Which historic Route 66 station in Mount Olive, Illinois, is the highway’s oldest usable service station?

The Soulsby Service Station is the oldest usable service station on Route 66 in Illinois.

Henry Soulsby built the station in Mount Olive, Illinois, in 1926, the same year U.S. Route 66 was established. Its compact house-and-canopy design reflects the early period when filling stations often combined a family residence with fuel pumps.

The Soulsby family operated the business for decades. Henry’s children, Russell and Ola, helped run it, and Russell later operated a radio and television repair business there after Interstate 55 diverted traffic away from the old highway.

The station stopped selling gasoline in 1991 and closed as a business in 1993. It now functions as a small museum and remains an unusually well-preserved example of an early Route 66 service station. It is sometimes confused with other Illinois Route 66 gas stations, such as Ambler’s Texaco Gas Station in Dwight, but Soulsby holds the specific distinction of being the oldest usable one in the state.