The Chain of Rocks Bridge, Chouteau Island, Illinois.

Chain of Rocks Bridge is one of the more interesting bridges in America. It’s hard to forget a 30-degree turn midway across a mile-long bridge that is more than 60 feet above the mighty Mississippi. For more than three decades, the bridge was a significant landmark for travelers driving Route 66.

The bridge’s colorful name came from a 17-mile shoal, or series of rocky rapids, called the Chain of Rocks beginning just north of St. Louis. The eastern end of the bridge is on Chouteau Island, a part of Madison, Illinois while the western end lands on the Missouri shoreline.

Multiple rock ledges just under the surface made this stretch of the Mississippi River extremely dangerous to navigate. In the 1960s, the Corps of Engineers built a low-water dam covering the Chain of Rocks. That’s why you can’t see them today. Back in 1929, at the time of the construction of the bridge, the Chain was a serious concern for boatmen.

A massive undertaking in its day, the Chain of Rocks Bridge had a projected cost of $1,250,000. The bridge was to be a straight, 40-foot wide roadway with five trusses forming 10 spans. Massive concrete piers standing 55 feet above the high-water mark were to support the structure. Plans called for a four-mile fill along the road leading to the bridge’s eastern end.

All that proved true except for one major change, the direction. Riverboat men protested the planned bridge because it was to run near two water intake towers for the Chain of Rocks pumping station. Navigating the bridge piers and the towers at the same time, the river captains argued, would be extremely treacherous for vessels and barges. Besides, the initial straight line would have put the bridge over a section of the river where the bedrock was insufficient to support the weight of the piers. Either way, the bridge had to bend.

Construction started on both sides of the river simultaneously in 1927, and the piers were complete by August of 1928. A grand opening was planned for New Year’s Day 1929. The Mississippi River had other plans. Floods and ice slowed the work, and the Chain of Rocks Bridge finally opened to traffic in July of 1929.

Then, as now, actual expenditures for construction often exceed projected costs. Chain of Rocks Bridge cost just over $2.5 million -- twice its original estimate. Fortunately, the public got its money’s worth. The bridge had beautifully landscaped approaches. A park-like setting around a pool and a large, ornate toll booth anchored the Missouri end. On the Illinois side, 400 elm trees lined the approach. The bridge brought travelers into St. Louis by way of the picturesque Chain of Rocks amusement park on the Missouri hills overlooking the river. On a clear day, crossing the Chain of Rocks Bridge was a real pleasure. That pleasure became an official part of the Route 66 experience in 1936, when the highway was rerouted over the bridge.

During World War II, Chain of Rock’s colorful red sections had to be painted green to make the bridge less visible from the air. At the same time, wartime gas rationing reduced traffic. To offset these costs, the City of Madison increased bridge tolls to 35 cents per car, with an additional five cents per passenger—a fee structure that sets on its head today’s system of special high-speed lanes reserved for cars carrying more, not fewer, people.

In 1967, the New Chain of Rocks Bridge carrying Interstate 270 opened just 2,000 feet upstream of the old bridge, which closed in 1968. The bridge deteriorated, and during the 1970s, Army demolition teams considered blowing it up just for practice. In 1975, demolition seemed imminent. Fortunately for the bridge, a bad market saved the day. The value of scrap steel plummeted, making demolition no longer profitable. At that point, the Chain of Rocks Bridge entered 20 years of bridge limbo--too expensive to tear down, too narrow and outdated to carry modern vehicles. In 1980, film director John Carpenter used the gritty, rusting bridge as a site for his science fiction film, Escape from New York. Otherwise, the bridge was abandoned.

Today you might say that the Chain of Rocks Bridge has completed a historic cycle. Built at the beginning of America’s love affair with the automobile, it is now a reflection of America’s desire not to ride in cars so often. During the 1980s, greenways and pedestrian corridors became increasingly popular, and a group called Trailnet began cleanup and restoration of the bridge.

