1950's IL Route Marker color

[N9JIG]

I am trying to confirm the original coloring of the old IL route markers from the 50's and early 1960's with the state outline. Were they originally black on white or were they some sort of beige, yellow or light gold when made?

There are a few places on Etsy and others that will make facsimiles but they are all the black on white version.

Also, does anyone know of a source that will make facsimiles with the embossed outline and numerals?

[ilpt4u]

There is one temporarily posted along the detour route of IL 149 in Murphysboro due to the St Patricks Day Parade tomorrow.

It is certainly an old sign but is the old state outline with route number. I'll try to get a picture in the morning before the parade

[Road Hog]

I can see why the state abandoned the outline in favor of the square. The shape of it (remarkably like an arrowhead when the edges are softened) doesn't lend itself to a square or horizontally rectangular sheet of aluminum. Unless they wanted to "meat-cleaver" it Okie style.

[Scott5114]

I am trying to confirm the original coloring of the old IL route markers from the 50's and early 1960's with the state outline. Were they originally black on white or were they some sort of beige, yellow or light gold when made?

The original signs had a white background at the time they were installed. The yellow/gold tinge you see on vintage signs in collections is the yellowing of retroreflective sheeting over the years—retroreflective sheeting tech was new at the time that Illinois was using state-outline shields, so they hadn't yet figured how to counteract that.

As far as I know nobody has the capability to make embossed Illinois state route signs in the modern day. They would require a custom die, those aren't cheap, and there's not enough of a market for Illinois route signs to amortize the cost of the die across, so you'd basically be on the hook for all the custom machining. Jake Bear at Signs by Jake (my employer) used to make embossed US route signs, and even those (using dies that could be used for all 48 states) were expensive enough that he got out of that market and just does flat-printed replicas now.

For what it's worth, Illinois eventually transitioned to flat printing their route markers before dropping the state name. So long as you get one with the modern fonts, it would be perfectly historically accurate.

If you decide to go through Signs by Jake, you can get the best prices through https://signsbyjake.com rather than eBay or Etsy. Since we don't have to pay eBay/Etsy a cut on those sales, we can afford to offer free shipping through the website. For heavy steel signs the shipping price can add up pretty fast. The easiest way to go about ordering a bunch of them would be to put however many copies of the Illinois 1 sign you want in your cart, and then just specify the numbers you want in the order notes box at checkout.

I can see why the state abandoned the outline in favor of the square. The shape of it (remarkably like an arrowhead when the edges are softened) doesn't lend itself to a square or horizontally rectangular sheet of aluminum. Unless they wanted to "meat-cleaver" it Okie style.

They did try something like that, and it looked sort of stupid.



If they went with a square blank, put the state on the left and had the number coming out of the right side (so the west border was intact, sort of like a mirror image of how Florida does it) it would probably look okay.

[JoePCool14]

There is no good way to use the Illinois outline in a shield. The only way would be to copy what Minnesota did and put it in the corner and still have the ILLINOIS text. It's too bad, because the Illinois outline is very recognizable. Just the wrong orientation.

[N9JIG]

Thanks Scott, I will try to put together a multi-sign order with some of my friends.

The IL outline works with 1 and 2-digit route numbers. I have even seen letter-appended signs where they stack the numerals and letter. (IE: 59/A).

Along the former IL-59A (currently IL-60) there was a vintage IL-59A sign like that on a guy's driveway entrance at his landscaping company. It was there for years and I stopped by once to ask. He wouldn't sell it but said it was there when he bought the property. View an image at:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/win9hcit1spr6rpli0ivn/il59a.jpg?rlkey=83a8vtwq1yqwarcdxltbde1di&dl=0

[hbelkins]

^^^

Is that a leg lamp from "A Christmas Story" in the window? Kinda looks like it from a distance.

[kphoger]

Is that a leg lamp from "A Christmas Story" in the window? Kinda looks like it from a distance.

Zoom in.  Looks like a normal lamp to me.

[ilpt4u]

Took that Saturday morning before the parade