Pop-Up Museum Highlights Route 66’s Passage Through North Lawndale

NORTH LAWNDALE — Get your kicks celebrating Route 66’s centennial anniversary at a pop-up museum in the Central Park Pink Line stop in North Lawndale. Neighbors and officials cut the ribbon earlier this week on “Route 66 @ 100 in North Lawndale,” an interactive museum inside the Pink Line station at 1915 S. Central Park Ave. The pop-up includes history exhibits, games and pop culture memorabilia related to Route 66’s history locally and nationally. Route 66, also known as “The Main Street of America,” was established in 1926 to connect Chicago to Los Angeles in an effort to boost American’s then-budding automotive industry, according to Choose Chicago . The more than 2,400-mile route started at Jackson Boulevard and Michigan Avenue, in front of the Art Institute, before traveling west out of the city along Ogden Avenue, where the Pink Line station currently resides. This year, the route’s beginning was extended to create a ceremonial starting point at Navy Pier, establishing a “pier-to-pier” roadway as its terminus is at Santa Monica Pier in California. “I want visitors to take away a sense of connection to the neighborhood of North Lawndale, Ogden Avenue and Route 66,” said Jonathan Kelley, founder of the Lawndale Pop-Up Spot , the local exhibit space that collaborated with CTA on the project. “This is the first neighborhood travelers hit when they reach Chicago [along Route 66]. By being this gateway, it provides an entryway into so much of the amazing history and also current things and future things happening in North Lawndale.” The pop-up museum is located in the unused retail space of the Central Park pink line stop, facing Ogden Avenue. Visitors will see informational posters with context of how Ogden Avenue was a hub for travelers — and how the street’s origins date back much further than that. “Ogden Avenue has been a vital transportation corridor since precolonial times. … In the 1800s, it was a ‘plank road’ leading to Naperville,” the exhibit reads. Its inclusion on Route 66 “means that Ogden served as the West Side’s hub for automotive culture and services for travelers and locals alike until being bypassed by the introduction of interstate highways I-55 and I-290.” Inside the exhibit, visitors experience a “portal” back to the mid-20th century at the peak of the route’s popularity. On display is a recreation of a 1950s diner, along with a Route 66 pinball machine and other games; historic images of North Lawndale; and a replica Victrola jukebox playing classic soul hits like Nat King Cole’s iconic tune named after the route. Along the walls are images from the Chicago History Museum’s “Westside Love Map” exhibit , including community drawings of landmarks in Austin, North Lawndale and Garfield Park. During the height of Route 66’s popularity from the 1930s-70s, North Lawndale was largely a Jewish neighborhood, according to Choose Chicago . As Route 66 grew in popularity in the 1930s and 1940s, North Lawndale was largely a Jewish neighborhood, according to Choose Chicago . By the time its use started to fall off in the 1960s and 70s, the neighborhood had become majority African American . Castle Car Wash and Ben Geller Chevrolet were both popular stops in the neighborhood for travelers along the route. The dealership’s neon sign and the car wash’s castle-like turret were both popular attractions. Castle Car Wash’s historic structure still stands at 3801 W. Ogden Avenue. The exhibit also harkens to the area’s present and future, including the Pink Line, which was inaugurated in 2006 and is the newest CTA L line. “Our stations are part of the fabric of communities, and we want the stations to be welcoming spaces where people see their culture, their history reflected in the transit system that they use every day,” said Brian Daly, CTA’s senior manager for transit supportive development. “This is a great example of connecting the history of transportation in North Lawndale to contemporary transportation in North Lawndale through the Central Park Station.” Visitors can receive a limited time Route 66 CTA Ventra card. Live music and art events are planned at the pop-up. The pop-up museum is open 3-7 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays and from noon-4 p.m. Saturdays through Nov. 28. More information is available at the Lawndale Pop-Up Spot’s website . ______________________________________________________________________ Support Local News! 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