Historic Brick Road

This original 1.4 mile hand-lain brick road was completed in 1931, and curves through corn fields near Auburn. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.For the most part, Illinois Route 66 glides evenly and easily through the State in a southwest-northeast diagonal alignment between Chicago and St. Louis. The Illinois section of historic Route 66 has a relatively level alignment. Due to Ice Age glaciers that scraped much of the upper Midwest flat, the Illinois Route 66 roadbed was never to offer motorists the thrilling or terrifying switchbacks, dips, and cuts encountered along the southwestern portions of the Mother Road. Unlike many other segments of Route 66, Illinois Route 66 runs through a densely populated, highly developed State. By the mid 1920s, Illinois already had a considerable infrastructure, including a modern road network. When officially commissioned in 1926, Illinois Route 66 simply took over State Route 4, a pre-existing, heavily-used fully paved or “slabbed” two-lane road between Chicago and St. Louis. Thus, while the national span of Route 66 would not be completely paved until 1938, the Prairie State could boast from the very start that its segment of the Mother Road was mud free and “slab all the way.”