Linked to more than 300 miles of trails on both sides of the river, the old Chain of Rocks Bridge reopened to the public as part of the Route 66 Bikeway in 1999.

Because the bridge has not been significantly altered over the years, a visit there today conveys a strong sense of time and place, an appreciation for early-20th-century bridge construction, and outstanding views of the wide Mississippi River. 

The Chain of Rocks Bridge was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Sprague’s Super Service on Route 66, Normal, Illinois.

The first gas stations along Route 66 were simple curbside pumps outside general stores. By the late 1920s, the Mother Road supported stand-alone gas stations--usually two pumps beneath a canopy with a simple office attached. Over time, gas station buildings became more substantial. Sprague’s Super Service in Normal, Illinois, may well represent the apex of this trend.

By 1931, when William Sprague built his station, most of the nation’s gas stations were affiliated with major oil companies such as Pure Oil, Phillip’s Petroleum, or Texaco. Architects for these companies provided functional, standardized station designs.   Drivers could glance at a white building with three green stripes, for example, and know at once that because of the recognizable icon it was a Texaco station.

Like other small entrepreneurs of the time, Sprague took a different approach. A building contractor, he constructed his large, unique, brick, Tudor Revival gas station using high-quality materials and craftsmanship. The result, Sprague’s Super Service, appeared to be part manor house and part gas station, and sold City Service gas.  Steep gables distinguished the broad, red roofline.  Substantial brick peers supported the canopy. Stucco with decorative swirls and contrasting half timbering distinguished the second story.

Distinctiveness was important—just like brand-name operators, independent operators had to create brand loyalty, even if their brand was their individual operation. They also worked to promote their identity as good neighbors and local producers, setting themselves in opposition to corporations, which they defined as large and impersonal. As road construction and automobile use grew, so did a backlash against its commercialism and the “ugliness” of commercial architecture. The Tudor Revival style Sprague chose for his station, with its historical and domestic overtones, helped to both establish a local, homey identity and promote a conservative, rural aesthetic. In the depressed 1930s, when gas far outstripped consumers, independent operators could use this civic persona to help sell their gasoline.

Visitors can easily imagine the 1930s, when Chevrolets, Buicks, and Plymouths pulled up under the canopy, and the station attendant pumped their tanks full of gasoline at 10 cents a gallon. After buying gas, travelers could step inside and eat at Sprague’s restaurant or pull into the bay and have their cars repaired. These enterprises occupied the ground floor of the building.  Upstairs, a spacious apartment, complete with a sun room over the gas pump canopy, housed Sprague and his family.  A second upstairs apartment housed the station attendant.

Throughout the 1930s, most people passing through Bloomington-Normal from north or south traveled Pine Street. Traffic was heavy enough to support both Sprague’s and, just across the street, Snedaker’s Station and Bill’s Cabins, another 1930s service station jointly administered with a lodging operation. Pine Street’s heyday was short lived, though. In 1940, the new four-lane Route 66 opened around the east side of Bloomington, siphoning through-traffic off of East Pine Street. Some traffic still took the Business Route 66 into Normal, so the station remained open, but the property changed hands many times as each new owner sought business opportunities with more appeal for local clientele.

The station was vacant for part of World War II when gasoline and repair parts were scarce. Beginning in 1946, immediately after the war, the owners still sold gas and food, but they added other enterprises as well. Over the years, Joe’s Welding and Boiler Company, Corn Belt Manufacturing, Yellow Cab, and Avis Rent-a-Car occupied space at Sprague’s. So did a bridal store, cake gallery, and catering operation.  Since the 1960s, these other enterprises have supplanted the gas station function of the building; the pumps were removed in 1979. 

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Log Cabin Inn, Pontiac, Illinois, on Route 4, later to become Route 66.

When Route 4, later to become Route 66 was re-positioned through Pontiac, Illinois in 1926, Joe and Victor "Babe" Seloti built a lunchroom and gas station and named it the Log Cabin Inn.

