City council gives landmark status to historic station April 21, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Gas stations, Preservation.1 comment so far
The city council of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., unanimously awarded historic landmark status to the Cucamonga Service Station, located on Foothill Boulevard (aka Route 66), reported the Contra Costa Times.
Receiving such a status does not mean the two buildings – the structure once used as a gas station that faces the street and the former garage behind it – are completely safe from demolition, but it adds an additional layer of review should owners of the property want to destroy it. [...]
Mayor Don Kurth said it’s important to preserve buildings like the Cucamonga Service Station, because there aren’t many buildings older than that in the city.
“I’m really a property rights guy. I think if you own a piece of property, you ought to be able to do whatever you want with it,” Kurth said. “However, I think there are some special pieces of property that we ought to preserve for our community.”
That’s what I call sensible policy by the mayor.
A photo of the service station can be seen here.
Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame inductees announced April 20, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Businesses, Events, Gas stations, History, People, Preservation, Route 66 Associations.add a comment
Today, the Illinois Route 66 Association announced its annual Hall of Fame inductees and the winner of the Tom Teague Ambassador Award.
First, the inductees, as described by the association:
The Crossroads Diner in Mount Olive, Ill.
The Route 66 diner the Crossroads is a favorite place to stop and eat while traveling Route 66 in Illinois. The Crossroads Diner was placed on the west side of Route 66 and south side of Route 138 in Mount Olive in late 1953. It officially opened for business in early 1954. It opened as the Crossroads Diner and has kept the name ever since. It was and still is on the 1940-1977 alignment of Route 66. The Crossroads belongs to the original owners, the Oltman family, although most of the time it has been leased out. It is different than most diners because it has two horseshoe counters, which was the original diner. Then in the mid-1960s, an additional dinning area and larger kitchen were added. Back in the 1950s, the Crossroads also had a gas station on the lot (it eventually closed). This old diner is still a favorite place with truck drivers because of the easy access off Interstate 55 at Exit 44 and its large parking lot where truckers can park for the night and get some great food.
The Mill in Lincoln, Ill.
The Mill has been officially saved from demolition, and is on the way to complete restoration. The Mill, designed like a Dutch mill, originally opened as The Blue Mill in 1929. It was a sandwich stand on a bustling section of the 1930-1940 section of Route 4/Route 66, where many gas stations and businesses were located. Later, in the post-WWII era, the Mill became a restaurant/bar and was famous for schnitzel sandwiches. Additions were built to the back of the original building. The restoration process is being done in phases, with the first being to make the structure safe and photogenic on the outside (thus drawing visitors as a photo attraction), and then later to fully restore the building as a museum.
Sprague’s Super Service in Normal, Ill.
Sprague’s Super Service was built at 305 E. Pine St. in Normal circa 1930-1931 by William W. Sprague, a Bloomington contractor. The brick first story housed a restaurant, gas station and garage. The second story, finished in a decorative swirl of stucco and half timbering, contained a large owner’s apartment with plenty of natural light and an attendant’s apartment. Sprague’s superior carpentry skill is evident in a building that is intact and structurally sound after more than 75 years. With many remaining original architectural features, two additions to the structure in 1948 and 1967 have visually altered, but not obliterated, the original appearance of the building. According to Michael Taylor, former program manager for Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program, the property “is unique along the entire route” as one of only three combination gas station/living quarters along Route 66 in the United States. Sprague’s, however, is the largest and the only one with a garage bay and cafe. Taylor declares that this property “has much historic integrity and significance.” The current owners plan is to open the historic location as a Route 66 visitor and education center and gift shop.
Stateville Prison in Crest Hill, Ill.
Both Route 66 and the Stateville Prison started in 1926. In those days of operation, Stateville was 70 percent self-supporting, raising feed for the cattle and hogs that were used to feed the prisoners, as well as vegetables. In 1974, the canning plant at Stateville canned 240,000 gallons of vegetables, grown on the farm and harvested by the inmates to feed the inmates, not only at Stateville, but any of the other tax-supported institutions in Illinois. Old Route 66 was a very necessary roadway to support the prison and its operation.
