Sprague's Super Center

Route 66 was only four years old when William Sprague built a two-story, Tudor-style gas station at 305 Pine Street in Normal in around 1930. It is one of only five, two-story gas stations left on Route 66 from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California. The building housed a café, a Cities Service gas station, a two-bay garage, and living quarters above for the owner and the mechanic/attendant. Small cabins were added in the back of the station to house travelers in 1937, but no trace of the cabins remain today.

By 1941, the four-lane alignment of Route 66 called the Belt Line (today Veterans Parkway) was completed around Bloomington-Normal, which greatly reduced the traffic on the original 1926 alignment. Because of this, Sprague sold the station and it passed through numerous hands over the years. Until it was purchased by preservationist Terri Ryburn in 2006, the building was home to a variety of businesses including a restaurant, car rental and Yello Cab company, the Greyhound Bus stop, and a bridal shop, wedding cake, and catering business.

Ryburn led an ambitious restoration effort. She secured its place on the National Register of Historic Places, the Route 66 Association of Illinois Hall of Fame, and as a Town of Normal Local Landmark. In 2016, she sold the building to the Town of Normal to ensure its long-term preservation and opened Ryburn Place Gifts & Gab on the first floor in 2017. Be sure to stop in!