Civil War’s “Teachers’ Regiment” faced hard slog during Arkansas campaign
One hundred and fifty years ago this week, the 33rd Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment found itself on the march through the swamps and canebrakes of eastern Arkansas, hungry and exhausted, …
View ArticleFriends Meeting House stands as a reminder of Bentown’s Quaker past
BLOOMINGTON — In the latter half of the 19th century, a small but vibrant community of Quaker wheat farmers thrived in east central McLean County. Although the Religious Society of Friends (he…
View ArticleFell Park in Bloomington led the way in child’s play
From the 1920s through at least the Great Depression, Bloomington’s Fell Park, located at the northeast corner of Fell Avenue and University Street, was said to be the busiest playground in th…
View ArticleShirley ‘cut’ split little town in two back in 1909
SHIRLEY — If you think Central Illinois is as flat as the proverbial pancake, hop on a bicycle and head out into the countryside, where you’re sure to be quickly disabused of this common misco…
View ArticleBloomington’s west side first site for county fairgrounds
The McLean County 4-H Fair opens on Wednesday, marking the 16th year the annual event had been staged at the “new” west side grounds. We say “new” because the county’s first permanent fairgrou…
View ArticleBloomington-born Frederic Goudy was a titan of typeface
BLOOMINGTON — If the surname of Bloomington-born Frederic W. Goudy somehow rings a bell, it’s probably because you’re familiar — if but only in passing — with the Goudy family of typefaces. Am…
View Article‘Good old days’ sometimes rotten to the core
BLOOMINGTON — On July 20, 1892, The Pantagraph bemoaned a Bloomington “oversupplied with blind and helpless beggars.” On one corner of the courthouse square sat a blind woman grinding out “dol…
View ArticleBuilt for professional baseball, Fans’ Field ended as county fairground
In early August 1902, reserve streetcar motorman Abe Williams had his hands full on the South Main Street line, taking riders to both a Bloomington Bloomers minor league baseball game at Fans’…
View ArticleLincoln helped Davises cope with loss of child
In the 19th century, high infant mortality rates plagued rich and poor alike, and for many parents this earthly existence was a true veil of tears.
View ArticleBloomington Civil War hero Hogg was larger-than-life
BLOOMINGTON — The Civil War was a brutal, decidedly unromantic slog, a fact often ignored in our ongoing four-year commemoration of its 150th anniversary. By the end, as Grant and Lee blackene…
View ArticlePresident Andrew Johnson received rude reception in 1866
Of the 44 presidents in U.S. history, we know of 17 who passed through McLean County, from Millard Fillmore (the 13th president) to Barack Obama (the 44th). Of these 17, the most divisive figu…
View ArticleIt was always ‘Happy Hour’ with wholesaler
BLOOMINGTON — Over his long life, Campbell Holton witnessed monumental changes in his chosen profession — the buying and selling of groceries. Born right after the Civil War, he grew up at a t…
View ArticleLifelong bachelor marched to beat of different drummer
BLOOMINGTON — Early Bloomington was filled with delightfully eccentric characters, none more so than Dr. William C. Hobbs, a dandified gentleman who, by having the ear of high society types, s…
View ArticleFirst brick street in U.S. myth endures in Bloomington
BLOOMINGTON — At the southwest corner of the courthouse square in downtown Bloomington, near the intersection of Center and Washington streets, stands a historic marker of brick topped by a br…
View ArticleHudson native Melville Stone was a titan of the newspaper business
Newspapers were once indispensable to the health of the body politic, and in an age long before television and the Internet, Melville Elijah Stone was one of the most successful and respected …
View ArticleBloomington rose from ashes of October 1855 fire
On June 19, 1900, the Great Bloomington Fire claimed the better part of 4 1/2 downtown blocks and a host of iconic buildings, including the majestic third county courthouse. Yet 45 years befor…
View ArticleOakland School a modernist architectural gem
The post-World War II era marked a dramatic evolution — if not revolution — in the design of school buildings.
View ArticleFDR’s 1936 campaign included Bloomington stop
BLOOMINGTON — It’s not often someone can attract 20,000 people for a 10-minute visit, but such was the case on Oct. 14, 1936, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s whistle-stop campaign t…
View ArticleSpurning favorite son Stevenson, Bloomington liked ‘Ike’
BLOOMINGTON — Six decades after the 1952 presidential election, “I Like Ike” remains one of the best remembered campaign slogans in American political history. And despite the fact that Republ…
View ArticlePopular culture once embraced racist blackface minstrel shows
BLOOMINGTON — Although appallingly racist by today’s standards, blackface comedians and singers were a popular form of entertainment well into the 20th century.
View ArticleBilliards proved popular and controversial after Civil War
BLOOMINGTON — English philosopher Herbert Spencer liked to say that “to play billiards well was a sign of an ill-spent youth.”
View ArticleRoyce ‘block’ loomed over busy Bloomington corner
It was one of the most prominent commercial buildings in downtown Bloomington, a four-story brick symbol of the city’s railroad boom years.