And the Tom Teague Ambassdor Award goes to:
Lenore and John Weiss
John and Lenore have worked unselfishly in giving of their time and money to further the ideals of the Route 66 Association Preservation Committee through the state of Illinois. They have traveled the road and worked nationally to promote tourism on the route. They’ve helped television and movie crews, introducing them to important contacts within the cities, villages and towns in Illinois and allowing many projects to be filmed on Route 66. They jointly organized the Preservation Committee preservation projects, including the Cyrus Avery Award-winning Standard Oil Station in Odell, the Auburn Brick Road, and a vintage segment of Route 66 south of Springfield – all of which are now on the National Register of Historic Places. Their lectures and bus tours educate Route 66 to people from all walks of life. They serve on the Hall of Fame Museum Committe. Today, they are still out there working to save the road through hard work, education and promotion of Illinois’ Route 66 heritage.
The Hall of Fame dinner will be the night of June 13 at the Crowne Plaza in Springfield. It coincides with the association’s annual motor tour. For more details, go here.
(Photos courtesy of the Illinois Route 66 Association)
Bridge work closes part of Illinois Route 66 April 19, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Highways.1 comment so far
Peter Stork, a representative with the Illinois Route 66 Association, passes along word that part of old Route 66 will be affected by road construction:
… Route 66 will be closed just south of Art’s at Farmersville for, according to IDOT, the next seven months. Work began Monday to repair the Macoupin Creek bridge on old 66, and then IDOT plans to reroute I-55 traffic partially over to the frontage road as they repair the bridges on the interstate as well. The northern barrier is just south of Art’s Restaurant and the southern barrier is at Morrisonville Road. Travelers can get around by taking (southbound) Main Street a mile west to 2nd Road, south about a mile to Morrisonville Road, east to 66.
Alas, the approximate one-mile stretch from Morrisonville Road to Farmersville is one of the few stretches of Interstate 55 where there isn’t a contiguous frontage road on the other side.
Route 66 journeys are for everyone April 18, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Events, People, Road trips.2 comments
Proof of this is in the Deaf Historic Route 66 Motorcycle Run, scheduled from July 18 to Aug. 1 from Chicago to Los Angeles.
And if you know sign language, you’ll know what this guy in the video is saying.
More about the event is here.
A response by “Road Trip USA” author April 17, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Books.add a comment
Jamie Jensen, author of the “Road Trip USA” and “Road Trip USA Route 66,” sent an e-mail with his response of my review of his “Road Trip USA Route 66″ book that was recently published:
Here it is:
I was looking forward to talking to you about my Road Trip USA books, and was sorry to hear about all the mistakes you pointed out to my publisher (and on your website — ouch!).
I wanted to get in touch and say thanks for your input — and perhaps explain (though not excuse…) my errors.
First of all, I would like to confirm that, as you suggest, I am indeed solely responsible for just about everything in the book. Though I wish things were otherwise, I have never had a fact-checker to make sure everything is right. Which means that if I misunderstand or overlook something, or cut and paste the wrong number, there’s no one to catch the mistakes — apart from readers, on whom I have long relied to point out things that were just plain wrong, as well as things that change after publication, or to point out new things that come up along the nearly 40,000 miles of roads which I try my best to cover.
Basically, apart from the production and marketing of the book, which is what Avalon handles, Road Trip USA is pretty much a “one man band” – me!
And though you are certainly right that I could have done better, I do think that for most readers — with the possible exception of the more expert Route 66ers — my books offer far more positive benefits than they cause frustration and disappointment. Much as I wish I had the funding to hire fact-checkers (and photographers, and expert correspondents..!), Road Trip USA is pretty much a labor of love — especially when gas prices were as high as they were for my last edition (2007-2008) travels.
With regard to the Route 66 chapter, and the small Route 66 book — I also have some “mitigating circumstances” which I think may have caused me to overlook some of the details you mention. My main task in the new edition, beside checking and updating all the facts as well as I could, was to turn around the entire route, re-researching and re-writing every section so that the road appears in traditional “Chicago-to-LA” order. This was my focus, and unfortunately it seems while turning the route around I neglected many details (like the radio stations — and I have to agree with you that it’s galling to hear that KMOX is no longer carrying the Cards games! I remember hearing night games on KMOX from hundreds of miles away — Is it right the Cards have in effect bought their own station??)
