The Bloomington-Normal Area Convention and Visitors Bureau [CVB] has received a $150,000 state tourism grant to further restore Sprague’s Super Service in Normal ahead of Route 66's 100th anniversary next year.
It’s among a total of $6.3 million from three grant programs announced this week by Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity [DCEO].
The CVB's grant comes from the Route 66 Grant Program, which aims to preserve and educate travelers about what's along the Illinois Route 66 path as it prepares for the 100th anniversary of the road in 2026.
CVB will put its money towards two projects at Sprague’s Super Service, what CVB Chief Operating Officer Zach Dietmeier said is a top priority.
“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.”
After the second phase is complete and work on the doors and patio begin, Dietmeier said Sprague’s will look to the future and what programming will eventually be at the site for visitors.
“What are the possibilities as other grant opportunities come up? How can we start to program our spaces from a community perspective to not only feature for visitors, whether international or elsewhere in the United States coming to bear, but also for our local populations as we try to increase that education and excitement around the fact that we have the Mother Road passing through our community in the Twin Cities?” he said.
Dietmeier said CVB is not sure yet of the complete schedule for the centennial events in Bloomington-Normal. He did say, though, CVB and the McLean County Route 66 Centennial Committee are working to incorporate the entire community in the celebration.
“We’re looking at the whole viewpoint, the 30,000-foot view of McLean County’s approach … where we can honor the history, we can celebrate what that roadway has meant,” Dietmeier said. “It’s not just one element. Sprague’s station is a part of that, and as you can see with some of our other efforts along the grants over the last few years, it’s been everything from aesthetics of the properties we have to landscaping to signage we have along the routes."
The goal is to attract tourists before, during and after the Route 66 centennial celebration.
“It’s easy to sit back and think that McLean County is such a small piece of that but Illinois … it’s 300-plus miles of Route 66,” Dietmeier said. “We see heavy visitor numbers from Germany, from the UK, from portions of Western Europe … we’re expecting millions of visitors along the route next year.”
Dietmeier said those visitors will contribute to local economies as they travel along the roadway, and McLean County and Bloomington-Normal will be a part of their journey.
“From folks that are going to have to stop and buy gas, they’re probably going to need a quick snack or lunch break along the route,” he said. “As they stop at these places in McLean County, even if we’re able to grasp a very small portion of that, it’s going to be an astronomical increase in what the tourism dollars are for our community.”
Dietmeier said even after the celebrations for the anniversary of Route 66 conclude, the Twin Cities will have a legacy tourism destination afterwards. He said the work at Sprague’s station and other sites will then stand as ready-made destinations.
“You see the eight convention and visitors’ bureaus along the route really putting a lot of effort into not just the 2026 [celebration], but the years beyond,” Dietmeier said. “It will create some resonance among visitors that we hope they come, they see our area. Anything from just that memorable stop along the way to the potential of new residents as they come in. It’s about leaving a positive impression.”
Other organizations awarded money in the Route 66 Grant Program include the Logan County Tourism Bureau for five projects and the Springfield CVB to highlight its own Route 66 sites.
