The Mill, a historic former restaurant on Route 66 in Lincoln, Ill., will receive a $10,000 cost-share grant from the National Park Service’s Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program, reported the Bloomington Pantagraph.
“This is really good news for us because it allows us to put a new foundation around the building, which will give it stability,” said Geoff Ladd, Route 66 Heritage Foundation chairman. […]
Officials are estimating it will take around $100,000 to fully restore The Mill. So far, about $45,000 has been raised.
The Mill dates to 1929, and for a while was a dancing ballroom in addition to being a German-style restaurant. It closed in 1996, and the neglected structure was slated to be demolished by the city in 2006 until Ladd intervened in with a preservation plan.
That reminds me — I haven’t received a full list of Route 66 cost-share grant recipients for 2009. I’ll contact the Preservation Program and pass along that information when I get it.