As I note in my page on setting priorities for a Route 66 road trip, there are multiple Route 66s to explore. As traffic grew, new stretches of Route 66 were built to straighten out curves, level out hills, better handle increased traffic, and bypass towns overwhelmed by traffic.
Usually new “alignments” were built near previous alignments, but south of Springfield there are two alignments that are as much as 10 miles apart. The 1926-1930 alignment mostly follows what’s now IL 4, while the 1930s alignment is closer to I-55.
There are great things to see on both alignments, but we didn’t want to backtrack and drive both of them. We split the difference. We drove the 1926 alignment from Springfield to Carlinsville, then cut over to join the 1930s alignment at Litchfield.
About 10 miles south of Springfield is a Route 66 treat: a 1.4 mile stretch of road paved in brick.
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| Brick highway north of Auburn, Illinois |
To find it, about 3 miles before Auburn, Illinois, turn right on Snell Road (on the left side of IL 4 it’s Hambuch Road). The brick road curves left to join IL 18 (Curran Road), which rejoins IL 4.
The National Park Service says this stretch was first paved in concrete around 1921. It was widened and paved with brick in 1932…two years after Route 66 was moved east. I’ve read several possible reasons why this segment was paved in brick. I think the most plausible story is that a local brick manufacturer did this segment to demonstrate the feasibility of brick road paving.
About 10 miles south of Auburn, we had a terrific lunch at the 1957 Whirl-a-Whip in Girard, Illinois.
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| Whirl-a-Whip in Girard, Illinois |
Check that cool old sign! This is a counter service restaurant, with outdoor seating, open seasonally. We ordered two regional specialties. My husband had a huge pork tenderloin sandwich.
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| Pork tenderloin sandwich at Whirl-a-Whip in Girard, Illinois |
I got a horseshoe, which is a piece of bread topped with meat, fries, and a creamy cheese sauce.
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| Horseshoe at Whirl-a-Whip in Girard, Illinois |
I chose pork tenderloin as my meat. To be honest, I didn’t order a horseshoe—this is a ponyshoe, a smaller version of a horseshoe. It was still huge.
Even with these huge lunches, we managed to share some ice cream for dessert (as my husband says, it seeps down between the cracks) before heading off again.
Just past the Whirl-a-Whip, turn right (west) on West Franklin, then left (south) on South 6th Street. This becomes Cambridge Road, then 1950E Road. This stretch of Route 66 was built in 1919, so it’s older than Route 66. (And, yes, this is the stretch of Route 66 shown on the home page of this blog.)
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| 1919 stretch of Route 66 between Girard and Nilwood |
It was very cool to drive on a road over 100 years old! This photo with our vehicle shows how narrow the road is.
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| Another shot of the 1919 stretch of Route 66 between Girard and Nilwood, Illinois |
To continue on this original stretch of Route 66: when 1950E road ends at 2800 N Road, turn right (west) on 2800 N Road. In about a half mile, it turns left (south) and becomes North Standard City Rad. In other half mile, turn right (west) on 2750 N Road. When you reach the town of Nilwood, 2750 N Road turns left (south) and becomes Pine Street. In a few hundred feet, turn right (west) on Morean Street, which returns you to IL 4.
About a mile past Nilwood is another old stretch of Route 66, this one from the 1920s. Turn left (east) on Carlinville Cutoff Road, then take an immediate right (south) on Donaldson Road. This old stretch has an extra treat. In about a quarter mile, there are turkey tracks in the concrete.
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| 100-year-old turkey tracks south of Nilwood, Illinois |
You won’t miss them—someone has thoughtfully put up a sign and marked the tracks with road paint and (now fading) Route 66 shields..
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| Turkey tracks sign |
About 8 miles south of the turkey tracks is the town
of Carlinville, Illinois.
According to Jim Hinckley in his book Travel Route 66, in 1918 Standard Oil expanded its mining operations here and faced a housing shortage for its workers. The company solved the problem by buying and building 150 Sears mail-order homes in a section of Carlinville known as the Standard Addition. We thought this would be interesting to see, so we detoured off IL 4 and drove down Johnson Street, which was in the middle of the 12-block Standard addition. We thought it would look like an early version of Levittown (modest houses all originally the same model, but now altered over the years), but it ended up not being very interesting. There are a lot of older houses, but they’re all very different styles. We weren’t even sure which houses would have been Sears mail-order houses.
We rejoined IL 4 and drove through Carlinville’s historic district, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. The center of town is a square featuring an adorable “rotunda.”
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| Carlinville rotunda (from EnjoyIllinois.com) |
The square is surrounded by charming Victorian buildings.
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| Downtown Carlinville (from Carlinville.com) |
Just past the square (which is really an oval), Route 66 turns left (east) on East 1st South Street. In just a block on the left is the Macoupin County Courthouse.
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| Macoupin County Courthouse in Carlinville, Illinois (from MyJournalCourier.com) |
It was built in 1870 at a cost of over $1 million—an extravagant sum that immediately led to an investigation into construction graft. This article tells more of the story.
Across the street from the Courthouse is the Macoupin County Jail, built in 1869. .
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| Macoupin County Jail in Carlinville, Illinois (from MacoupinCountyIL.gov) |
This description of the jail explains how surplus Civil War cannonballs were used in its construction to prevent jailbreaks.
After Carlinville, we left the 1926 alignment of Route 66 and drove east to Litchfield, Illinois, to continue our trip on the 1930s alignment.
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