Kansas City Workhouse

We were on our way to find some BBQ in Kansas City, Missouri, when we caught sight of what appeared to be a castle at 21st and Vine. We veered off to have a look.
As luck would have it, it was a beautiful specimen, and was for sale! I just know my husband is working on acquiring the building for his queen. Or, more likely, so that he can host haunted houses there.
The building was built as a workhouse, or prison, in the late 1800s. Prisoners built the building using stone from a nearby quarry.
From about 1918-1970 the impressive stone structure was used as city office space, after which it was abandoned.
It looks like vandals have had their way with it in recent years, but the structure still looks good.

Kansas City Workhouse (Brant’s Castle)
2001 Vine Street
Kansas City, MO 64108

Frederick C. Bogk House

The Frederick C. Bogk House, built in 1917, is Frank Lloyd Wright's only single-family residential project in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The house is located on N. Terrace Avenue and is used as a private residence.

Frederick C. Bogk House
2420 N. Terrace Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53211

Springdale Cemetery Gatehouse

My first trip into Springdale Cemetery in Peoria, Illinois was some time in early 2000.

A friend of mine who was familiar with the layout showed me and a couple of other people around.

Since then, I've been on group hikes and hikes with my dad, enjoying all the beauty that can be found in the cemetery.

I have also followed the news stories about the impending fate of the gatehouse in the cemetery.

The gatehouse was built in 1900 in the craftsman bungalow style. Initially an office and residence, the building is located at the lower entrance to the cemetery.

In July 2008, the cemetery's management authority voted 4-3 to demolish the gatehouse as the cost to repair, $800,000 or more, is too great.

In March 2009, the Historic Preservation Commission voted 5-1 to endorse a controlled demolition of the building with the stones and roof tiles removed and stored. Plans would be to rebuild as originally constructed.

The gatehouse sits on the Rock Island Trail and could make a nice pit stop for travelers of the trail.

As of December 29, 2009, a sign posted on the fence reads: Please contribute to the restoration of this gate house. Please send your check to Carolyn Kraft, 9919 N. Jamaica Dr., Peoria IL 61615. Phone: (309) 691-5537.

I hope it will indeed be preserved and/or rebuilt using the salvaged materials so it can be enjoyed for another hundred years.

Springdale Cemetery

3014 N. Prospect Rd.

Peoria, IL 61603

Wadhams pagoda-style gas station

With its unique pagoda-style design, Wadhams Gas Station in West Allis, Wisconsin is one place I wanted to take a look at.

Built by Milwaukee architect Alexander Eschweiller in 1916, the steel-frame, glass-walled design is considered iconic.

The station was restored to the 1950 appearance in 2000 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in the summer of 2004.

The building is quite beautiful with its remarkable red roof, and there are also lovely stained glass inserts in the roof displaying the letter W.

Looking inside the windows at the historic display, I was amazed at how tiny and efficient the space was and could imagine an employee hard at work in this tiny pagoda.

There are several old cans and bottles of petroleum products on display, and I thought it was funny how many variations of Mobil hand lotion there were. The mechanics must have been concerned about keeping their hands soft and supple back then!

There were also several neat maps and brochures on display.

While at the site, my husband checked the Geocaching web site and found there was a cache hidden on site, so we searched for that for a while before finding it, then logged our find and continued our travels.

Wadhams Gas Station

1647 South 76th Street

West Allis, WI 53214

Route 66 Garage Sale

June 12 and 13 marked the third anniversary of the Route 66 Garage Sale, and that Saturday we decided to check it out for the first time.

The towns involved included Atlanta, Lincoln, Broadwell and Elkhart, all in Illinois.

We didn't find much of interest at the garage sales themselves. Maybe all of the goodies were snatched up on Friday before we got there.

We spoke to a gentleman at Krotz & Sons in Lincoln who said that the first year these garage sales were held, people lined up their wares along Route 66. This time, the sales were found by following many hand made signs weaving back and forth into neighborhoods, which made it a bit difficult for people not familiar with the area.

