Pulaski Hotel — providing the same overnight lodging service to Route 66 travelers that it had originally provided to stagecoach passengers seven decades earlier. The building had been substantially modified for early 20th-century hotel use: indoor plumbing was installed in the 1910s, the detached kitchen was attached to the main building, the upstairs sleeping rooms were converted from shared accommodations to private rooms, and electric lighting replaced the original oil lamps.

The Pulaski Hotel operated through the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s as a modest Route 66 stop. The hotel was never a major destination — Waynesville itself was a small town and most Route 66 travelers passed through without stopping — but the building maintained steady occupancy from traveling salesmen, Fort Leonard Wood military personnel (the fort opened in 1940 about 5 miles south of Waynesville), and Route 66 road-trippers willing to stay outside the major Springfield and Lebanon corridors.

The hotel closed in the late 1940s as competition from newer Route 66 motels with private bathrooms, parking lots, and air conditioning made the 19th-century building economically uncompetitive. The building was sold to private owners and used as a residence and various commercial purposes through the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. By the late 1970s it was largely vacant and at serious risk of demolition.

The Old Stagecoach Stop Foundation was organized in 1982 by a group of Waynesville-area residents and Pulaski County historians who recognized the building's historical significance and wanted to prevent its demolition. The foundation purchased the property in 1983 and began a multi-decade restoration project that has continued through the present day. The restoration philosophy has emphasized preserving multiple layers of the building's history rather than restoring it to a single period — visitors can see the original 1854 log walls in some rooms, the Civil War-era modifications in others, and the Route 66-era hotel finishes elsewhere.

The museum opened to the public in the late 1980s and has continuously operated since with all-volunteer staffing. The Old Stagecoach Stop Foundation organizes regular maintenance, fundraising events, and special programming including occasional living-history demonstrations during peak Route 66 tourism months. The museum has been added to the National Register of Historic Places and is recognized by Missouri tourism authorities as one of the more substantive small-town historical attractions in the state.

Inside the museum, visitors typically see the restored great room with the original 1854 stone fireplace, several upstairs sleeping rooms furnished to different historical periods, a small exhibit space with archival photographs of the building's various historical eras, Civil War-era artifacts recovered during restoration, and Route 66-era hotel memorabilia. Guided tours are available during regular open hours; tours typically last 45-60 minutes and are led by knowledgeable foundation volunteers who can speak to all eras of the building's history.

The museum is open Saturdays from 1pm to 4pm between April and October — the only regularly scheduled public hours. Weekday and off-season access is available by appointment; visitors who want to visit outside Saturday afternoons can call the foundation in advance to arrange a docent-led tour. Most appointment requests are accommodated, especially during peak Route 66 tourism months when foundation volunteers are more readily available.

Admission is free. The foundation operates entirely through volunteer staffing and donations; a small donation box at the entrance is the museum's primary funding source, and visitors are encouraged to leave a few dollars (suggested $5 per adult) to support ongoing operations and the long-running restoration. Larger donations support specific conservation projects.

The natural Waynesville day plan combines the Old Stagecoach Stop with the Route 66 Pulaski County Museum (one block north on the same square), Frog Rock (a five-minute drive east), and Roubidoux Spring (a 10-minute walk from the square). The full tour of Waynesville's historic and Route 66 sites runs about three hours and can be combined with lunch at Hoppers Pub on Historic Route 66 for a satisfying half-day visit. For travelers continuing west, Devil's Elbow (5 miles west) and Lebanon (25 miles west) extend the corridor; eastbound, Rolla sits about 30 miles east.