The Shamrock Court Motel in Sullivan, Missouri. It can be yours for $125,000. Lots of possibilities. Actually, now you're too late. Missouri's Roamin' Rich bought it.

Monday, January 24, 2011

The First Dairy Queen on Route 66-- Part 2

Continued from January 1, 2011.

The building at 501 N. Chicago Street in Joliet, Illinois, still stands, but hasn't been a DQ for many years. (I remember seeing the Delta Queen once in Dubuque, Iowa, and seeing the DQ on the smokestack or superstructure and saying, "Hey, it's the Dairy Queen," at which point a steamboat fan took offense.)

The site, currently a Spanish language storefront church with apartments upstairs, has recently been given landmark status and a ceremony will be held this spring (if we ever get through this "forever" winter).

Founder Sherb Noble would be proud of this according to his daughter Sue Stevens, 59, of Cedarburg, Wisconsin.

The building was constructed in 1895 and housed a residence and grocery until Dairy Queen opened June 22, 1940 with a sign in the window reading "The new frozen dairy product.

It became the first Dairy Queen of today's International Dairy Queen, Inc., now owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.. Today, there are 5,700 stores in the US and around the world which celebrated their 70th anniversary last year.

More to Come. --RoadDog

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