In the mid-1920s, Henry Soulsby, a miner, realized that a national highway would soon pass through his home town of Mount Olive, Illinois.  He put his life savings into purchasing land and building a gas station, which opened in 1926 on Route 66.

This station is an example of a house-with-canopy building. This structure was designed by Soulsby himself and by using trends of the time. It was originally only 13-by-20-feet in size, but was doubled in size in the 1930s.

Eventually, the Interstate caused hardship to the small station since it was located a mile away. In 1991, the station stopped pumping gas, but remained open as a small service business and shop. In 1993, the business was closed. In 1997, the building was sold to a local individual. In 2003, the owner and the Soulsby Preservation Society began to restore the station to it's post- World War II era. It's currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of the oldest filling stations still standing on Route 66.

When Russell Soulsby (son of Henry Soulsby) died in 1999, his funeral procession drove him under the station's historic canopy one last time.