View ArticleMcLean Regiment saw first action at Battle of Prairie Grove
Dec. 7 marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Prairie Grove in Arkansas. Although a stalemate, Confederate forces retreated after the clash and thus abandoned northwest Arkansas to the U…
View ArticleMargaret Illington’s career was an emotional rollercoaster
BLOOMINGTON — F. Scott Fitzgerald famously declared, “There are no second acts in American lives.” The Jazz Age titan of American letters must’ve missed out on Bloomington’s Margaret Illington…
View ArticleSleigh bells once sweet sound on wintry streets
Bloomington was a proverbial winter wonderland on Christmas Day 1878. Heavy December snowfall blanketed the city, making conditions ideal for that most invigorating of outdoor wintertime amuse…
View ArticleSanta’s Normal Theater visit one holiday highlight of 1950
Five and a half years after the end of World War II, the U.S. was still looking to jumpstart the economy and usher in an era of post-war affluence. On top of that, the nation found itself mire…
View ArticleLocals ushered in 1941 with resolutions - humorous or otherwise
New Year’s resolutions have long been treated with a healthy dose of skepticism. “Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account,” declared Oscar Wilde. …
View ArticleSkinner music school was once a cultural force in Bloomington
From 1907 until its closing in 1924, the O.R. Skinner School was an uncommonly cultured corner of musically attuned Bloomington, offering rigorous programs in performance, theory and music education.
View ArticleMeadows plant churned out washing machines
In the first several decades of the 20th century, Bloomington was in many ways a blue collar town.
View Article‘Modern’ grocery store opened during Depression
BLOOMINGTON — The older neighborhoods of Bloomington are dotted with buildings that used to be mom-and-pop grocery stores. Unfortunately, many of these small businesses did not survive the Gre…
View ArticleThe Oaks’ apartments born of the Great Depression
BLOOMINGTON — Buildings, much like people, speak to the era from whence they came. “The Oaks,” a Depression-era apartment building at 301 E. Grove St., Bloomington, is a prime example.
View ArticleFrom saddles to luggage, business lasted 120 years
Before the rise of the automobile, many businesses were dependent on the horse, including breeders, farriers, liverymen, and those who manufactured and sold tack, the term for leather equipmen…
View ArticleFunk known for condemnation of ‘Copperheads’
BLOOMINGTON — “I denounce these men and their aiders and abettors as rank traitors and secessionists,” declared Isaac Funk on the floor of the Illinois Senate. “Hell itself could not spew out …
View ArticleC.U. Williams & Son led Bloomington into auto age
BLOOMINGTON — In 1911, Bloomington businessman Charles U. Williams opened a four-story automobile showroom and garage at 207 E. Washington St. Called “the largest in any city of Bloomington’s …
View ArticleTeenage Chicago bond thief nabbed in Heyworth in 1921
It was a spectacular robbery — $772,000 in Liberty Bonds lifted from Northern Trust Co. of Chicago. The theft occurred on Feb. 24, 1921, and the unlikely perpetrator was William “Willie” Dalto…
View ArticleChase v. Stephenson step toward ending school segregation
DANVERS — African-Americans faced a long struggle toward equal access to education, not only in the Deep South but right here in Central Illinois.
View ArticleIce cutters harvested ‘crystal treasure’ from lakes, ponds
BLOOMINGTON — Ice was a valuable commodity in 19th century America. Before the advent of the manufactured or “artificial” kind, ice was procured the old-fashioned way — by cutting it from froz…
View ArticleB-N St. Patrick’s Day parades date to 1860s
In the 19th century St. Patrick’s Day was a chance for Bloomington’s Irish-born Catholic community to embrace its ethnic and cultural identity.
View ArticleFranklin ‘Square’ Bloomington’s first park
BLOOMINGTON — “How pleasant it is,” mused The Pantagraph of June 26, 1857, “immediately after the noontide hour of a hot summer’s day, to stroll away from the dusty streets of a noisy city, an…
View ArticleIAA final resting place for ‘Lady’
BLOOMINGTON — Perhaps it’s fitting this Easter to remember “Lady,” a short-haired collie of “mixed ancestry” buried on the grounds of the Illinois Agricultural Association (IAA) complex off To…
View ArticleArea once rolled out welcome mat for ‘The Great Agnostic’
“The inspiration of the Bible depends upon the ignorance of the gentleman who reads it.”
View ArticleSunday movies come to Bloomington in 1928
It was 85 years ago this month that Bloomington voters went to the polls to decide if movie theaters should be open on Sundays.
View ArticleBlind IWU student first local scout to reach Eagle rank
The area’s first Eagle Scout was Illinois Wesleyan University freshman Albert Barnhard, who attained the Boy Scouts’ highest rank in 1921. Although such an honor assured him a place in local s…
View ArticleMaplewood Country Club a ‘Roaring Twenties’ hot spot
BLOOMINGTON —Bloomington-Normal has enjoyed a rich history when it comes to golf, a sport known by many as “a good walk spoiled.”
View ArticleColorful Normal poet 'Dick' Hovey well known in 1890s, early 1900s
NORMAL — Little more than a footnote in American letters today, Richard Hovey was one of the better-known American poets in the 1890s and into the early 20th century.
View ArticleNewt Plumm once Pantagraph’s ‘special leased liar’
BLOOMINGTON — “I know a feller that made up his mind to make a quart of liquor last him from one year to another, and by gosh, if he didn’t do it. He bought that quart at five minutes to twelv…
View ArticleCuban ‘Chico’ Hernandez was star of 1938 Bloomers
BLOOMINGTON — Well before Jackie Robinson broke the Major League Baseball color line in 1947 (a story well told in the new big screen biopic “42”), Latin Americans had already made inroads int…
View ArticleGreatest work of local fiction turns 75
BLOOMINGTON — This month marks the 75th anniversary of Harold Sinclair’s “American Years,” a novel in which the city of Bloomington serves as the central character.
View ArticleStudent killed leading black troops in Civil War
NORMAL — This Friday marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Milliken’s Bend, La., the first significant engagement of the Civil War involving African-American troops.
View ArticlePullman prototypes built in Bloomington
In the spring of 1859, Chicago businessman George Pullman visited the railroad shops on Bloomington’s west side in order to build a prototype sleeping car, an ambitious venture that eventually…
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