05/29/2026
Check out this amazing photograph capturing a historical moment in time.
While Route 66 traffic rolled past Livingston in 1949… history was literally being built just a few feet away.
While cleaning out the old mechanical room inside the former Livingston High School — now the Pink Elephant Antique Mall — we uncovered this incredible photograph from the groundbreaking ceremony for the school gymnasium addition.
Think about this for a second…
As these gentlemen turned the first shovel of dirt, chrome-covered cars, family station wagons, truckers, and Route 66 travelers were cruising right past the school on the Mother Road outside. America was booming. Route 66 was in its glory years. And little Livingston, Illinois was growing right along with it.
The machinery.
The dress hats.
The trousers.
The polished shoes standing in fresh dirt.
This photo is a time capsule from the golden age of Route 66 Americana.
Fast forward 77 years…
The old school still stands.
Route 66 travelers still pass by.
And now the building is filled once again with life, stories, laughter, antiques, ice cream, candy, roadside oddities, giant pink elephants, dinosaurs, UFOs, and people making memories from all over the world.
There’s something pretty amazing about that.
A photograph hidden away in an old mechanical room waited decades to be rediscovered… almost like the building itself wanted to tell its story one more time.
The more we dig around this old school…
the more history we uncover.
And honestly?
We wouldn’t have it any other way.
📍 Pink Elephant Antique Mall
Livingston, Illinois
Historic Route 66
Where the past still has stories left to tell.
