Here’s your ‘sign’
Route 66 Sign Museum in Springfield, Illinois, has nearly 100 historic signs
By Tamara “Tammie” Browning
Vintage, discontinued signs along Route 66 have a destination in Springfield, Illinois.
Dozens of signs from Route 66 and Springfield are displayed in The Route 66 Sign Museum located at Ace Sign Company at 2540 S. First St. in Springfield. It’s a Route 66 historic attraction.
Museum tours are at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Mondays through Fridays for a $5 donation.
A 6-minute, pre-tour video welcomes visitors to “a journey into the world of sign making, where artistry meets innovation.”
“Not just any signs, but some of the masterpieces crafted by a company with over 135 years of sign making. … Ace Sign Company. And tucked right inside this bustling factory floor, a treasure trove of roadside Americana awaits – The Route 66 Sign Museum,” the video says.
“It’s not just a collection. It’s a constantly growing panorama of nearly 100 historic signs, many rescued from obscurity and lovingly restored.”
The love of sign making started for Franklin G. Horn and his wife, Alvina, in 1940 when they began Ace Sign Co. from their garage with a small truck and brushes. They hand lettered glass doors, vehicles and oilcloth signs.
The lobby of Ace Sign Co.’s 60,000-square-foot manufacturing facility features a timeline of the company’s history.
An example of what happened in 1949:
“Ace moves to a larger facility and opens a new neon plant at 114 N. 2nd Street,” the timeline says. “Many historic neon signs originated at this location, including the company logo pictured in the window. The sign continues to burn bright today at the current manufacturing facility.”
A sign museum at a sign company
Just inside the museum entrance is a display that further links the museum to its mission.
There’s a “Tops Big Boy” restaurant franchise “Big Boy” fiberglass statue. Near that is a tricycle owned by former Ace Sign Co. owner Dennis Bringuet.
Near all is the restored 1949 International truck onto which Bringuet hand painted “Ace Sign Co.” on the door the way it was done in the 1940s and 1950s.
Bringuet used his grandfather’s paint kit.
“Hand drew out the logo,” the tour guide says. “Poke holes in the edges of it; taped up where he wanted, put powder through it so you take that and a nice little faint dotted line and you kind of use that as your outline and use a steady stick.”
The family’s unwavering dedication to collecting signs for many years culminated when Ace Sign Co. moved to its present facility several years ago and had room to move some of the signs from the backyard to the museum.
“We were one of the only places in town, or in the local area, that had a 100-foot crane for the better part of two decades because they would hire us to take signs down,” the museum’s tour guide says.
“They’d say, ‘Oh, let’s get rid of them.’ ‘We don’t want them back.’ ‘It’s old branding,’ or ‘We’re moving. We don’t want them back.’ It’s kind of hard to get rid of a 40-foot Ford sign.”
The Route 66 Sign Museum has the 1953, 12-foot-tall Pepsi neon bottle cap sign that formerly was part of an outdoor billboard structure by the railroad off Route 66 in Springfield.
“Stand-alone billboard. It was on 24/7. So, you would see it all day and all night when arriving through Springfield,” the tour guide says. “In the ‘80s, Pepsi had been going through a lot of different brand changes. They were going through a lot of the signs and billboards and changing everything out. Next, they realized that this was still on, and they were still paying the bill for it. So, they’d asked if we’d take it down and put it in one of the warehouses down in the railroad district.”
The sign was re-discovered in the 2000s during work on the high-speed rail project in Springfield. It was found on its side in one of the warehouses. Ace Sign Co. had just opened the sign museum and was asked if they’d want it as part of the collection.
The sign was restored in 2016 and became part of the museum.
The museum’s collection keeps growing under wood-barreled ceilings alongside the modern sign manufacturing facility.
WHEN YOU GO
WHAT: The Route 66 Sign Museum located at Ace Sign Company in Springfield, Illinois
WHERE: 2540 S. First St.
WHEN: Tours are available twice daily at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.
Reservations can be made for alternative tour times and for large groups.
Phone: 217-522-8417
INFORMATION: Donation $5 per person. There’s The Route 66 Sign Museum Store on-site.
Route 66 Centennial 2026 Celebrations – Save the Dates:
The next Celebrate and Learn! National Route 66 Centennial Speaker Series will take place Tuesday, June 9, 2026, as it aims for every second Tuesday of each month during the centennial year (11 a.m. PT/12 p.m. MT/1 p.m. CT/2 p.m. ET).
Authors, historians, researchers and advocates will present stories and perspectives about Route 66.
For those unable to attend live, each session will be recorded and made available on YouTube.
The Tuesday, June 9, 2026, session will be on “Route 66 – The First 100 Years.” Jim Ross, Route 66 historian and mapmaker, and Shellee Graham, photographer and Route 66 ambassador, will present the session.
For more information and to register, visit “Sessions Overview at-a-glance.”
Route 66 SUBMERGED Boat Tour will take place Mondays and Fridays through Oct. 2, 2026, at Lake Springfield Marina, 17 Waters Edge Boulevard, Springfield, Illinois. Hours will be 11:30 a.m., 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. Mondays and Fridays.
Route 66 SUBMERGED is a 45-minute interpretive boat tour on Lake Springfield that shows the surface, beneath which is a stretch of Springfield’s original Route 66 alignment. That alignment was submerged when Sugar Creek was dammed in 1933.
Free, advanced registrations are required. Space is limited.
Call 217-483-3625 for information. Or, click here.
The Texas Route 66 Festival, a ten-day celebration across 178 miles of Texas Route 66, from Shamrock to Adrian, will take place through Saturday, June 13, 2026.
The festival’s days will feature parades, car shows, live music and more in towns from Shamrock to Adrian. The grand finale will be in the Amarillo Route 66 Historic District.
More information is here.
The Route 66 Centennial Caravan will take place through Thursday, June 25, 2026, from Santa Monica, California, to Chicago, Illinois.
The caravan plans to travel Historic Route 66 whenever possible.
The list of stops, subject to change, is located on its website.
Only In Your State, the official publishing partner of the Route 66 Centennial, is offering a 2026 event calendar outlining planned celebrations for the centennial of Route 66.
The calendar is available here.