We did take the opportunity to do a bit more exploring of the Route 66 area while we were out.

I found out that the Palms Grill Café in Atlanta had recently been reopened for breakfast and lunch, and seeing that they served chocolate malts, I decided this would be the perfect time to stop in and sample one.

The back of the menu read: Step back in time at the Palms Grill Café. The Grill, as folks in town called it, opened in August 1934 in "the center of Atlanta on Rt. 66", serving locals and travelers alike. The Grill provided home-cooked meals, plus Bingo games and weekly dances in the backroom. Atlanta's children took advantage of its weekday "School Children's Plate Lunch" — which included a "choice of three meats and two vegetables and drink" all for 45 cents! The Grill was the local Greyhound Bus Stop, so if you wanted to catch the bus, you just flipped the switch for the light on the bottom of the Grill's large neon sign. The original Grill closed in the late 1960s. The Atlanta Library and Museum, along with generous financial support from Atlanta citizens, the Illinois Bureau of Tourism, and the National Park Service's Rt. 66 Corridor Preservation Project, have recreated the Grill so it can once again serve Rt. 66 travelers and folks of this fair community.

Why the name "Palms Grill Café"? Atlanta local Robert Adams was inspired by the palm trees

he saw in California while on a trip there. When he returned to Atlanta to open a restaurant, he wanted to be reminded of the sunshine state, so he named the establishment The Palms Grill Café and ensured that a live palm three was included in its interior decor.

I loved the decor of the restaurant, from the marble countertop where we enjoyed our wonderful chocolaty malts to the white

tin stamped ceiling, to the tile on the bathroom floor. Almost everything looked clean and new, yet period appropriate.

There was even an old refrigerator behind the counter (you can see a glimpse of it behind our malts), which we assumed was just for display, but we got a kick out of seeing our server grab hold of the old curved metal handle to pull open the door, revealing a nice array of fresh pies inside.

Even the glasses and saucers we were served with seemed period appropriate. There were a lot of nice touches used.

Moving down the road to Lincoln, we stopped at an antique store downtown.

Stepping out of the car, we noticed a retro looking metal box hanging on a pole near the curb.

Thinking it might be a meter of some sort, I looked at the name plate on the front: Traf-O-Teria, which gave me a chuckle.

My husband walked into the antique store as I was snapping a photo, and the lady inside was laughing and asked if I had never seen a ticket payment box before.

Our next stop was Broadwell, where we got out at the Pig Hip museum and visited with the former owner and his wife. Very nice folks! I felt like we would have been at home stepping up into the kitchen and joining Ernie at the kitchen table while he ate his lunch.

The Pig Hip Restaurant operated from 1937-1991, then housed Route 66 memorabilia until fire destroyed the building in early 2007.

There are several photographs, newspaper stories and books on display at the site.

Our last stop on the route was Elkhart.

We checked out Horsefeathers wares, then headed out to Springfield for a late lunch.

I soon realized that we had forgotten to look for an attraction I had heard about in Elkhart, the 1915 John P. Gillett Memorial Bridge, so on our way back home we hunted it down.

This photo does not do the bridge justice. The arch is very tall, and the area is heavily wooded and beautiful, with trees creating a lovely shady canopy over the bridge.

The bridge was built by Emma Gillett Oglesby in memory of her brother, John Parke Gillett, and was on the "Ten Most Endangered" historic places list in Illinois in 2005. The bridge has since been stabilized.

On our way to the bridge along County Road 10, we saw a beautiful cemetery, supposedly haunted by the ghost of Emma Gillett Oglesby. From this website I learned her ghost: still visits the (Oglesby) tomb. However, as she kneels before the vault she is interrupted by a group of spectral Indians who chase her off across the bridge leading over the road by the cemetery. A number of photographs have captured weird phenomena as mist and apparitions, not seen by the eye, appear in pictures. A swirling vortex was photographed over one grave. At the back of the cemetery there is a fence separating the grave yard from the woods. Here, people have reported seeing dark colored apparitions and hearing the sounds of voices and footsteps.

