Maid-Rite (SCHS photos)
This entry has been updated, corrected and expanded.
Opened in the 1920s, the Maid-Rite Sandwich Shop at 118 N. Pasfield St. is thought to be the oldest sandwich shop in continuous operation in Springfield. It also claims to have the first drive-up window in the U.S. (The window originally was drive-up or walk-up; customers would eat their sandwiches while standing.)
The shop was founded by Arthur Knippenberg (1888-1950), but after only a few weeks, he gave the outlet to a friend, Clyde Holbrook. Holbrook (1883-1976) had owned a candy store in Beardstown, but floods kept washing it out.
The first few months were tough, Holbrook told the Illinois State Journal in 1971.
“I sat in the shop 14 hours once and at the end of the day I had $1.45. I couldn’t even pay for my room most of the time.”
Holbrook said the Maid-Rite finally bloomed and he paid Knippenburg (sic) back in about three years.
The big business time was in the evening hours but the noon rush from Springfield High School students provided a good portion of the business.
“We used to have this deal with Coca-Cola. The kids would buy a Maid-Rite and with a coupon from Coke they would get a free drink.”
Various Maid-Rite owners for years have claimed the restaurant opened in 1924 – they even scheduled a 100th anniversary celebration in July 2024 – but the actual founding year was 1928. City directories for 1924, 1925, 1926 and 1927 show no restaurant in the 100 block of North Pasfield. Maid-Rite finally appears in the 1928 directory.
Maid-Rite’s opening day advertisement, published June 14, 1928 (Courtesy State Journal-Register)
More significantly, Maid-Rite’s owners published identical ads in the Illlinois State Journal and Illinois State Register on June 14, 1928. The ads announced the opening of “the Maid-Rite Hamburg … something new at Jefferson and Pasfield.”
It’s possible that Springfield’s owners claimed the 1924 date to avoid a trade name dispute with the national Maid-Rite chain, based in Iowa, which also offers “loose meat ground beef” sandwiches. The chain was founded in 1926. However,the Springfield restaurant has never been part of the chain, and the local owners even fended off a 1990s’ attempt by the Iowa chain to open a franchise here.
Keith Sculle, co-author of Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age, has written that Springfield’s Maid-Rite is “a rare architectural survivor and a significant landmark.”
More information: National Register application, on file in the Sangamon Valley Collection at Lincoln Library.
Hat tips: To SangamonLink contributor William Cellini Jr. and commenter Kerstin Brown (see below) for drawing our attention to previous errors in this entry.
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The Springfield location is and always has been independent of the Iowa location’s. It was built in 1921 and the Iowa location’s came about in 1926. To this day the Springfield Illinois location is not part of the Iowa franchise.
Springfield is the Only Maid-Rite Sandwich Shop with A Drive up Window. The Building Built in 1929. And Was Listed on The National Register Of Historic Places In 1984. What A Place to go and Feel Like Family. I Have Been Going Here Since I was a Small Girl With My Grandmother Who Was Here In The Earlier Days. And I Have Been Here Many Times With My Mother and My Daughter and My Three Grandchildren As Well. The Food is Awesome and The Only Maid-Rite With Frosty Mugs For Your Rootbeer. Sam and His Wife Are The Best. They Always Take Good Care Of Us. It’s Such a Cute Place. And Very Clean. So Go Try it For Lunch you will not Be Disappointed.
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Good job! From my research, this is all correct! (I’ve had to look up the same discrepancies before.) Knippenberg didn’t even live in Springfield when he opened the shop in 1928, he still lived in Beardstown and just opened the Maid-Rite here (according to the 1928 city directory). He wasn’t even in Springfield at all in 1924!
I’ll add that also, in the 1970s, the Maid-Rite owners actually claimed that it was started in 1926, so it’s almost like the number kept getting pushed back to seem more impressive! (I suspect it’s either to avoid seeming like they stole the name from the Iowa franchise, or else to try to keep hold of their “first drive-thru in the US” claim.) From the 1980s onward, they’ve tended to claim August 1924 or August 15, 1924, but there’s no contemporary source that would suggest anything prior to 1928, and the 1928 ad for their grand opening is pretty damning, IMO.
But just to cover my bases: Looking through the directories, there was no restaurant or lunchroom on that lot (either with a Pasfield or Jefferson address) in 1924 or 1925, nor did any restaurant open anywhere on Pasfield in August 1924.
Thanks, Caroline. Nice job yourself.
The real mystery is how they got a National Historic Registry plaque saying that they opened in 1924. We have their application for it from 1984, and in it, they still claim 1926! I have no idea where the 1924 came from!
All I know is the food is awesome 👌