Also, regarding the extra “m” in Lucille Hamon’s name — this has stood for 15 years without anyone ever mentioning it. Even Lucille herself, to whom I gave one of the very first copies, way back when the book first came out. She read and signed my copy, too — maybe she was too polite to mention my mistake, though in my experience she wasn’t exactly shy ? – and until you pointed it out, I thought I was right.
No excuses, but still…
So, I hope you accept my apology for the errors, which I will fix in all future editions. For what it’s worth, I really have done my best, and I genuinely appreciate your concern about getting things right, so more and more people can have positive experiences out on Route 66 and all the other great roads across America.
An addendum: I was scheduled to participate in a “blogging road trip” organized by Jensen’s publisher to help promote his books. But, as I read “Road Trip USA Route 66″ and saw the errors pile up (and in “Road Trip USA” as well), I contacted the publisher a few days before th event was set to begin and said I was backing out. I felt the book’s quality wasn’t high enough to warrant my support.
I appreciate Jensen’s “mea culpa” (as he described it), his willingness to be accountable, and his love of two-line roads. But, as I said in the review, the publisher also has to share the blame for not fact-checking the manuscript. If Jensen is a “one-man band” as he claims, then Avalon Travel has an obligation to make sure the product it’s selling is as good as it can be. At the least, the publisher has more resources to do the double-checking than Jensen does.
UPDATE: On a related note, today I received a call from Avalon Travel’s publicist, who said that the publisher is now hiring a fact-checker, in response to my criticism of the “Road Trip USA” books.
So that’s definitely a step in the right direction.
A high-tech solution to Devils Elbow Bridge? April 17, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Bridges, Preservation.1 comment so far
The commissioners of Pulaski County have been working for months to find solutions and funding to repair the historic but fast-deteriorating Devils Elbow Bridge near the Route 66 halmet of Devils Elbow, Mo.
The Waynesville Daily Guide said that Dixon, Mo., business owner Jerry Plunkett had ideas that intrigued the county:
Citing the possibility of federal dollars, Plunkett said the government’s interest in renewable energy could open up doors that might have been locked before.
His ideas call for increasing safety for drivers using the structure, rebuilding parts of the bridge with recycled or reusable material and integrating renewable energy, like solar power, to melt snow and ice.
“This opens up opportunities that you probably haven’t had before,” he told the commission earlier this year. “(We can) make this not only a bridge to the past, but a bridge to the future.”
Plunkett’s ideas come with a hefty price tag— it would probably cost double the $1.6 million originally planned and Plunkett said he could probably raise an additional half-million, but it still won’t be enough.
“Why should you folks here in this area try to restore a historic bridge when you don’t even have the money to rebuild after the floods?” he said. “You can’t pay the $1.6 million and I know you can’t pay $3.2 million, and you shouldn’t have to.
“I think you’re looking at double your amount. And I think you can get the money.” [...]
Though the changes would make the Devils Elbow bridge one of the future, its inherent design wouldn’t change much. Keeping its historical value intact is key.
“There really is no other bridge that I know of that you can do what we can do with that one,” Plunkett said. “This is a bridge of great historical culture. It’s a marvelous opportunity.”
I’m skeptical this can be pulled off. But there’s no harm with Plunkett and others trying.
Look! Up in the sky … April 17, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Events, Toys.add a comment
If you’re traveling through Joplin, Mo., on Route 66 this weekend, you might see a lot more activity in the air on the west side of town than usual.
From the Joplin Globe:
Members of the Joplin Kite Club are inviting residents to join them as they take to the skies on Saturday and Sunday when they launch Kites Over Route 66.
The event will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to noon Sunday at the Joplin Sports Complex, 3301 W. First St.
The event will include demonstrations of single-line, dual-line, cart and stunt flying. The public is also invited to take part in the festivities by bringing their own kites, test fly some of the professional kites on hand and even make their own kites. [...]
The location of the kite-flying is near Schifferdecker Park, which is next to Route 66 on Joplin’s west side. So, even if activities are a few blocks off the Mother Road, it’s reasonable to believe the kites, if they get enough altitude, can be seen from the highway.
The forecast may be a bit iffy, however, with a chance of rain both days and mostly light winds.