Madison
County Genealogical Society
Minutes of the Meeting - April 14, 2016
The April 2016 meeting of the Madison
County Genealogical Society was held at the Edwardsville Public Library on
Thursday, April 14, at 7:00 pm.
President, Robert Ridenour, called the
meeting to order.
GIFT
MEMBERSHIPS AVAILABLE
Do you have a family member that is
interested in (or even obsessed with) genealogy? A membership in the Madison
County Genealogical Society would be a very thoughtful gift. A gift card will
be sent to the recipient of any gift membership.
The following memberships are available:
Individual/Family Annual Membership $20.00
Patron Annual Membership $30.00
Life Membership $250.00
Contact our Secretary, Petie Hunter, at petie8135@att.net,
about a gift membership.
April Meeting
On April 14, 2016, Cheryl Eichar Jett presented a program titled Route 66 in
Collinsville. She started with a general discussion and history of
Route 66.
Route 66 is celebrating its 90th birthday in 2016. On November 11, 2016, it
will be 90 years since the federal highway system, including Route 66, was signed
into law. There will be a lot of birthday parties across the country. One was
held in April in Missouri.
By 1985, virtually all of Route 66 had been federally decommissioned, but you
can still drive more than 85% of Route 66. The catch is that it is not one
contiguous highway in the sense of its maintenance or who has authority over
it. Stretches of it are city streets, stretches of it are under the auspices of
the states, and some are county or township roads. The states are pretty good
about providing signage for the DOT in each of the eight states the road
traverses. In Illinois, the signs are a distinctive brown.
The official length of Route 66 is 2,448 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles.
Illinois was the first state to have the road completely paved. Chicago and St.
Louis were big industrial cities that needed a good transportation link between
them. So in the early 1920s, Illinois paved the highway (old Illinois Route 4)
between Chicago and St. Louis. When it came time for Illinois to designate its
section of Route 66 from Chicago to St. Louis, they used old Route 4.
In Collinsville, interestingly, the most well known landmarks are not on Route
66 and never have been  the giant Brooks Catsup bottle water tower, the
beautiful Miners' Theatre, and Cahokia Mounds State Park. As far as members of
Route 66 Associations are concerned, if a road or street ever carried Route 66,
it remains Route 66 forever. This leads to a multitude of road alignments.
In the 1920s when people were really starting to use the automobile, the idea
was to get from the heart of one city to the heart of another city, because the
middle of the city was where the hotels, restaurants, and businesses were
located. Eventually there was enough traffic that it could not move smoothly
through the heart of the city. So bypasses were built to take the traffic
around the city. Then, the businesses started moving to the suburbs to be where
the traffic was. As a result, the downtown areas languished. The final bypass
was the Interstate System.
In 1955-56, Route 66 moved. It came to Hamel, bypassed Edwardsville, and went
to Collinsville. It came into Collinsville on St. Charles Street and Vandalia
Street. It went down and turned right, joining US Route 40. It followed what is
now known as the Beltline to Bluff Road and out Collinsville Road.
All the different bridges that crossed the Mississippi River
into St. Louis were used, at one time or another, by Route 66 in one of its
many alignments.
Cheryl had photos of many of the businesses on Route 66 in Collinsville Â
filling stations, restaurants, bars, hotels, etc. She discussed some of the
businesses  what they became, if the buildings still exist, who some of the
more notable habitués were, etc.
This presentation was very well received and several questions were asked.