Fly by Atlanta on Interstate 55 and its only contribution to your journey seems to be the bright yellow water tower with its smiley face inviting freeway traffic to enjoy their trip. Take Route 66 instead, and you'll find a much different story. The small town, population 1700, might be the best stop on the Mother Road in Illinois, with a picturesque downtown and multiple landmarks to occupy the Central Illinois sightseer.
The town's premier attraction lies along the two-lane alignment that serves as the main haul through downtown. For almost four decades Paul Bunyon, one of the infamous Muffler Men statues, watched over Route 66 from his home in Cicero, IL at Paul Bunyon's Cafe. When the restaurant closed in 2003, John and Lenore Weiss spearheaded the Route 66 Association of Illinois' effort to relocate the landmark, and Atlanta was more than happy to play home to the giant and his mammoth hot dog.
A recent addition to the town is a restored Palms Grill Cafe neon sign that shines across the street from Taul Paul. Added in early 2007, the sign commemorates the restaurant that served Logan and McLean Counties from 1936 into the 1960s and even served as a designated Greyhound Bus stop. A mural celebrating the landmark was painted in 2003 by The Letterheads, a group of sign painters who create many such exhibits through the United States and Canada. Current plans call for the town to convert the space below the sign on the east side of the downtown strip into a museum honoring not only the history of the Palms Grill Cafe but the other contributions the local community made to Route 66 throughout the years.
Just south of the downtown strip on Route 66 is the Atlanta Public Library, a remarkable stone structure opened in 1906 that now serves the area as a museum and home of geneological research. Just a block northwest on Race Street is yet another museum, the J.H. Hawes Grain Elevator from 1904. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991, the elevator was headed for the scrap heap in the late 80's when an effort began to preserve the building and in 1999 it was finally opened to the public to represent and teach the history of farming in the Prairie State for generations to come.
The original two-lane route follows Arch Street through the downtown traveling from southwest to northeast (Atlanta's grid is diagonal with only two county roads at the north and south edges of town traveling west-east.) Much of the community of Atlanta is to the northwest of Route 66; while the first alignment was not a bypass, it still manages to miss a good part of the community on the other side of the tracks. The four-lane bypass opened in 1946/47 skirts the town completely, following Interstate 55's modern path around the southeast corner of town.
At the south of town, the old two-lane departs from the bypass with few remnants and little fanfare. At the north, though, a large stretch of old pavement is visable heading out of town as Arch Street angles to the right (east) for its modern intersection with the bypass. While the northbound lanes of the bypass have been destroyed for its entire length around Atlanta, remnants are present in several locations when the road intersects with a county highway.
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County: Logan, IL
The town's premier attraction lies along the two-lane alignment that serves as the main haul through downtown. For almost four decades Paul Bunyon, one of the infamous Muffler Men statues, watched over Route 66 from his home in Cicero, IL at Paul Bunyon's Cafe. When the restaurant closed in 2003, John and Lenore Weiss spearheaded the Route 66 Association of Illinois' effort to relocate the landmark, and Atlanta was more than happy to play home to the giant and his mammoth hot dog.
A recent addition to the town is a restored Palms Grill Cafe neon sign that shines across the street from Taul Paul. Added in early 2007, the sign commemorates the restaurant that served Logan and McLean Counties from 1936 into the 1960s and even served as a designated Greyhound Bus stop. A mural celebrating the landmark was painted in 2003 by The Letterheads, a group of sign painters who create many such exhibits through the United States and Canada. Current plans call for the town to convert the space below the sign on the east side of the downtown strip into a museum honoring not only the history of the Palms Grill Cafe but the other contributions the local community made to Route 66 throughout the years.