The Log Cabin was built of cedar telephone poles and seated 45 customers. The interior still has the original knotty pine walls.  In a small window lined building behind the restaurant, Joe would lure customers to watch with the aroma of his secret recipe beef and pork barbecue cooked on a big spit. Meanwhile "Babe" would be next door filling gas tanks and fixing flats.

In later years, Route 66 was made four lanes and relocated to the west side of the Log Cabin. the building was lifted up and turned around literally by horse power to face the new road. It was such an extraordinary event that hundreds from town came to watch.

When the "Talking Crow" arrived-no one remembers. An elderly judge presented Joe Seloti with a pet crow and Joe painstakingly taught the crow to talk. And talk he did! That crow could carry on a real conversation with a customer.  He was most chatty when Joe was cooking. The crow would demand something to eat and be very specific about it! Joe built a caged area near the BBQ spit behind the restaurant.

After a while, the "Talking Crow" became a popular roadside attraction. Customers would stop to get gas or a meal, hear the crow chattering away and go around back to investigate.

During the summer months, beer drinkers would gather at picnic tables in the back. The "Talking Crow" would join them and became quite fond of malt liquor! Once meeting the bird, tourists would come back on their return trip hoping to converse again with the extraordinary creature. After charming hundreds of local and traveling folk over the years, the crow eventually passed away. 

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

White Fence Farm Restaurant on Route 66 in Romeoville, Illinois.

White Fence Farm is an original Illinois Route 66 Restaurant. The original White Fence Farm location is in Romeoville, where it was established in the early 1920s on US Route 66.

It was founded by Stuyvesant 'Jack' Peabody, son of Peabody Coal Company founder Francis S. Peabody and himself CEO of Peabody Coal at the time. It was opened on a 12-acre plot that Jack Peabody owned across U.S. Route 66/Joliet Road from his 450-acre Lemont horse farm, where thoroughbred racehorses were bred, boarded and trained.

The original dining room at the White Fence Farm restaurant in Romeoville, Illinois.

The story was that Jack Peabody often had weekend guests at his horse farm, but there was no restaurant in the area where he could entertain them – so he started one himself. The roadside restaurant, which opened in a converted farmhouse, was known then for its hamburger sandwiches and Guernsey milk products, including ice cream.

By the time U.S. Route 66 opened in November 1926, White Fence Farm had already served several thousand customers. It was reviewed several times during the Peabody years by the early restaurant critic Duncan Hines, who had been a fan of the restaurant since the late 1920s.

After Prohibition ended, Jack Peabody promoted California wines at the restaurant and helped to revive the California wine industry, as he had earlier helped to revive thoroughbred horse racing in Illinois during the 1910s and 1920s. Peabody operated the restaurant successfully until his death in 1946. After that, the restaurant was first leased to several different renters, then eventually sold by Jack's son, Stuyvesant Peabody, Jr.

Since 1954, the restaurant has been owned and operated by the Hastert family. Robert Hastert, Sr. was the first family owner-manager. Hastert had begun as a wholesale poultry dealer at the Aurora Poultry Market during World War II and later owned the Harmony House restaurant in Aurora, Illinois, which he had opened four years before he bought White Fence Farm.
The property had gone through several operators and/or owners after being sold by the Peabody estate. Family legend has it that Bob Hastert, Sr. settled on the purchase price for the restaurant property with the previous owner, an acquaintance who had gone bankrupt, by using the flip of a coin.

Hastert was uncle to and his son, Bob Hastert, Jr., was the first cousin of former Speaker of the House Rep. J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL). Bob Jr., who had converted an industrial-sized hospital autoclave into an outsized pressure cooker for the restaurant's unique method of cooking the chicken, took over the operation of the restaurant after his father's death in 1998. Bob Sr.'s wife, Doris, also worked at the restaurant, usually as a hostess.

