Exploring the Roots of Route 66

A one-mile stretch of original Route 66 that was dedicated in 1926 has been restored back to the 1940's era with vintage billboards and Burma Shave signs. It can be walked year-round and is open to vehicular traffic during festivals.

Located in a building that was originally home to Skelly's Service Station and Toby's Mesa Cafe, Kelly's is reminiscent of the diners Route 66 travelers would have visited. The restaurant also has a number of Route 66 artifacts on display for visitors to see.

This building is a typical 1930s icebox-style service station with a two-door garage. Repurposed as a repair shop.

John Patton, one of the area's first European settlers, built the cabin in June of 1829. Unusual to the westward settlement of America, the cabin was built with the help of the area's Native Americans. In 1969 the cabin was dismantled, moved and rebuilt in the Lexington Park District. Tours are available by appointment, June through September.

Built in 1950, the Lexington Motel once sat just off the main alignment and provided a convenient place for travelers to rest. The hotel originally sat next to Gleeson's Mobil gas station, which was torn down after the construction of I-55 routed traffic around Lexington. The building has since been converted into apartments.

The Oasis Drive-In opened in 1960 and was popular with travelers for its sandwiches, ice cream, milkshakes, and homemade lemonade. With no indoor seating and only six outdoor tables on the patio, a carport was added in 1963 to serve more customers at once. The original owners sold in 1971 and subsequent owners only kept it open for a short while longer. The building is now unused and dilapidated, but you can still see what is left of the carport and ice cream cone sign.

Delco Trucker's Lodge opened on the site of this Fast Stop in 1952 and was open 24/7 year-round, without closing for holidays. Nicknamed "Eddie's Truck Stop" after longtime owner Eddie Baize, it closed in 1976 when I-55 opened because it was outdated and no longer viable.

Mac McCurdie and his wife, Fern, opened Fern's Café and Texaco in 1951, after Route 66 was expanded from two lanes to four in Towanda. Mac's brother Jack took over operations of the business in 1955, when Mac and Fern were tragically killed in a car accident. Fern's eventually closed in 1969, and the gas station followed in 1977 after I-55 was constructed.

This grand Victorian-era home was built by cattle breeder William Duncan after he purchased 300 acres in 1863. There has been a good deal of rumor and mystery surrounding this house. Duncan's wife passed away shortly after they arrived in McLean County, followed by his son a few years later after drowning in a slough on the property. Duncan himself died in 1876. For seemingly unknown reasons, the unfinished basement has barred windows and there is a small room beneath a second-floor bedroom which can only be entered through a trap door from the room above.

The Diamond Camp, on Pine near Beech Street, was a popular site for visitors to the nearby Illinois Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Children School, a state-run orphanage. It later became Manning’s Tourist Village, operating until 1960.

The building at 208 N Pine was originally a service station and repair shop that catered to travelers of the original 1926 alignment through Normal. In the early 1940s, the building became the Royal Crown Bottling Company. It has since changed hands many times, housing a variety of small businesses. It currently sits unoccupied.

The building at the southwest corner of Pine and Beech was once a small café that catered to visitors at the nearby tourist camp. Today it's currently stands as the Paws Up Pet Grooming.

William Sprague’s Super Service Station was built in 1931. In addition to housing Sprague’s contracting business, it included a restaurant on the ground floor and apartments for the owner and station attendant on the second level. Now known as Ryburn Place at Sprague’s Super Service, it is currently owned by the Town of Normal and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is in the Route 66 Association of Illinois Hall of Fame.

Now restored to its original condition, the Art Deco style theater in uptown Normal first opened in November 1937. It was the first theater in Bloomington-Normal built specifically for sound films. Today, it operates as a film center and plays a variety of classic films and regularly hosts special events.

The Shell Inn Restaurant and gas station, owned by Gus Belt, struggled during its first few years of operation. In 1934, Belt turned the Shell Inn into the White House Steak and Shake. Due to a public distrust of meat products at the time, the new restaurant adopted the slogan, “In Sight it Must be Right,” because the beef was ground in front of customers to ensure freshness and quality. Steak ‘n Shake became very successful and began franchising in 1945. The original location at the corner of Main Street and Virginia Avenue was sold to Monical’s Pizza in the 1990s.

Not long after the construction of Route 66, people in Normal began to complain about traffic congestion and noise. Built in stages between 1935 and 1941, the Belt Line relieved these issues by directing traffic around town, rather than through it. The road was renamed Veterans Parkway in 1979, in honor of veterans of all wars.

This motel opened shortly after the Belt Line was completed in 1941. The remaining part of the original structure has since been converted into an apartment building.

After taking over a fruit stand in 1949, Eldon “Casey” Casebeer opened the area’s first 24/7 grocery store, known as Casey’s Market Basket. Casey began operating a seasonal garden shop behind the store, and eventually sold the grocery store in 1968 to run the garden shop year-round. Ray Lartz, Casey’s son-in-law still operates Casey’s Garden Shop and Florist today.

Twin brothers Elmo C. and Eldon Quinn opened their Texaco station in 1941, which served motorists for over 70 years at Main and Chestnut streets in Bloomington. Elmo A. Quinn began working for his father in 1978 and continued operating the station until retiring in 2013.

The Holy Trinity Parish has existed in Bloomington since the mid-nineteenth century. In 1932, a fire destroyed the original church at Main and Chestnut streets. Within two years a new structure was built, and in April 1934, parishioners dedicated the new church that still stands today.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Church boasts an Art Deco style by architect Arthur Moratz. It contained the large scale pipe organ produced by the famous Hinners Organ Company of Pekin, Illinois until 1989 when the instrument was replaced.