The cemetery is also very beautiful, flanked by intricate iron gates. The gates are Gillett memorial gates erected November 1939. Again, it was difficult for me to capture how beautiful these were with my point and shoot.

In the cemetery we also saw a wonderful Gothic stone chapel, the John Dean Gillett Memorial Chapel, which is the only privately owned and operated church in Illinois.

The chapel was built by the wife of John Dean Gillett.

Palms Grill Café

110 SW Arch Street

Atlanta, IL 61723

Elkhart Cemetery, John Dean Gillett Memorial Chapel and railroad bridge

County Rd. 10 (700th Street)

Elkhart, IL 62634

Pioneer Gothic Church

Once I found out that Dwight, Illinois is home to a rare wood framed Carpenter Gothic church, I was determined to track it down and have a look.
We visited the site on April 12, 2009.
This church was built by a Presbyterian congregation in the later 1850s in Carpenter Gothic style, a North American architectural designation for an application of Gothic Revival details applied to wooden structures built by house carpenters.
With wood being scarce, and the added threat of fire in prairie regions, this type of architecture was not common to Illinois.
The Pioneer Gothic Church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

Pioneer Gothic Church
201 N Franklin Street
Dwight, IL 60420

Tinker Swiss Cottage

On our visit to Rockford, Illinois in March, we stopped to see the Tinker Swiss Cottage.
The architecture of the building was beautiful, and StfRon was interested in taking the tour, so we paid our $12 admission in the gift shop and waited for the tour to start.
On this rainy Saturday in March, we were the only two waiting for the 3:00 tour, so we got a private tour of sorts.
Built in 1865 by Robert Hall Tinker, the house is filled with stunning woodwork. We started in the sun porch area, and I don't think I would ever have grown tired of studying the room.
The gentleman who gave us our tour was engaging and full of interesting stories, and the house was very impressive with all of its beautiful wood and hand painted scenes on the walls and ceilings.
The property was left to the Rockford Park District by the family, and all of the belongings were intact when the park district took over. As a result, there is a lot of good information on the history, including some diaries kept by Tinker.
I had heard about the suspension bridge on the property and was looking forward to walking across it, but it was closed during our visit.
Due to the heavy rain that day, I forgot to get a photo of the exterior (photography is not allowed of the interior). I'll stop back on a sunny day and take a picture of the house, and hopefully get to test out the suspension bridge as well. Actually, we also need to go back to take another stab at finding the geocache located on the Tinker Swiss property. We looked for a bit, but the rain eventually sent us back to the car.

Tinker Swiss Cottage Museum
411 Kent Street
Rockford, IL 61102

AMVETS Post 64

The AMVETS Post 64 building in Peoria, Illinois recently came to the forefront of the local news because the city's historic preservation commission decided the downtown building should be a historic landmark and preserved for future uses.
Hearing that the building may be demolished, we wanted to stop by and have a look.
The building was constructed in 1916 and designed by W. H. Reeves, who also designed City Hall. It has been home to AMVETS Post 64 for almost 40 years.
Turning in to the parking lot, I noticed the unique enameled brick and glazed terra cotta facade. The facade is considered by some preservationists to be a historically significant feature.
After being buzzed in, we stepped into the basement bar with its suspended ceilings and wood paneling.
The comfortable room was lined with some bookshelves and cabinets, and a popcorn machine topped with cardboard serving trays waiting to be filled. In one corner was a Christmas tree strung with lights.
The horseshoe bar was lined with many stools and flanked by some circular tables and chairs near a dance floor.
We noticed a handwritten sign on the post near our seats advertising $1.00 hot dogs anytime. We decided to partake, and the barkeep put a couple of dogs on the roller for us to heat up.
Once they were ready, he served them on buns in white scalloped paper trays and directed us to the end of the bar to garnish them.
After finishing our dogs, we checked out the narrow elevator near the men's room, which reminded us of some we'd seen in Germany. These old service elevators do not meet current American's with Disabilities compliancy requirements, which is one of the reasons the AMVETS group cited for wanting to move to a different building.
Above the accordion style metal gate protecting riders from falling into the shaft I noticed a decorative design cut into the metal of the trim above.
Even the panel controlling the elevator and the door handle were lovely.

