SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau is hoping to open the interior doors to an iconic Route 66 destination later this summer.
That’s not the only project on its “to do list” as the centennial of the Mother Road gets kicked off.
A boat tour on Lake Springfield later this summer will give the public the inside scoop on a “submerged” part of Route 66.
A grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity will help Visit Springfield to freshen up another former gas station near the Lincoln Home area.
Visit Springfield published a full list of centennial and “co-branded” events on its website earlier last week.
Director Scott Dahl said that the collision between the Route 66 centennial, America’s 250th anniversary, the full opening of SCHEELS Sports Park and the FIFA World Cup, which has matches in Kansas City, traveler expenditures in the Springfield area will exceed $650 million.
Route 66, running over 2,400 miles from Chicago to Santa Monica, California, was designated in 1926.
Shops, service stations and motels sprouted up in towns along the Mother Road before it was decommissioned in 1985.
Springfield is home to parts of three alignments of Route 66, including the original alignment from 1926 to 1930.
Casey Claypool, executive director of the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway and a Chatham resident, said about 40% of Route 66 travelers are from overseas.
Darrin Thurman said those visitors want “a real dose of Americana.”
“They want to experience what America is all about, not just the coastal cities, not just the large cities, but the Plains and going across the country,” added Thurman, tourism manager for Visit Springfield.
In May 2024, visitors to the former Shea’s gas station, 2075 Peoria Road, were allowed on its grounds for the first time in a decade.
A DCEO grant helped the city of Springfield upgrade the grounds, pave the parking area, repaint the building and put up reproduction signage.
“I know our travelers appreciate being able to get on to the grounds, but we know they really want to get inside because there’s a lot of originality inside, a lot of Bill Shea inside,” Dahl said.
The building operated as a Texaco and later a Marathon gas station from 1946 to 1982 before being turned into a museum by Shea and his wife, Helen.
Dahl anticipated work on the long empty Clark gas station on Ninth Street just south of Lincoln’s Home, to begin in the next month or so. It will give visitors a chance for photos of the exterior of the building, he said.
“It will be brought back and that corner (at Ninth and Edwards streets) will be cleaned up,” Dahl added.
During the summer, in conjunction with the Lake Springfield Marina, there will be free boat tours, Thurman said, discussing the part of the Route 66 alignment that ended up at bottom of Lake Springfield.
The Hemmings Great Race will return to Springfield, but this year the city will be the starting point for some 125 drivers and their classic vehicles.
The three-day kickoff (June 18-20) will include a public event at the Route 66 Experience at the fairgrounds.
Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Get your kicks-off: Springfield will be center to Route 66 centennial
Reporting by Steven Spearie, Springfield State Journal-Register / State Journal-Register
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