J.D. Hawes Grain Elevator Museum in Atlanta remains an attraction 40 years after it closed

If you’ve never received a tour inside the J.H. Hawes Grain Elevator Museum in Atlanta, Illinois, a recent article by an area newspaper will give you the next best thing.

The Bloomington Pantagraph posted a bunch of photographs and a video of the historic landmark just off Route 66 as part of its “Off Limits” series, which examines places that typically are restricted or closed to the public.

The article is well worth your time. A history:

Construction of the elevator began in 1903, and it opened in 1904 near the crossover of the Chicago and Alton Railroad — now known as the Southern Pacific Railroad — and the Old Illinois Midland Railroad, whose tracks have since been removed.

According to the National Register of Historic Places, the elevator was built by the McIntyre and Wykle construction company, which had previously built Atlanta High School and the Chicago & Alton Railroad Depot in Atlanta.

With a capacity of 30,000 bushels, Nordman said the elevator operated for decades before closing down in 1976. In 1988, the city had planned to burn it down as a training opportunity for the local fire department. 

Instead, a group of concerned citizens banded together to create the Atlanta Historical Preservation Council and begin restoring the elevator. Their work eventually landed the elevator a listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. 

The complex includes a scale house (formerly used by Cracker Jack Co.), an engine house powered by a 10-horsepower 1920 Fairbanks Marris gasoline engine, and a 1927 boxcar.

During the early days of Route 66 News in 2005, the Hawes Elevator had boasted of the most creative websites I’ve encountered. On a blank screen, a single kernel of corn fell with a “plink” to the bottom, then several more, and finally a rush of grain as the website loaded. Alas, that website seems to have disappeared from the internet years ago.

Growing up in central Illinois, I can attest to these wooden elevators dotting the landscape but were fast disappearing even during my childhood. The fact this 55-foot-tall structure has survived through the years is darned near a miracle.

(Image of the J.H. Hawes Elevator in Atlanta, Illinois, by Randy von Liski via Flickr)

2 thoughts on “J.D. Hawes Grain Elevator Museum in Atlanta remains an attraction 40 years after it closed

  1. Good story. When we visited Atlanta a few years back, we did not have the opportunity to visit the elevator, though we took some photos. Definitely on the to-do list when we go back.

  2. Pedantic, petty, and trivial, I know, but… (1) the Southern Pacific Railroad ceased to exist in 1996, when it was merged into, and absorbed by, the Union Pacific Railroad. Further, the SPRR did not acquire the former Chicago & Alton line until 1989, thirteen years AFTER Hawes elevator had closed. (2) The “Illinois Midland” railroad referred to in the Pantagraph article should not be confused with a different Illinois railroad that now bears that name. The IM that served Hawes elevator was, more accurately, the Pennsylvania Railroad’s former Terre Haute & Peoria Line, which, by the way, predated the elevator by several years.

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