For nearly four decades, the West End Service Station was a busy automobile service station on U.S. Route 66 as it passed through the heart of Edwardsville, serving travelers and local residents with fuel, oil changes, tire checks, and cold soda. In 1927, Edwardsville resident Henry Springer established Springer's Madison Oil Co. at the corner of St. Louis and West Streets, building a small brick structure with a canopy and two Texaco fuel pumps. In 1936, owners Robert Smith and Ralph Ladd renamed it the West End Service Station, featuring Mobil gas and oil products along with a new hydraulic hoist and air pressure lubrication system. In 1939, during the repaving of Route 66 through Edwardsville, the old building was demolished and the present building was constructed, reopening on August 5, 1939, under the management of Ralph and Earl Ladd. With its prominent location, it became a lively stop along Route 66 and in Edwardsville's West End. In 1948, local mechanics Henry "Hank" Dohle and Robert "Doc" Heidinger bought the station and operated it for the next 12 years, when it served both Route 66 motorists and neighborhood regulars who came to listen to ballgames, read the newspaper, talk, and sometimes have their cars serviced. In 1961, Ralph Ellsworth purchased the station and ran Ralph's Mobil Service Station there, offering washing, greasing, brake work, tires, batteries, wheel balancing, and fuel, before moving to a larger lot down the street. Around 1964, as I-55 bypassed Edwardsville and the Route 66 era ended, local dentist Dr. Robert Marks bought the station, and for the next 55 years it housed a succession of dentists' offices under Dr. Robert Marks, Dr. Dale Claussen, and Dr. Beau Moody. In 2022, the City of Edwardsville purchased the building at public auction with the Great Rivers & Routes Tourism Bureau. It remains one of Edwardsville's few surviving Route 66 landmarks and one of the last original Route 66 service stations in nearly 60 miles.
