The City of Normal, Ill., has given a $46,695 grant to a woman so she can put a new roof and install temporary heating in her 1930s gas station on an old alignment of Route 66, reports the Bloomington Pantagraph. She plans to eventually convert the gas station into a restaurant, visitors center and bed-and-breakfast.
[Terri] Ryburn, retired assistant director of kinesiology and recreation at Illinois State University, wants to restore the Tudor Revival-style structure to its original condition — something she says will take about $1.2 million.
She has already received a $20,000 federal grant and is seeking a grant from the state’s Tourism Attraction Development Program.
“I want to restore it, not just remodel or renovate,” she said. […]
Ryburn also is hoping to get the site — one of only three along Route 66 with an owner’s apartment and a tenant apartment on the second floor — on the National Register of Historic Places, a designation that could open up more grant opportunities.
You can read more about Ryburn’s project here. The $1.2 million cost is a lot, but I’m betting she will get a lot of donated materials and help, especially from the Illinois Route 66 Association, to defray much of the cost.