Laura Hastert-Gardner, daughter of Robert Jr., is the restaurant's current owner and manager. The restaurant's famous fried chicken recipe was added to the menu during the 1950s by Bob Hastert, Sr., who, by his granddaughter's admission, told the chicken recipe origin story several different ways at different times and may have just as easily borrowed the recipe from someone else as brought it with him from Harmony House.

The restaurant building was expanded several times under the Hasterts. It now has several dining rooms, with seating for more than 1,000 customers. It also features a side room and gallery that includes an antique car collection, other antiques, and Jack Peabody's collection of original Currier & Ives prints, among other nostalgic displays. During the summer, the restaurant has an outdoor petting zoo.

White Fence Farm bills itself as having "the world's greatest fried chicken," which is same-day pressure cooked and then flash fried in soybean oil to crisp the outside. Ever since the Hasterts acquired the restaurant, it has been in near-constant competition with its nearby rival, Dell Rhea's Chicken Basket, for the title of best fried chicken on Route 66 in Illinois and best corn fritters.

Once a matter of dueling billboards on Route 66, the competition is now limited to a contest between menu items. Whereas Dell Rhea's can claim that it began serving its famous fried chicken years before its competitor did, White Fence Farm prides itself in serving an alcoholic brandy ice dessert, made strictly for adults.

 

Doris Mae (Hemmingway) Hastert, age 93, passed away Monday, August 14, 2006.
Mrs. Hastert was the owner and customer greeter of the White Fence Farm Restaurant 1954.

INDEX TO MY ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO FOOD & RESTAURANT ARTICLES.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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VIDEOS

White Fence Farm - Romeoville Public Television

White Fence Farm - TV Commercial, 1983

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White Fence Farm Celebrates a 60-Year Family Tradition.
By Denice M. Baran-Unland | March 4, 2014

ROMEOVILLE – Laura Hastert, the granddaughter of White Fence Farm founders Robert "Bob" Hastert Sr. and his wife Doris Hastert, recalled how she earned spending cash at age 12 by picking up garbage from the restaurant parking lot with her best friend.

“I pulled a trash can with me and got paid $5,” said Hastert, who over her 37 years of experience with White Fence has worked as a waitress, hostess, and cashier, as well as in marketing and advertising, purchasing and as manager. "I was very proud of that first job.”

Sixty years later, Hastert is still cooking chicken the way her grandparents cooked it – same-day pressure cooking and flash-fried in soybean oil to crisp the outside – and treating employees the way they’ve always been treated – as family.

White Fence Farm closes only in January for deep cleaning and repairs and has just one franchise in Denver.

Indeed, the business feels like a family. Larry Bigger, 40 years and now general manager, started as a busboy. Hostess Shirley Bigger started as a waitress 30 years ago and met her husband on the job. All three of their children have also worked at the restaurant.

Judy Lapice, 31 years, is a former waitress and current front of the house manager. Two of Lapice's children, Teri Rice and Randy Dice, each manage a White Fence Farm carryout location: Joliet and Downers Grove. Kim Schwartz, 20 years, manages the Romeoville carryout; Lou DeLaVega, 30-plus years, manages the Riverside carryout. Allen Corkern manages the Plainfield carryout

Mary Callaghan, 42 years, is a training hostess. Chuck Ker, 36 years, is the day and receiving manager. His wife, Roxanne, also works at White Fence Farm, as have all three of their children. Hugh Moarn, 40 years, is the kitchen manager. Diane Kelly, 34 years, is still waitressing. Bev Svobda, 30-plus years, works multiple jobs: payroll, human resources, and office and purchasing.

Even Hastert herself, who has a degree in hotel restaurant management from the University of Denver, and formerly worked at Taco Bell for Pepsi Co. and then Rubio's restaurants in San Diego, eventually returned to help run White Fence Farm.

And yes, all three of Hastert's children also work at the restaurant.

