New Joliet Exhibit For Historical Museum Pays Tribute To Billy Robinson's Route 66 Journey And More: Photos

JOLIET, IL —The special exhibit gallery on the second floor of downtown Joliet's history museum has a new display for the remainder of 2026 drawing attention to Joliet's connection to Historic Route 66 and the heyday of downtown Joliet.

The display includes artifacts from the old Boston Store, a Sinclair Service Station, the now-demolished Woodruff Hotel and Hotel Louis Joliet, which still stands.

One of the most interesting displays informs people about Billy Robinson's 6,540 Mile Trip.

In the summer of 1948, Billy Robinson was one a group of students from Farragut School who traveled across 6,540 miles over 25 days along Route 66. Robinson documented the trip and gave weekly updates to The Spectator, one of Joliet's newspapers at the time.

"Clearly Route 66 is a big topic this year with the Centennial, so we wanted to do an exhibit that was very specific to Joliet's part of Route 66. Its title is, 'In the Center of Everything.' It's actually a real title that we took from the Hotel Louis Joliet advertising itself at the center of all these road alignments, with Route 66 being among them ... this is when downtown was the center of everything," explained Greg Peerbolte, chief operating officer for the Joliet Area Historical Museum. "As we've said before, Route 66 was America's Main Street and it was Joliet's Main Street down Chicago Street. It takes you back to a time when everything you need ... was all found downtown before the interstate highways took over. You had dozens of hotels, gas stations, restaurants ... the Woodruff Hotel, which was at the site of Jefferson and Scott Street, is now a parking lot for the courthouse, was a beautiful Tudor hotel for many years. We actually made contact with the family who donated tables and chairs that were used."

The Joliet Area Historical Museum is at 204 North Ottawa Street next to the Renaissance Center.