Tucked into the small village of Mount Olive, Illinois, Soulsby’s Service Station is one of the most cherished landmarks along iconic U.S. Route 66—the Mother Road that once stretched from Chicago to Los Angeles and became a symbol of American freedom, travel, and adventure. Soulsby’s Station opened in 1926, the same year Route 66 was officially designated. It was the brainchild of Henry Soulsby, a former miner turned entrepreneur who saw opportunity in the new national highway system. With assistance from his children—especially his son Russell and daughter Ola—Henry built the station in the charming “house with canopy” style that was popular at the time. This design helped the station fit into its residential surroundings without the harsher industrial look of earlier gas stops. From the beginning, Soulsby’s was more than just a place to fill up. For 65 years, the Soulsby family ran the station, proudly selling only Shell gasoline and offering friendly service to locals and long-distance travelers alike. Russell and Ola both became fixtures of the Mother Road scene—greeting tourists, sharing stories, and even repairing radios and televisions out of the station after Interstate 55 diverted much of Route 66’s traffic in the late 1950s.
The pumps finally fell silent in 1991, and Soulsby’s closed its service doors for good a couple of years later. But the story didn’t end there. Thanks to dedicated preservation efforts by community groups and the Soulsby Preservation Society, the station was carefully restored to resemble its mid-20th-century heyday—including its classic Shell signage and vintage fuel pumps. In 2004, Soulsby’s earned a well-deserved place on the National Register of Historic Places, cementing its status as an authentic relic of America’s automotive past.
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