WSEC-TV, a PBS affiliate in Springfield, Illinois, recently posted a video tour of Route 66 Motorheads Bar, Grill and Museum in Springfield and talked with its enthusiastic owner, Ron Metzger.
As you’ll see from the 27-minute video, Metzger has collected all sorts of memorabilia from defunct Route 66 landmarks such as Shea’s Gas Station Museum, Bel-Air Motel and Art’s Motel in nearby Farmersville, to name a few.
The station won’t allow the video so be embedded, so you’ll have to watch it on YouTube here.
The complex, which once was a Stuckey’s on the city’s south side, also contains a lot of stuff from Springfield’s surprisingly extensive auto-racing history, hence its name.
It’s obvious from the video you could spend a couple of hours just looking around the place.
Route 66 Motorheads sits on Toronto Road near a later alignment of Route 66, west of Interstate 55 (map here).
UPDATE 8/31/2019: The Springfield State Journal-Register reports Metzger installed a genuine Stuckey’s sign in his beer garden.
The 10-by-30-foot sign originally stood on old U.S. 36 near New Berlin, Illinois, in 1970 until the restaurant moved to the location where Motorheads is. In the last five decades, the metal sign had been sitting behind a chicken coop.
(Screen-capture image of WSEC-TV video of Shea’s Gas Station Museum display at Route 66 Motorheads Bar, Grill and Museum in Springfield, Illinois)
Just watched the video and can’t wait to go check out Motorheads. Thanks for sharing.
On your advice, my wife and I drove to Springfield from Chicago last Saturday for an “end of summer” 66 road trip… We had the most amazing lunch at Motorheads, and then toured the museum and had a great chat with the owner and his manager… I highly recommend it for its food, its great atmosphere, and foremost, to support someone who is trying to keep the spirit of Route 66 alive… he just built a bandstand and will be doing outdoor concerts, poker runs, car shows… it’s an amazing property and we will be going back!