910 East Jefferson St.

For the first 100+ years of Washington's existence, 910 East Jefferson Street was nothing but a fork in the road outside of town.  In the photo below, taken in the late 1930s, you can see Washington just starting to creep up on the property from the west, the then-empty property marked by the arrow.

With the town slowly creeping eastward, Arlo Wayland, a sheet metal worker from Peoria, moved to the property and built a drive-in/grocery store in 1946.

In 1948, Wayland added a six-room motel to the property. It was a very small motel, measuring only 60 x 15 feet for all six rooms.

In 1949, the property was sold to Warren Hauser, who ran the drive-in and motel until August 30, 1954, when a fire destroyed the drive-in.  After the fire, Hauser decided to lease the property to the Shell Oil Company to construct a service station.  By the spring of 1955, the Shell station opened, originally managed by the Poehlman family.

What followed was a revolving door of station managers, including the Poehlmans, Red Andell,  Jack Presley, and Vernon Attig, 

In 1966, the station switched from Shell to F/S, with Ray Park as manager and later Mike Smith.

By 1973, the gas station was gone, and Bill Herrmann opened a used car lot on the property.

In 1975, Tom Hirt & John Powell opened T&J Tire Co., which remained until 1979.

Dick Ingold was next, opening Ingold Car Care in 1979, followed by Don Mitchell, who opened Mitch's Tyre & Alignment in 1984.  Mitchell remained at the spot for ten years.

In 1996 John Lee opened Lee Automotive, and has been there ever since.