Pontiac Ilinois

Mural Artists Paint the Town

in Central Illinois As if it didn’t have enough photo opportunities the small town of Pontiac, Ill., now has 19 outdoor murals for visitors to admire.

Its downtown landscape changed forever the last weekend in June after more than 150 artists from around the country―a creative contingent known as the Walldogs―gathered to paint 18 wall-size murals commemorating the town’s commercial, social and cultural history. The new artwork joins Pontiac’s stunning Route 66 shield mural on back of the Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum, its top tour attraction.

Besides paintings, visitors to this Central Illinois town can pose with impressive examples of architecture and sculpture. On the grounds of the Livingston County Courthouse is a life-size bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln leaning on a fence, his stovepipe hat on the post. The statue, dedicated in 2006, is a memorial to Lincoln’s many visits to Pontiac, where the young lawyer tried cases in the circuit court. The grandiose courthouse, with its ornate clocktower, is a sight in itself. Built in 1875, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Pontiac Tourism 800-835-2055 www.visitpontiac.org

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Through August, groups in Pontiac also can pose with some of the artist-created dog sculptures stationed around the courthouse square. The fiberglass dogs, including ones decorated with an Illinois cornfield and a Chicago Cubs jersey, will be auctioned off at the end of the summer.

Groups in Pontiac make a beeline to the freeadmission Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum, a treasure house of Mother Road memorabilia. Exhibits focus on iconic Illinois restaurants, motels and gas stations that served motorists on the historic highway. The trip down memory lane continues with 166 color photographs by Michael Campanelli, a professional photographer who toured Route 66 from one end to the other on a road trip in 2002. Some of the second-level photo galleries occupy old jail cells, their heavy doors, window bars, cement floors, even sinks and a toilet, still in place―another photo op. (The 1900 building once housed the city hall and fire department.)

Also housed in the old brick municipal complex are the Livingston County War Museum and Old City Hall Shoppes, a collection of shops selling antiques, gifts and Route 66 souvenirs. The excellent war museum, staffed by veterans, covers American military history and heroes from World War I to current operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The giant Route 66 mural on the building’s back wall, the ultimate photo op, was recently landscaped with actual bricks from the original Route 66, which ran through Pontiac on its way from Chicago to California. A new addition to the outdoor exhibit area is a wishing well that originally stood at the Wishing Well Motel in Countryside, Ill. One of the most popular new murals also pays homage to Pontiac’s Route 66 heritage.

Sponsored by the Route 66 Association of Illinois, the sunset scene shows a bright yellow late ’50s Chevy.

P ONTIAC ILLINOIS : Fun Facts

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Recognized by Time Magazine as one of the ten best small towns in the United States.

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Pontiac is the legendary Ottawa Indian chief for which the city was named in 1837.

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The first settlers arrived in 1838.

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Because of its strategic location along the rail line connecting Chicago, Springfield and St. Louis in the late 1870s, Pontiac became an important regional trading center.

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Home to historic swinging bridge in Chautauqua Park.

One mural recalls Lincoln’s visit to a Pontiac home, where he attended a reception after a speech at the Presbyterian church. A Coca-Cola mural depicts World War II planes and a pilot drinking a bottle of Coke, while the RCA Victor wall design shows the iconic white dog and a vintage Victrola.

More nostalgia surfaces in the Palace of Sweets mural that remembers a candy store and soda fountain that operated downtown from 1920-1930. The Allen Candy Co. mural depicts a local factory founded in the 1890s.

Pontiac Tourism 800-835-2055 www.visitpontiac.org

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Another design chronicles the Chautauqua Days assemblies held in Pontiac from 1898-1929. The summer cultural fests, inspired by the Chautauqua Institution at Lake Chautauqua, N.Y., brought to Pontiac the best speakers, preachers and entertainers of the day.

A map/guide to the murals is available. For those who are unable to walk to all murals, the city can provide transportation and commentary via a guided tour on the Pontiac Jolly Trolley, which seats up to 30 persons and is equipped with a wheelchair lift.

R OUTE 66 F UN F ACTS •

Current maps do not include old Route 66. The last stretch of the road disappeared from “official” maps in 1984.

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According to most sources, Route 66 is 2448 miles long (about 4000 km). However, this is a rough approximation as the road has had many different alignments through the years.

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Route 66 crosses 8 states and 3 time zones. The states that the Mother Road runs through are: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.

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Besides art and history, downtown Pontiac abounds with restaurants, cafes and specialty shops. Groups also might consider the Old Log Cabin, a Route 66 landmark on the edge of town. When it opened in 1924, it faced Illinois Route 4 (later to be called Route 66) but was lifted up and moved, literally by horse power, to face Route 66 when it was repositioned and became a four-lane highway.

Because of a change in alignment of Route 66 in 1937, there is an intersection where Route 66 crosses itself at Central Avenue and 4th Street in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico. Here, you can stand on the corner of Route 66 and Route 66.

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Historic homes open for tours include the 1858 Jones House, the oldest brick home in Pontiac, and Yost House Museum, an 1898 home that portrays the life of an upper-middle class family around the turn of the 20th century.

Bobby Troup wrote the song, Get Your Kicks on Route 66 in 1946. It has been performed and remixed by several musicians, including Nat King Cole, who first recorded it in 1946, scoring a major hit.

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The numerical designation 66 was official assigned to the Chicago-to-Los Angeles route in the summer of 1926.

The City of Pontiac, with the cooperation of the Vermillion Players Theatre, now offers bus tours the light-hearted musical Route 66. The production is staged at the historic Chautauqua Park Pavilion and will play there for the public Aug. 6-9.

Surrounded on three sides by the Vermilion River, the park has two of Pontiac’s three swinging bridges, another tour highlight.

The historic bridges were built so workers living on the south side of town could get to factories on the north side. The third bridge, in Riverside Park, was built in 1978 for recreational and aesthetic value. The new Vermilion River mural, in the form of a postage stamp, shows a swinging bridge and a 19th century grist mill.

Pontiac is located just off Interstate 55, about two hours southwest of downtown Chicago.

Pontiac Tourism 800-835-2055 www.visitpontiac.org