IL Route 66 Association Hall of Fame & Museum

This museum is part of a quirky assortment of collections housed in old municipal buildings with a bewildering layout of stairways, connected rooms and hallways. The IL Route 66 Association Hall of Fame & Museum mostly consists of a large, high-​ceilinged room with photos, documents and other items placed in display cases along the walls, roughly by decade. The materials appear to have been on display for some time and are fading and curling from too much light exposure. The most interesting artifact here is the vintage VW bus owned by a local artist, full of his tools and memorabilia from a long career traveling Route 66. It looks like he just parked the vehicle in the museum and opened the doors. There’s a wonderful Route 66 mural on the back of the building.
Upstairs next door there is an extensive collection of military uniforms from the Civil War forward, displayed on standing mannequins. Most of the uniforms were worn and donated by local people who served. There are very interesting personal histories about the wearers of some of the uniforms, including a section honoring people who lost their lives in battle. Other collections commemorate the Wall Dogs building mural-​painting business, the home front during World War II, Civil War music and a vintage radio broadcasting studio. Not to be missed – the art exhibit hung in an old jail cell, complete with toilet fixtures and bars on the windows.

A very cool museum and stop along Route 66. Seems a little dated, but it is still cool to see memorabilia from Route 66 of years gone by. It was neat to see how each town in Illinois along the route had their own little hall of fame. Volunteers at the museum were helpful, but I’m surprised the shop didn’t offer more.

The museum itself was nice, but the volunteers running it were a drag! They had nothing positive to say (Pixar is evil, Missouri is evil and doesn’t care about crime, the government is evil and we don’t want them telling us what to do). It was a bummer.
Our guidebook said this was a must-​do, but afterwards we wished we had kept driving. It took some happy road tunes to cleanse the bad vibes.
Go for the cases with artifacts of Illinois and the sweet hippie vehicles owned by a renowned Route 66 artist, but keep your head down and enjoy it all without «help» from the staff. Unless, if course, you like negativity so early in your road trip!

This was fun! Really informative museum and the town of pontiac was a nice place to walk around and see some sights! DON’T FORGET: to walk down the alleyway next to the building, behind the building are these huge painted walls and a deformed school-​bus property of the same guy who’s van is inside the museum. (I lost his name but his parents were the owners of the cozy dog and the van in the movie ‘cars’ was inspired by him.

I really enjoy going down to Pontiac to visit the museum. It’s not the biggest or most interactive museum around, but it’s still very informative. It encompasses the whole spirit and people who helped Route 66 thrive in its golden years. The Hall of Fame and Museum is housed in Pontiac’s old firehouse. The building is very impressive and from the outside you would think the museum would be huge. In fact it’s not, as most of the exhibits are on the lower floor. Honestly, there is not a whole lot to see but what they do have on display is pretty interesting. At most, and at a leisurely pace, you would spend maybe two hours there. There is a second and third level with photos of historical places around the Route. The building layout is a little funky. One turn around the corner and you’re in the neighboring War Museum, which is housed next door.
The best part is it’s free admission (with donations accepted). It may not be the best place to take the kiddies unless they are really into the history of Route 66. Despite that, the volunteers and artifacts inside make it worth the trip in Pontiac. Don’t forget to check out the giant mural in the back of building with the Route 66 shield. Plus there are other murals painted around downtown Pontiac.