The Nite Spot Cafe along an old section of Route 66 in Fairmont City, Illinois, made the Landmarks Illinois’ annual Most Endangered Historic Places list.
Landmarks Illinois explained the reason for the list:
The purpose of the list is to focus attention on sites threatened by deterioration, lack of maintenance, insufficient funds, or inappropriate development and to bolster local advocacy efforts and build support for each property’s eventual preservation. The Most Endangered Historic Places in Illinois list also draws attention to important policy issues that affect these properties and historic properties throughout the state.
This is what Landmarks Illinois said about the restaurant:
This former restaurant along Route 66 features an iconic mid-century, neon sign outside that continues to remind passersby of a bygone era when families and tourists hit the “Mother Road” – the historic highway from Chicago to Los Angeles. The Nite Spot Café closed in 1984 and remains vacant. The building is threatened with condemnation and demolition by Fairmont City, despite the owner’s plans to complete the necessary structural repairs this year.
The Nite Spot, at 45th Street and Collinsville Road (aka Route 66), originally was a one-room building purchased in 1947 by Adam and Anne Galas, who renovated into a 24-hour restaurant. The distinctive neon sign was added in the 1960s.
The Galases died many years ago, but their descendants want to reopen the building as a Route 66 destination and are pursuing a designation to the National Register of Historic Places.
But the city wants to condemn the building, possibly to make away for a library expansion. The Galas family faces a court hearing over the matter this summer.
Landmarks Illinois urges those who want to preserve the Nite Spot Cafe to contact Fairmont City trustees and tell them you support the building’s rehabilitation.
Other sites on the Illinois endangered list:
- The Forum, Chicago
- James R. Thompson Center, Chicago
- Second Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago
- Chautauquas and Tabernacles, in Des Plaines, Freeport and Shelbyville
- Varsity Theater block, Evanston
- Central Congregational Church, Galesburg
- Early settlement-era buildings, Geneva
- Kincaid Mounds, Massac and Pope counties
- Old Nichols Library, Naperville
- Rock Island County Courthouse
- Stran-Steel House, Wilmette
(Image of the Nite Spot Cafe in Fairmont City, Illinois, by Landmarks Illinois via Flickr)
A nice looking little place. I hope they can save it.