The Chicago Tribune reports that the nearby Route 66 town of Joliet, Ill., is seeking a grant from the National Park Service to restore the Rich & Creamy ice-cream store on the 900 block of Broadway St.
(City Manager John) Mezera said the site's design is typical of ice cream stores that dotted Route 66 in the national thoroughfare's heyday, when Broadway was a leg of the highway in Joliet.
The store is "the only one of its kind left" in the area, he said.
Some of the grant would cover the cost of interpretive signs in the 10-acre park on the west side of the Des Plaines River, where the Rich & Creamy store sits. The signs would address the relevance of the ice cream store and Route 66.
Speaking of ice cream, Joliet has the very first Dairy Queen which now sits vacant. It would be great if the company would turn it into a museum.
That Broadway Greenway is a beautiful park.
Jeez … the very first DQ, and it just sits empty?
You know, this is a disconcerting thread with a lot of corporations (by no means all, mind you) that turn their back on their history and roots.
You’d think that McDonald’s would throw a few hundred thou of its megaprofits to preserve its first restaurant in Southern California. But no.