“June Hoffer, our office manager, just passed away a year ago in April. She was here the longest,” Hastert said. “She did all the purchasing and had done the purchasing and the books with Bob at Harmony House. He brought her over here after he bought White Fence Farm in 1953. Not many places have this history and tradition."

White Fence Farm was not Bob and Doris' first restaurant. They had founded another, Harmony House in Aurora, and we're already cooking what would one day be their famous chicken when they stumbled upon a farmhouse on Route 66.

The original owner of what was a 450-acre farm – even then-named White Fence Farm – was multibillionaire, Sylvester Peabody, who housed coal miners on the property, Hastert said. When Bob discovered 12 of its original acres, the site featured a restaurant “known for its hamburgers, 1920 cars parked out front and shuffleboard outside.”

Hastert said Bob had thought, “I’m gonna buy that and put my restaurant there. It’s a nice inviting atmosphere. People will want to drive to the country for a good meal with good service and friendly people and they can play shuffleboard while they’re waiting.”

Bob, Hastert said, made an offer, bought the house, brought his Harmony House chicken with him and kept his menu simple. The main entrees have always been chicken, shrimp, fish (Icelandic cod, broiled or fried) and steak, Hastert said. Bob always resisted trends, despite urgings from others.

“He used to say, ‘You’ll be the dog chasing its tail’ because fads always change,” Hastert said.

The chicken comes fresh each day to White Fence Farm ("each weighing between 2.3 to 2.6 pounds," Hastert said), from two suppliers to keep prices competitive. Employees cut and quarter the chicken to control weight and “because it’s the way grandpa did it years ago.”

A machine dusts the chicken with pastry flour – no egg, no milk, and very little salt, Hastert said. The chicken is pressure cooked for 12 minutes, loaded onto carts, and then wheeled into a cool-down room to wait for dinner orders and flash frying.

The powdered sugar-dusted corn fritters are real corn fritters, not hush puppies. Hastert additions include two “boil in the bag” soups – chicken noodle and cream of broccoli and cheese – gourmet macaroni and cheese, and a dinner salad that's more than the wedge of iceberg lettuce of former years.

"Bob would just die," Hastert said. 

The Pig-Hip Restaurant (1937-1990) - The Pig-Hip Museum (1990-2007), Route 66, Broadwell, Illinois.

Ernie Edwards purchased the "Harbor Inn" restaurant in Broadwell, Illinois in 1937. In 1939, he renamed it to the "Pig-Hip Restaurant" after his new, fresh ham sandwich. Ernie says this sandwich was made from fresh ham (not cured), and he claims that the ham came only from the left hip — never, never the right hip. 

Ernie claims this distinction was part of the secret of the Pig-Hip’s success (sandwich and restaurant). The other part of the sandwich secret was his special sauce. Ernie’s sandwich motto was–”it made its way by the way it’s made.” His brother ran their Phillips 66 gasoline station next door.

Ernie Edwards, "The Old Coot on Route 66," served thousands of his "Pig-Hip" pork sandwiches from his Pig-Hip Restaurant before he closed the place and retired in 1990. 

But he and the Pig-Hip didn't go away. Ernie turned the Pig-Hip into a museum about the Pig-Hip (and Route 66), and ran it for another 17 years.

It burned down in 2007, but Route 66 fans placed a rock with a plaque on the site, declaring defiantly that, "U.S. Route 66 'The Mother Road' Endures FOREVER."

Ernie passed away in 2012 at 94 years old.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The History of Cayuga, Illinois, Well Before Route 66 Came Through Town.

The town of Cayuga, Illinois is a year older than her sister town, Odell. Cayuga was surveyed and platted, then shortly approved on April 10, 1855. It was laid out by Thomas F. Norton County Surveyer, from section 31, for Corydon Weed, of McLean County.

Cayuga, Illinois is 87 miles from Chicago and 40 miles from Bloomington, located between Odell and Pontiac, Illinois. By 1966, no more passenger trains stopped at the pictured Cayuga Station.

