1932: Operations Begin for a Gas Station Built in an Illinois Village Along Route 66

In central Illinois, operations began for the Standard Oil Gasoline Station in the southwest part of the village of Odell. This station is located along US Route 66 (US 66) – known far and wide today as simply Route 66 – and it was constructed by Irish-born building contractor Patrick O’Donnell to serve people driving on this portion of the highway.

As one of several gasoline stations in service at the time in the Odell area, the Standard Oil Gasoline Station came to epitomize both the cultural and real-time significance of those facilities along the then-new United States United States Highway Numbered System and particularly Route 66.

This significance was emphasized in 1929 by Charles Wells, a Kansas resident and staunch advocate of Route 66, in views that were reported at the time by the Oklahoma-based El Reno American. “Mr. Wells declared that the success of the highway depended primarily on the completion of all-weather roads, rather than on a lot of advertising,” this newspaper noted. “Another important factor, he declared, was the contact by the filling station employees.”

Over the years, the Standard Oil Gasoline Station in Odell underwent several major changes that included the addition of a canopy. Work bays were also built on that property. There were notable corporate changes as well. While Standard Oil Company products were sold at the station during its first several years of existence, these products were replaced by Phillips 66 Company brands by 1940. Those brands were eventually replaced at one point at the station by Sinclair Oil Corporation products.

In 1952, O’Donnell leased the Standard Oil Gasoline Station to Robert Close. After O’Donnell’s death a couple of years later, Close purchased the station and the property upon which it was built. Close and his family moved into a café-turned-home that was adjacent to the station. They remained in that home until it burnt down during the 1970s.

The Standard Oil Gas Station had stopped providing fuel to the public in 1967, but Close continued to perform body work on motor vehicles there until 1999. That same year, the government of Odell purchased the station for historic restoration purposes. The Standard Oil Gasoline Station had already been added to the National Register of Historic Places two years earlier. The accompanying photo of this station was taken in 2007.

Photo Credit: IvoShandor (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:IvoShandor) – licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/deed.en

For more information on the Standard Oil Gasoline Station in Odell, Illinois, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Oil_Gasoline_Station_(Odell,_Illinois)

A listing of Historic and Architectural Resources of Route 66 Through Illinois is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historic_and_Architectural_Resources_of_Route_66_Through_Illinois