The historic sign at the site of the Pig Hip Restaurant in Broadwell, Ill., was restored by members of the Illinois Route 66 Association last weekend, reported The Logan County Herald.
The newspaper reported:
The original sign had been blown down by a storm and association members had restored, rebuilt and replaced damaged elements to recreate a sign as close to the original as possible with a much stronger support to prevent the sign from succumbing to high winds again.
The newspaper’s story includes several photos of volunteers putting up the sign, including longtime Illinois Route 66 preservationist John Weiss.
The Pig Hip was owned for more than 50 years by Ernie Edwards, who died at age 94 in April. Edwards was among the first to be inducted into the Route 66 Association of Illinois Hall of Fame.
The restaurant, converted into a museum after Edwards’ retirement, was destroyed by fire in 2007 and not rebuilt.
I wondered what had happened to the sign! I didn’t know if it was gone forever, or saved somewhere. Glad to hear it’s been restored and is back in place!
Oh, this is good to hear. We wondered about the sign, too!
Same here. I thought I was losing it when I went through Broadwell and didn’t see the sign. Let’s be honest, it doesn’t exactly get lost in the mass of signage in metropoltan Broadwell. I almost wrote to Ron and asked about, but figured it MUST have been there, and I just missed it somehow.