The Bloomington-Normal Area Convention and Visitors Bureau won a $150,000 state tourism grant for further restorations to Sprague’s Super Service in Normal, Illinois, before Route 66’s centennial next year.
According to WGLT radio, the money comes from the Route 66 Grant Program, which aims to preserve and educate travelers along the state’s Route 66 corridor.
The funds will be used for two projects at the historic gas station, said the local tourism bureau’s chief operating officer, Zach Dietmeier.
“It was a focus for us as we start to look toward event planning for the centennial celebration of Route 66 next year,” he said. “So, we identified Sprague’s station as a very key stopping point along the route in Bloomington-Normal … For us, making sure that any way we can work to make the visitor experience better along Route 66 in Bloomington-Normal and McLean County was a focus.”
The historic former gas station will get two functional garage doors and a concrete pad behind the building for programming next year.
“It’s a beautiful location. It’s heavily used in the marketing efforts internationally for Illinois,” Dietmeier said. “With this $150,000, we’re using it for a lot of the aesthetic work to maintain the facility and really the attractiveness of the site that we have experienced ever since it reopened in the last 10 years.”
The work aims to restore the historic site, now owned by the Town of Normal, to its original state.
“Part of what the work has begun with at the Town of Normal level was centered around returning the building to its original footprint,” he said. “So, there had been an addition added at some point during the history of the facility, that was removed. It’s more of the original footprint of the gas station during the Route 66 peak years, decades ago.”
Sprague Super Service was built in 1931 on Route 66 by William Sprague. It was unique in its design as both a gas station and a residence.
It originally sold City Service gas, but it became other businesses by the 1940s, and the pumps were removed by 1979. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places.
(Image of Sprague Super Service station by Randy von Liski via Flickr)