The Evolution of Business 24

It has two numbered designations and five street names in its eight-mile length.  It spans the entire width of Washington Township as the main artery through the town.  But how did we get here?

It is hard to say how the original path from East Peoria was formed. It probably occurred with the town's first settlement.  Speculation offers that, in an attempt to avoid Farm Creek tributaries and find a manageable way up the hill from the river bottoms, "the path of least resistance" for a horse was apparently the path that was worn into the prairie that we now know as our main artery.

With the invention of the automobile in the early 1900s, it was up to local communities and organizations to better their roads.  Big-picture individuals formed groups to lobby for long-distance roads from one big city to another.  If a small town wanted to be on the path, they had to pay.  Washington, especially after their renaissance in becoming a dry town, was thinking big time and wanted in on anything they could afford.  Heavy hitters like Danforth, Roehm, Zinser, and Heiple attended meetings with various road organizations and lobbied for Washington with their enthusiasm and cash.        

In 1916, Washington was chosen to be on the path of the Burlington Way, a road that sought to connect St. Louis with Madison, Wisconsin.  Washington was also selected to be on the Streator Way, Alton Way, and the Illinois Valley Way, all coming from East Peoria and heading north at the Square.  In time, these trails merged into what we now know as Route 116 or Route 89.  Before the numbering system, drivers navigated by using wood posts made by locals with a designated symbol for each road:

In 1917, Washington was announced to be part of a new east-west trail called the Corn Belt Trail, running from Burlington, Iowa, through Illinois to Effner, Indiana.   Around 1910, a small percentage of this path was paved.  A bit more was gravel, but most was raw earth treated with oil to help with mud.

In 1918, the State Bond Issues were set to finance new roads. The order in which they were issued became the road's designated number as a state route.  The 8th project was a road from Gulfport, IL, to Sheldon, IL, through Washington, and our road became Illinois State Route 8.  In 1926, it was joined with a U.S. Route 24 designation.

In 1929, state laws changed, and the road became IDOT's responsibility rather than the city.  Washington secured support in Springfield immediately, and work began that same year to fix the road by adding tile underneath the pavement.  Underground springs were wreaking havoc on the brick surface.  Mayors George Rinkenberger and later, Chris Ebert, worked tirelessly to get further road improvements. By 1934, Route 8 was paved from one end of the city to the other.

With the route designations, travelers in Illinois were coming through Washington, which led to business opportunities along the road.  The first known business to stretch west past Farm Creek in Washington was the Myers' Shell Station, which opened in 1930 at what is now a Clark gas station at 802 Peoria Street.  

On the east side of town, the Johnson Oil Company opened in 1926 and was taken over by David Snell in 1929 at 811 Walnut Street.  The Washington Greenhouse opened in 1928, and Casino Gardens opened its doors in 1933.

In 1932, George Doering of East Peoria purchased a forty-acre farm from George Stahl to lay out a residential addition.  Doering laid out a two-street addition (Doering Street and Stahl Street) and opened a gas station on Route 8.  Doering Street was later renamed Cherry Street.  This was the birth of Sunnyland.  A second addition occurred in 1936, and in 1938, Beverly Manor was first developed.

Ed Parr's Phillips 66 station opened in 1934 on the lot that is now a Subway restaurant.

With Washington's population doubling in the 1940s, expansion was inevitable and necessary.  In 1948, the business district inched further westward as Sauder Furniture opened in the current Blend building at the corner of Peoria and Muller.  The next year, Garber Sinclair opened a service station next door, and in 1950, Essig Motors opened its doors across the street.  By the end of the 1950s, Unkle Woodys, Kroger, the Ramar Cafe, the Crestview Motel, and the Hillcrest Golf Course were built and operating.

In 1957, a discussion began on constructing McClugage Road to connect Route 8/24 to the McClugage Bridge.  This road was not opened until 1964.  The US Route 24 designation was moved to the new road, frustrating business owners along the Sunnyland road.  As a compromise, the State Route 8 moniker was kept but terminated at McClugage Road.

The 1960 Thoroughfare Plan by the city's Planning Commission states that the Route 24 bypass north of the city should be completed in the next five years.

The 1960s would take businesses past Eagle Street with Ben Schwartz (now Dollar General), Plaza Lanes, Baurer Furniture, and S&W Ford (later John Bearce Ford).

1962 saw the first houses being sold in the Rolling Meadows subdivision bridging the gap between Sunnyland and Beverly Manor.

The deadliest accident in the city's history happened in 1964 when four Washington youths were killed on their way to school on the stretch of Route 24 between Beverly Manor and Washington.

In early 1965, it was announced that the acquisition of several pieces of land was needed along the road in Washington and Sunnyland for a massive four-lane expansion, a project not completed until 1972.  As part of the upgrades to Route 24, IDOT seriously investigated the removal of the Square, but protests from Washingtonians killed that option.

In a 1971 Commercial Development Study, the following recommendations were made for the "west side" of Washington:

In 1972, Washington got its very first stoplight when IDOT finally relented and put one at the Route 8/24 intersection, a source of frustration for Washington-to-Peoria commuters.

The 1972 Commercial and Beautification Study called for all traffic to be removed from the square dependent on the Route 24 bypass, which would turn the area into a plaza.   

Also in 1972, in a battle she would lose, alderperson Eleanor Hallinan pleaded to retain Washington's residential footprint along the Route 24 corridor to attract high-end home buyers from Peoria rather than turn it into a commercial strip.

The 1973 Comprehensive Plan for Washington has these synopses on Route 24:

The least desirable entrance to the city is the eastern edge along U.S. Route 24...After passing the junkyard, the motorist becomes aware of generally austere and unattractive business establishments that are neither modern nor very functional...Washington Road is the approach to the city from East Peoria.  The highway is old and narrow and care must be taken in the future development of this area...The western entrance, from Route 8 to Wilmor...has developed with no specific plan of execution.

In the late seventies, a traffic signal was added at Wilmor Road.

With the added traffic at the new Cherry Tree Center, a stop light was added at Cummings Lane in 1981.

A stoplight was installed at School Street around 1984.  Lights at Summit Drive would happen about a year later.

As the Washington Bypass finally began its implementation in the early 1990s, one of the finger projects was widening Washington Road in the short area from Cherry Tree to McCluggage Road.  When the bypass was completed, the US Route 24 designation was moved as Washington's old US-24 became Business 24.

With the opening of CEFCU in 1996 and Deiters Funeral Home in 1999 near Legion Road, residents see the gap between the old Washington and Sunnyland shrink to almost nothing.

From 2011-2013, Route 8 was widened to four lanes for its entire length through Sunnyland up to the Route 8/24 intersection.  The last barrels of that project were removed on November 15, 2013, two days before the devastating tornado hit the town.

In 2021, a new stoplight was added at Eagle Street to coincide with the opening of the Beck's gas station.

Future plans call for a complete road restructuring, and the story is not over.