A fire Friday night extensively damaged the historic Parkview Food and Pub restaurant, formerly the Parkview Inn, in Bloomington, Illinois, but its owners vowed to rebuild.
A fire in the exhaust hood caused $300,000 in damage, reported the Bloomington Pantagraph.
The Parkview sits on a 1930 to 1940 alignment of Route 66 at 1003 Morris Ave. (map here).
The McLean county Museum of History told the newspaper the restaurant has been there since 1928.
More details about the fire:
Workers and firefighters cleared patrons from the restaurant just after firefighters arrived during the dinner hour. Firefighters found smoke and flames when they went outside to check the roof and vents after learning about an earlier fire in the hood system.
Firefighters worked inside until the attic fire grew and they moved outside for safety; the roof partially collapsed while they fought the fire from the exterior. Firefighters were able to reenter the building about an hour later.
WJBC radio in Bloomington posted this photo of the fire in progress on its Facebook page:
The station said it was Bloomington’s oldest restaurant that remained in the same site.
The Parkview wrote on its Facebook page Saturday:
First of all we would like to thank all of our customers and neighbors for the support that was shown last evening during the fire. We will keep everyone updated via Facebook on any news. We will be rebuilding. Thank you all!
(Excerpted image of the Parkview Inn in November 2015 via Google Street View)