Good Eats -- Fried Chicken, Ice Cream -- Lured Travelers on 'Lincolnway'

The Inquiry

Besides , what other restaurants were associated with the famed Lincoln Highway?

The Facts

During the late 19th and early 20th century, several families found their way to Plainfield and established popular eateries along the Plainfield stretch of the Lincoln Highway, the first paved, coast-to-coast highway in the nation.

Corke’s Confectionary

The son of English immigrants, Charles Corke was born in Illinois in July 1861. When he was 20, he married Annie Townsend and settled in Lockport. Within a few years, the Corke family—which included two young sons—moved to Plainfield.  

Charles Corke operated a blacksmith shop out of a wood-framed building at the northwest corner of Lockport and Des Plaines Street. The family lived on the upper floor. Shortly after the birth of their third son, Annie Corke died.

By 1910, the widowed Charles Corke had retired from the blacksmith trade and was living on Main Street. Reportedly, Corke operated a cigar factory from the second floor of his former blacksmith shop building for a time. 

On word of the boon promised by the proposed, transcontinental highway, Corke razed his former blacksmith shop and erected the present two-story brick commercial building in 1912 (most recently the site of ). The “modern era” building was the new home of Corke’s Confectionery, a candy and ice cream shop. 

Corke installed an electric sign in his store window proclaiming the site as “Lincoln Highway Headquarters.” The interior of the confectionery was filled with white marble-topped tables, iron ice cream parlor chairs and electric ceiling fans.

After 16 years in the restaurant business, Corke retired around 1928, when he sold his business to a Swedish couple. Corke later moved to his son’s home in Morris, where he died in 1938. 

Keeley’s Bakery and Cafe

The John and Mary Keeley family was living in Grand Ridge (LaSalle County), Ill., in 1915. There, John Keeley had been a real estate broker, specializing in the sale of farmland.

In early 1917, with the four-year bankruptcy case of the former Evarts’ Private Bank was finally settled, the prime corner in the Opera House Block building could be rented.

The Keeley family, who by that time had moved to Plainfield, opened a bakery there, along the route of the increasingly popular Lincoln Highway.

Within a year or two, they expanded the business with the addition of a soda fountain and a lunch counter. John Keeley also worked as a regional salesman for the Chicago-based Sawyer Biscuit Co., the third largest baking firm in the country.

After their youngest son, John, graduated from high school in 1922, John and Mary Keeley moved to St. Joseph, Mich., with their daughter, Ruth. Mary Keeley died in 1928 and John Keeley in 1930.

Louis Keeley and his wife, Edith, continued to operate the café until 1929, when the business was taken over by Warren “Bunk” Overman. Louis Keeley took a job with a construction company, overseeing security at several developing arsenal sites in Tennessee and Illinois.

Fifteen years later, during which time Louis had become a state police patrol officer, he and his wife opened another popular eatery, Keeley’s Snack Bar, in downtown Plainfield. For seven years, they operated their snack shop less than one block east of the site where his parents started their café along the Lincolnway.

McElroy’s Drive-In for Fried Chicken

As two Lincolnway institutions were nearing the end of their runs, two lives crossed in Joliet that would lead to the establishment of one of the most popular Plainfield restaurants along the well-travelled highway.

William “Mack” McElroy was born in 1893 in Smithville, Texas. Mack’s mother died when he was 9 years old. At the age of 17, Mack found work as a machinist and welder in Missouri. A brief marriage ended in divorce, and “Mack” drifted northward, finding work as a welder in the iron works at Joliet.

Meanwhile, Magda “Helen” Anderson was working as a seamstress in a Joliet grommet factory. At the age of 11, Helen had emigrated from Sweden in 1899, in the company of her parents and sisters. The Anderson family settled at Joliet. 

After her brief marriage also ended in divorce, Helen was raising her young son, Leslie Funk.

Helen and Mack were married about 1926 and, shortly thereafter, opened a at the south edge of town. Known for her fried chicken and pies, Helen McElroy became legendary among travelers along the Lincolnway. 

Although Mack continued to work as a welder, Helen’s son assisted in the operation of the restaurant and pumped gas from the pumps that stood in front of the roadside diner.

As the restaurant became more popular, a dining room was added to the original building. After the repeal of Prohibition, the McElroys added a barroom as well. The fuel pumps were removed in the mid-1940s, when Mack began working at the restaurant full time.

Shortly before Helen McElroy died in 1966, the popular restaurant closed. Her son, Leslie, had died in 1955. Mack died in 1977.

The restaurant was leased and continued to serve fried chicken for a time. About 1968, Mitchel J. Santorineos operated the restaurant as Mitch’s House of Plenty. For a short time, the restaurant was known as Dino’s and then it changed hands again and operated as Akilia’s. 

The former McElroy Drive-in building sat vacant for several years before being razed. Today, the vacant lot, south of the Plainfield Township Cemetery, is for sale.

Next Week: Rooms To Let

Have a question about Plainfield’s history?  Send your inquiries to Michael Lambert via Plainfield Patch/karen@patch.com.