Canal Era Lockport was the location of Lock #1 and the home of the Canal Commisioner’s office which oversaw operations for the entire 96 mile canal.
Oil Town In 1912 Texaco open it’s first midwest refinery just nine blocks from Lockport’s Downtown and transformed the city from a canal town to an oil town.
Route 66 Legacy Lockport’s State Street hosted the Mother Road for two years in the late 20’s as the permanent route was being reconfigured on the west side of the Des Plaines River.
“City of Historic Pride”
Lockport was founded in 1837 as the headquarters of the Illinois & Michigan Canal, one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects of the young American republic. At the time, Illinois was still raw frontier. Chicago was a muddy lakeside trading post…
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Explore 22 Benches Along State Street
A fully walkable downtown experience connecting the I&M Canal, historic landmarks,
local shops, restaurants, and twenty-two custom Route 66 benches.
VISIT THE BENCHES
Best Walking Route
Start at the White Oak Library on 8th Street (parking available).
Walk south along the east side of State Street until you reach 11th Street.
Then loop back on the west side of State and end your journey at the Gaylord Building National Trust Site, which hosts Gallery 7 and the Public Landing Restaurant.
Be sure to visit the businesses hosting benches for special coupons and deals!
Click a Rt 66 Shield on the map for more information on each bench.
Lockport was founded in 1837 as the headquarters of the Illinois & Michigan Canal, one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects of the young American republic. At the time, Illinois was still raw frontier. Chicago was a muddy lakeside trading post. The idea was bold: dig a canal that would connect the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River, linking the Atlantic world to the Gulf of Mexico through the American interior.
The “lock” in Lockport refers to the canal’s lock system — massive stone gates that allowed boats to move between elevations along the engineered Illinois & Michigan Canal. That canal quite literally made Chicago possible, and Lockport became the nerve center of its construction and early operation. Canal commissioners established their headquarters here. Skilled stone masons arrived from Europe. Quarry workers cut the distinctive limestone that still defines the city’s architecture today.
Unlike many frontier towns that grew haphazardly, Lockport was laid out with intention. Wide streets. Limestone commercial blocks. Civic buildings built not of wood, but of enduring stone. Even today, walking through downtown feels different from many communities along Route 66. There is weight here. Permanence. Intention.
When the canal officially opened in 1848, it transformed Illinois. Grain, lumber, livestock, and goods flowed north and south between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. Towns along the canal prospered, and Lockport thrived as a transportation hub — a place where engineering met commerce.
The Hamilton Street “subway”.
But progress never stands still.
By the 1850s and 1860s, the railroad arrived. Steel rails outperformed water in speed and reliability. Like many canal towns, Lockport faced a choice: fade or evolve. Instead of replacing the canal identity, the railroad reinforced it. Running parallel to the waterway, it strengthened Lockport’s role as a transportation crossroads.
Stone gave way to steel. Barges gave way to locomotives. And Lockport adapted again.
The late 19th and early 20th centuries layered new infrastructure onto the canal foundation. The Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal — one of the most consequential engineering projects in American history — reversed the flow of the Chicago River in 1900 and again placed Lockport at the center of regional development. The canal system was not abandoned; it was reimagined.
Then came oil.
The Texaco refinery became one of the region’s defining industrial anchors in the 20th century. Massive tanks and industrial structures rose along the waterway. Generations of Lockport families worked there. For many residents, Texaco wasn’t just an employer — it was stability and identity, tying Lockport to the modern American economy much as the canal once tied it to frontier commerce.
By the time Route 66 was commissioned in 1926, Lockport was already nearly 90 years old — older than the automobile itself. But the Mother Road brought something new.
Route 66 wasn’t engineered for freight. It was engineered for possibility.
During portions of its history, particularly during construction and realignments, Route 66 travelers rolled directly through downtown Lockport. State Street carried the spirit of the Mother Road past limestone storefronts, canal-era architecture, rail crossings, and industrial silhouettes.
Lockport wasn’t a roadside novelty built for tourists. It was something more compelling — an authentic American town that predated the highway and absorbed it naturally into its layered story.
When Route 66 was later shifted and eventually replaced by Interstate 55, Lockport experienced what many Illinois communities did: reduced traffic, consolidating industry, struggling storefronts.
But the bones remained.
And in Lockport, bones matter.
Today, downtown Lockport is listed on the National Register of Historic Places — an unusual distinction for a community of its size. This isn’t a single preserved building. It is an entire district of limestone commercial architecture, canal-era structures, and historic civic buildings that survived modernization not because they were frozen in time, but because they were built to last.
The Gaylord Building, constructed in the 1830s as part of the canal headquarters, still stands as one of the finest canal-era structures in the Midwest. Thick limestone walls and massive timbers make it feel less like a building and more like infrastructure itself.
Across the street, the Illinois State Museum Lockport Gallery connects contemporary art to that historic backbone. Steps away, the Will County Historical Society Museum preserves artifacts and stories spanning nearly two centuries.
Three museums — within walking distance of each other.
That fact alone says something about Lockport. It is a city that understands continuity.
In recent years, downtown Lockport has experienced a revitalization rooted in preservation rather than reinvention. Historic storefronts have been restored. Restaurants and cafés occupy 19th-century buildings. Seasonal festivals animate the streets. The canal towpath, once an industrial corridor, is now a recreational trail where cyclists and families move through the same landscape once traveled by mule-drawn barges.
The city has leaned into its identity rather than running from it.
Few communities can claim meaningful roles in canal history, railroad expansion, oil refining, and the Mother Road — and still maintain a cohesive, walkable downtown that reflects all of it.
Lockport can.
For travelers exploring the first hundred miles of Route 66, Lockport offers something distinct. In some towns you find nostalgia. In others, themed tourism. In Lockport, you find infrastructure — the physical evidence of how America built itself.
Stand at the canal and imagine grain barges heading toward Chicago.
Listen for a freight train rolling past limestone walls.
Picture Route 66 motorists easing through downtown when the highway briefly made Lockport part of its story.
Then look around at storefronts, galleries, and restaurants operating in buildings that predate the automobile.
Lockport is not simply a stop on Route 66. It is a reminder that the road itself was one chapter in a much longer American narrative.
Founded in 1837.
Shaped by the I&M Canal.
Reinforced by the railroad.
Industrialized by oil.
Touched by the Mother Road.
Revitalized through preservation.
If Route 66 represents freedom of movement, Lockport represents the infrastructure that made that freedom possible.
And that story continues — in stone, in steel, in water, and in a downtown that knows exactly where it came from.