The building that currently houses Blackwater 13 tattoo shop was once a Standard Oil service station. 

Built in 1921 to serve as the temple for the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Bloomington. Now houses the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts.

Two sons of immigrants from Lucca, Italy opened this popular restaurant and bar in 1936. To this day, it has the original tin ceiling and mahogany bar that adorned the building when it first opened nearly 80 years ago.

Opened in 1918 and served German and American cuisine in it's "Rathskeller."

Owned by Cotton McNabey, Cotton’s Village Inn was located in the basement of the building on the Northeast corner of Main and Monroe.

This former hotel, built in 1902, has since been repurposed into loft-style apartments.

Opened in 1901, the Smith Building was originally home to Stephen Smith & Sons dry goods store, with offices and a millinery on the second floor. Upon its opening, seven masonic lodges were tenants of the building. Later, Rolands Department Store was a prominent tennant of the building.

Built in 1902, the Illinois House was opened by Frank Ewing as a 180-room luxury hotel that offered a full-service restaurant, barbershop, tailor, pharmacy, and millinery. The sixth floor and copper roof were added to the original five-story structure in 1925. The building was converted into commercial and residential spaces in the 1970s, and in 1987 the top three floors were converted to dormitory-style living quarters for Japanese employees of the newly formed Diamond-Star Motors. Today the building houses a restaurant on the ground floor, as well as office and residential spaces.

This building was completed in 1926, less than a year after the death of its architect, Arthur L. Pillsbury. Gustave A. Ensenberger, a local carpenter, established his furniture store here in 1926 and operated until 1995. It underwent renovations in 2005 for the new Ensenberger condominiums. 

After a fire destroyed the original courthouse, the current building was constructed in 1900. The old courthouse has been home to the McLean County Museum of History since the 1990s.

Initially built to house a dry goods store in 1857, at various times this building also housed the Pantagraph newspaper, a loan broker and investment counselor, a book store, and an Osco Drug Store. It was most recently a CVS pharmacy, which closed in 2019.

Constructed in 1900, this hotel went through a series of owners for the first 30 years of its life before eventually being purchased by lumbermen and building contractors William Tilden and Charles Hall in 1932. The business partners spent considerable resources to expand and modernize the building, which offered 150 rooms, 40 with a private bath. Tilden Hall and other hotels in the downtown area of Bloomington began to suffer by mid-century, when the Belt Line routed travelers away from the business district. The historic building was razed in 1961 and has been replaced with a parking lot.

Paul F. Beich opened his confectionary company on the west side of Bloomington in the late 19th century, and soon had hundreds of employees. Beich’s descendants operated the company until it was sold to Nestle in 1984. The original factory building was destroyed by a fire in 2005, shortly before it was scheduled to be demolished.

Built in 1902 to house Ike Livingston's clothing store, this building designed by George Miller has seen numerous other uses over the years. Currently, it houses a restaurant on the ground floor and apartments in the top five floors.

Designed by Arthur J. Pillsbury and constructed in 1909. The original cornice was removed in the 1950s.

The first eight floors of the State Farm Insurance building were completed in 1929, and housed George J. Mecherle’s automobile insurance company, established in 1922. Several series of additions were made throughout the 1930s-40s. In 1974, State Farm headquarters relocated to a new building on Veterans Parkway and the last employees moved out in 2019.

Public park established in 1887-1888 featuring a zoo, a pavilion, and a manmade lake. The pavilion, used as an event venue, was designed by George Miller and built in 1905. Arthur L. Pillsbury designed the Miller Park Zoo's main structure, the creatively named "Animal House," which opened to the public in 1914.

George Ventura opened Ventura’s Grill at 1415 S Main around 1950. For the first several years after the opening of the business, the Ventura family also lived in the building. Before being razed recently, the building also housed a café, a bakery, and a thrift shop over the years.

Bloomington’s only drive-in movie theatre opened in 1947 at the northwest corner of US 51 (Main Street) and the 66 Belt Line. Built by Ken Phillips and Pete Karonis, the theatre was originally called the Phil-Kron, later the Bloomington Drive-In. A restaurant, the Phil-Kron Grill, was constructed behind the screen. In December 1958 the restaurant became Sinorak Smorgasbord. The drive-in burned down in 1984.

In 1958, a smorgasbord restaurant took over at the site of the Phil-Kron Grill. The restaurant was called Sinorak, the backward spelling of the owner’s name, Mr. Karonis. Sinorak Smorgasbord operated until 1980.

Bloomington native, Robert D. Johnson, opened his restaurant at the southwest corner of Routes 66 and 150 in 1957. He named it Bob Johnson’s Brandtville Restaurant, and it was the only place in town that was open 24 hours a day. Popular with travelers and locals alike, people came back for Johnson’s famous broasted chicken. The original building was later replaced by a new structure with a giant chicken on the roof and was a local favorite for many years.

Paul Streid’s motel, restaurant, and service station were built after the Belt Line’s completion in 1941, located on the northwest corner of Routes 66 and 150. With 32 motel rooms and a round-the-clock service station, Streid’s was a popular stopping place for travelers until it burned down in 1980.

Located across the Belt Line from Highland Park golf course was the 14-unit Rusk Haven Motel, operated by Stanley J. Lucas. The motel was advertised as being “on the hill next to heaven.”

Hutchison’s served as a vital center of the Shirley community for many years. Not only did locals pick up their mail here, but they would also buy most of their groceries, hardware, and drug store items here as well. When a new post office was built across the street in 1963, the store began to struggle because much of their business was derived from people who initially came in to pick up their mail.

Built as a wedding gift from LaFayette Funk to his new bride, Elizabeth, in 1864, this historic home is now a museum with free admission that depicts the home as it would have been when it was new.