The results of the vote by Peoria City Council, 9-1, did not find the building historic enough to grant landmark status.
The AMVETS building will most likely be sold and demolished.

AMVETS Post 64
237 N. E. Monroe Street
Peoria, Illinois 61602

Dwight, Illinois

Dwight, Illinois hosts an original stretch of Route 66, and several unique historic finds.

The Dwight railroad depot, a beautiful structure built by the Chicago and Alton Railroad in 1891 in the Romanesque style to a design by architect Henry Ives Cobb. The station has been on the National Register of Historic Places since December 1982.
This station had all of the style and grace of some of the train stations we visited in Germany in 2006.
The depot still serves Amtrak passenger traffic between Chicago and St. Louis via the Lincoln Service trains. Travel time to downtown Chicago is about 1 1/2 hours.

Also in Dwight is one of only three banks designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, one of my favorite architects.
This bank, called the Frank L. Smith Bank, also known as the First National Bank of Dwight, was constructed in 1905 and opened in 1906. The design of the bank building is quite simple, unlike the classical influences that were commonly used at the time.
From the outside, the bank did not scream Frank Lloyd Wright to me, but it was closed and we were unable to check out the inside on this visit. I would like to have a look at the Roman brick fireplace.

We'll be back to Dwight to check out some more of the Route 66 sites in town, including some of the historic gas stations.

Dwight Railroad Depot
119 W. Main Street
Dwight, IL 60420

First National Bank of Dwight
122 W. Main Street
Dwight, IL 60420

Atlanta, Illinois

Recently we had a chance to drive through Atlanta, Illinois, located along historic Route 66.
I found Atlanta to be a wonderfully charming town, even though many of the buildings were vacant at the time of our visit in October.
One of the things I loved about Atlanta was the restoration of several old murals painted on brick buildings. I've often lamented the fact that Peoria, IL has not done that sort of thing, despite there being remnants of several murals here and there.
One of the murals in Atlanta is the "J.M. Judy & Sons" grocery store mural. A sign under the mural reads: "During the 1890s, J.M. Judy operated his grocery store on the first floor of this, the Union Building. As the 70' x 15' mural attests, Mr. Judy also dealt in Queensware, a popular china pattern of the day, notions, and musical merchandise. Bill Diaz of Pontiac, Illinois created this design using a photo taken in the early 1900s of the original J.M. Judy & Sons mural that adorned this side of the building.
The "J.M. Judy & Sons" mural was completed in June 2002 during the "Rt. 66 Firecracker Walldog Jam" gathering of approximately 35 Letterheads in Atlanta.
The Letterheads are a group of generous and free-spirited sign painters from across the United States and Canada who are interested in preserving the art of painting outdoor signs and murals."

There are other restored murals in Atlanta including one for Reisch Beer. The Reisch Brewing Co. was located in Springfield, IL.
Reisch Beer Will Give You Health & Strength, claims the tagline at the bottom of this mural. Hmm, I wonder if Chubby's Bar & Grill has any stashed away in the cooler?

The next mural I saw, for the Palm's Grill Cafe, flanks another favorite roadside attraction, a muffler man.
This 19 foot tall Paul "Bunyon" hunk of manliness is cradling a hot dog in his arms now, but once toted an axe.
He used to hold down the fort at Bunyon's restaurant in Cicero, and after the restaurant was sold in 2003 he was moved to his current location.

The Atlanta Public Library & Museum is yet another site to behold. I found the building to be stunning with its unique architecture, Illinois’ only 8-sided, limestone Public Library & Museum. The library was built in 1906 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

I definitely plan to visit Atlanta again when I have some time to stop by for some lunch, pie and drinks and do some more sightseeing. It feels like the sort of town that knows how to serve up a true slice of Americana, and that's always tasty in my book.

Atlanta Public Library & Museum (other sites nearby)
100 SE Race St
Atlanta, IL 61723