The first settlers in the vicinity of this station are given as nearly in the order they came as can now be remembered. Mr. Edwin O. Chapman, along with his brother James Chapman, came to Cayuga in 1855 and is the oldest settler in the Village. They were carpenters, and previous to 1860, they either built or helped to build almost every house in the neighborhood.

J. H. Coe, from New York, settled here in the Fall of 1855, and opened a farm on the southside of the town, and resided here and in the vicinity until 1862, when he moved to Dwight.

Samuel and Charles Packwood, from New York, came in the Fall of the same year (1855) and opened a farm north of the town. Samuel Packwood was one of the first two Justices of the Peace elected in the township. He has long since moved from the county. Charles still lives in the neighborhood, but has changed his location to the west side of the village.

F. J. Church came in 1856. He was a farmer, but did not buy land, but rented, for a few years, until he was appointed Postmaster and Station Agent, which positions he held for a number of years. C. N. Coe, brother of J. H. was the first Station Agent, appointed in the year 1856. He also bought the first grain shipped from this place, during the same year. Grain was handled in a small warehouse which had been built by Weed, the original proprietor of the town.

Eli Pearson, from Ohio, came in the Fall of 1855, and opened a farm just east of the village. He has since moved to the township of Esmen. Hanford Kerr and family, from the same state, came about the same date. Moses Pearson arrived a few months later, and opened a farm east of the town.

In 1856, the Fish brothers, C. U. Udell and Dr. B. J. Bettleeim arrived. The last named was an eminent scholar and a learned and successful physician. He traveled extensively in China, Japan, and other countries. In 1858, he gave a series of lectures in Pontiac, Illinois on his Eastern travels and on various religious subjects.

William Skinner, William J. Murphy and a few others settled in the neighborhood in 1857. Skinner opened the farm just north of the village, where he still resides. Murphy started a broom factory. Mr. Murphy was also a preacher, and moved on to Pontiac, where he took charge for a time, of the Presbyterian Church. While at Pontiac, he opened the nursery where A. W. Kellogg now resides.

David J. Evans opened the first store in 1857, which he continued about a year, when he was succeeded in the business by John F. Pickering.

In 1862, D. Hunt built the first warehouse now owned and operated by C. N. Coe. In 1868, L. E. Kent, of Pontiac, erected the one now operated by him. Thought the village compares but poorly with many other towns of the county, the business done here is, by no means inconsiderable as will be seen by the following items, as given by the agent of the Chicago, Alton & St. Louis Railroad, Edwin Chapman. 

The total amount for freight forwarded in 1877 was $23,209.00; total for freight received $1,644.74 in 1877.

By 1898 the village of Cayuga had a population of 160. It is situation on the Chicago & Alton Railroad, five miles northeast of Pontiac and eighty-seven miles southwest of Chicago. E. O. Chapman, agent of the C. & A Railroad, is also agent for the Western Union Telegraph Company and United States Express Company. The post office is a money order office. 

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Where did you say Route 66 started?

US 66 was established on November 11, 1926.

The original eastern terminus was at the intersection of Jackson Boulevard and Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago in 1926. 

In 1937, the start was moved half a mile east because of the reclaimed land that is now Grant Park. So after 1937, the starting point of RT 66 was the intersection of Jackson and Lake Shore Drive (US Route 41).

To confuse matters further, in 1955, Jackson became one-way eastbound. So Adams Street, one block north, became the westbound route 66. Adams Street begins at the entrance to the Art Institute of Chicago. Today you can see a sign marking the start.

It remained there until the eastern terminus of Interstate 55 was completed at Lake Shore Drive. That became the end of Route 66 until I-55 completely replaced Route 66 in Illinois until Route 66 was decommissioned. 

Historic Route 66, and all its realignments, are well marked in Illinois.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. — BOD, Route 66 Association of Illinois, 2013-2015