1936 Belvidere Cafe, Motel & Station

825 S. Old Rte 66, Litchfield, IL
Phone:

East < GO > West

Albina & Vincenzo Cerolla's tiny 1929 one room gas station was successful enough that by 1936 it allowed the family to add a cafe, small motel, and a home. Their daughter and her husband took over the business in 1950. The original station was also replaced and several more motel rooms were added over the years.

GPS: 39.169337, -89.667009

The cafe featured a streamline Art Deco interior with padded stools at the counter along with a small dance floor. OK, if you're going to dance you need music, and apparently they had that covered with a very popular piano player named Mary Levy. Sure they had a juke box, but that's just not the same as live music. The old revolving sign in front of the cafe is long gone, but the signs painted on the building say Route 66 cafe and picture a cup of coffee and a slice of pie.

The first motel units stand at was the back of the complex facing the old 66. Today the newer 66 runs directly behind this building. This started out as four units separated by individual garages. In 1950 the building was remodeled and the garages were converted to motel rooms. The small extension on the north end of the building (the right side in this photo) contains a laundry room.

The gas pumps are gone but the second version of the gas station still stands in front of the later additional motel rooms. This replaced the small one-room, frame building with only a single gas pump. With no service bays they were pretty much limited to selling gas, oil, and things like fan belts and hoses oil, grease and fan belts to drivers. The motel rooms behind the little station were added in 1950 and actually occupy two parallel buildings, I wonder why? Each of those buildings has four units.

A decorative pierced block wall faces the newer 66 and makes the two separate buildings look more like one.

Just like the Ariston Cafe the Belvidere had to dress up the west side of the property and add new signage to attract travelers on the newer alignment of the Mother Road.

The family home and garage are still there on the north side of the property. The cafe, motel and station closed soon after I-55 in the 1970s. The property was placed on the NRHP in 2007.

Photo(s): 2015, 2016