Route 66 is a great place to see the evolution of restaurants into to the Streamline Modern at Steak 'n' Shake at Bloomington. The style promised a clean place to sip their shakes, nosh on burgers, and slurp up chili.
Art started with a restaurant in Divernon, which is fairly close to St. Louis, but decided later to build a motel and erected a billboard. When I-55 replaced 66, he mounted a tall sign to get travlers' attention.
Russell Soulsby helped his father, Henry, built the little Shell Station in Mount Olive. He and his sister, Ola, came outside for a portrait. When Ola died, it turned out that she owned the gas station, but Russell ran it.
The Streamline Moderne sign over the Site Service Station, near Edwardsville, is one of many built by its own. |
