Doc’s Soda Fountain in Girard is up for sale

Doc’s Soda Fountain in downtown Girard, Illinois, is on the market, according to a recent Facebook post from ROUTE Magazine.

Here’s what the post stated:

ANOTHER GREAT ROUTE 66 SPOT IS UP FOR SALE
Doc’s Soda Fountain in the heart of Girard, Illinois, is up for sale. What a great opportunity for someone to own a piece of history on Illinois’ wonderful portion of Route 66.
The purchase includes a turn-key restaurant with a pharmacy museum from the late 1800s to the present. It is an awesome spot.
Contact: 217-627-3401

The phone number connects to The Furniture Doctor store, also in downtown Girard. Bob and Renae Ernst own that store and the drugstore building.

Doc’s closed “temporarily” on June 24, announced its Facebook account.

The Deck brothers ran Deck’s Drug Store at that location for many years, before it became Doc’s Soda Fountain. Bill Deck died at age 91 in 2018, and Bob Deck died at age 82 in 2013.

The Deck brothers’ grandfather started Deck’s Drug Store in 1884. The soda fountain dates to 1929.

When the Ernsts bought the drugstore building in 2007 and renamed it Doc’s Soda Fountain, the Decks loaned them their pharmacy collection. Doc’s Soda Fountain became a popular stop for Route 66 travelers and nostalgia buffs.

The site at 133 S. Second St. in Girard remains just a stone’s throw from Illinois Route 4, the old alignment of Route 66 before the highway was realigned to the east during the 1930s.

(Image of Doc’s Soda Fountain in Girard, Illinois, by Bruce Wicks via Flickr)