Mill Restaurant

738 Washington St., Lincoln, IL
Phone:

East < GO > West

This Route 66 landmark was opened by Paul Coddington in 1929 as the Blue Mill. The building is located on the 1930 - 1940 alignment of Route 66. It was modeled after a Dutch windmill with sails on the front that were lit as they turned. At that time the building was mostly comprised of the section with the awnings in this photo.

It changed hands in 1936 and again in 1945 when Blossom Huffman bought the restaurant, which apparently was a surprise to her husband. They later added an old Army barracks to the back of the original building. The barracks are the section without the awnings in this photo. That's when the building was first painted barn red.

The windmill sails were replaced in 1945 and later repaired after suffering storm damage. Over the years four generations of the Huffman family ran the restaurant. It finally closed in 1996.

In 2006 a new organization, the Route 66 Heritage Foundation of Logan County was formed to save and rehabilitate the building. In 2008 another set of new sails were installed. The Mill is home to an annual car show and monthly summer flea markets that help raise funds for the restoration. We stopped by to snap these photos in the fall of 2015 and got invited inside to see what was being done. It's a big project, but they worked hard to save the Mill and see it reopen.

The building has now been finished and reopened to the public, but with very limited hours.

Photo(s): 2015