City of Lincoln approves funds for The Mill restoration

The city council of Lincoln, Illinois, this week approved $12,000 in motel-tax funds to help finish restoring The Mill, a now-closed restaurant on Route 66 that eventually will become a museum.

According to the Lincoln Courier, the Route 66 Heritage Foundation of Logan County plans to use the money for plumbing and sewer-line work. The money will go to the foundation as soon as the work is finished.

The foundation seeks to receive a matching grant from the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program. If the matching grant arrives by May, work will begin in September.

In an earlier story, foundation secretary Geoff Ladd said if the federal grant arrives and the plumbing work to make The Mill handicapped-accessible begins in the fall, the Route 66 landmark likely will open to the public by spring 2017.

Once completed, the museum would be staffed by volunteers on the same schedule as the Postville Courthouse historic site, and be open between April and November to capture the majority of the Route 66 tourist traffic. In addition to the museum display items, they plan to have a Route 66 merchandise gift shop.

Ladd stressed the importance of Route 66 tourism for Lincoln, citing statistics about how many people travel the Mother Road and how much money those travelers spend on average. He said Lincoln has event-based tourism but it also has daily tourism, and Lincoln needs to do more to get those tourists who are traveling down Route 66 every day to stop and stay and spend money in Lincoln.

Ladd also made a presentation about The Mill, which may be viewed here (PDF file). A lot of photos from the years of restoration work are in it.

During another recent presentation, Ladd said the foundation had acquired a number of Route 66 artifacts for The Mill:

He noted that the Mill was able to acquire the Crossroads Motel sign from the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital when, after purchasing the desolate motel in Lincoln, they demolished it recently. He also has the lighted and working sign from the Mill. He noted there is a collection of newspaper advertisements for the Mill dating back to 1928, and items from the Pig Hip in Broadwell, which was also a Route 66 icon.

Ladd reported that with the recent closing of Hallie’s on the Square, which was owned by the grandson of Mill owner Blossom Huffman, he had acquired some of the quirky items that were originally part of the uniqueness of the Mill.

The Mill, which featured a Dutch-inspired design and a turning windmill, opened on U.S. 66 in 1929. The Dutch-style restaurant fell into decline during the 1980s and closed in 1996.

It appeared ten years ago the fast-declining structure would be razed, but Ladd and other area preservationists intervened and formed a resurrection plan. The Mill is on the Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame, and members of the Illinois Route 66 Association have done several big renovations for it.

(Image of The Mill in 2009 by Brian Marsh via Flickr)