January 19th, 2016

B-29 Bomber Visits Courthouse Square June 13, 1950

Back during the early years of the Cold War the fuselage of a U.S. Air Force B-29 Superfortress was put on display on the McLean County Courthouse Square, presumably as part of a patriotic road show to celebrate America’s technological, industrial, and military might. Air Force personnel were on ...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

January 18th, 2016

'Making a Home’ exhibit begins new era for Museum

Who are the people who have made McLean County their home? Where did they come from and how did they get here? What did they experience after they arrived?On Monday, January 18, 2016 the McLean County Museum of History unveiled the new exhibit, "Making A Home", that will help answer the...
6 mins read by Jeffery Woodard

January 15th, 2016

Death on the Mother Road Rural Logan County, September 1935

On Sunday, September 22, 1935, one person was killed just before 6:00 a.m. when a southbound Greyhound bus collided with a coupe on U.S. Route 66 several miles south of Lincoln. Killed was the driver of the auto, Elkhart resident Mary Isabel Ramirez. Four passengers on the bus were injured, thoug...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

January 13th, 2016

McLean County Basketball Tournament Championship Game, January 21, 1966 Octavia 68, Lexington 48

For many years the biggest sporting event on the local calendar was the McLean County Basketball Tournament, which began way back in 1911. During the years before school consolidation, 20 or more McLean County high schools outside of Bloomington-Normal would battle it out for bragging rights as t...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

January 12th, 2016

200 Block W. Washington St. Downtown Bloomington, 1965

This photograph, taken from the roof of The Pantagraph building in March 1965, shows a row of four brick commercial buildings stretching west of the 1911 Peoples Bank building. This is the south side of the 200 block of W. Washington St. Back in 1965, Peoples Bank had plans to raze these four bui...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

January 9th, 2016

Improvements Slated for Danvers, 1936

In June 1936, the Danvers Farmers Elevator Association announced plans to upgrade its facilities, a project that included replacement of the 1902 wood-sided elevator shown here, as well as construction of a new powerhouse, coal sheds, and other buildings. B.J. Sharp, manager of the elevator assoc...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

January 8th, 2016

Union Bus Station, 1956 523 N. East Street, Bloomington

“A feeling of sadness that only bus stations have” Jack Kerouac mused in his 1957 novel “On the Road.” Well, we’re pretty sure that Kerouac, in all his riotous travels, never passed through Bloomington’s gone-but-not-forgotten Depression-era station! Located at the northeast corner of East and Do...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

January 7th, 2016

I'll huff, and I'll puff … ISNU Puppet Show, January 1960

On January 14, 1960, Illinois State Normal University’s puppetry class staged its third annual pageant at Metcalf School. There was an afternoon performance for the university laboratory school’s lower grade children, and an evening one opened to the public. The program included “Little Red Ridin...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

January 6th, 2016

Patrol Boys Confab, January 1946 Franklin School, Bloomington

Some 140 patrol boys from nine Bloomington public schools gathered at Franklin School on January 8, 1946, for a joint meeting on traffic safety. Seen here is the gathering’s principal speaker, Capt. Emerson H. Westwick (left) of the Illinois State Highway Patrol, bantering with some of the local ...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

January 5th, 2016

Briarwood Neighborhood Bloomington-Normal, 1934

This aerial photograph, looking southwest, shows a section of the Briarwood neighborhood that straddles the Twin Cities of Bloomington and Normal. This photo was taken on February 8, 1934, by Pantagraph farm co-editor Frank Bill from “Scoop III,” a black-and-silver Stinson Jr. monoplane, the thir...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

January 3rd, 2016

Postwar Housing Boom Maplewood Subdivision, January 1957

New suburban-like developments sprouted up in the Twin Cities in the years after World War II to accommodate young couples and their Baby Boom children. Seen here are 1404 (left) and 1406 Maplewood Drive in Normal’s Maplewood subdivision.It’s believed that Howard and Carol Hobbs were the first oc...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

January 2nd, 2016

On Your Mark . . . Street Sledding, December 31, 1946

Who says there aren’t hills in Central Illinois? These youngsters took advantage of the chilly, snowy weather over the 1946-1947 New Year’s holiday to go sledding down an icy stretch of South Lee Street in Bloomington. Pictured here (left to right) are Harold Reynolds, Robert Schupp, Irving Berns...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

January 1st, 2016

Twin City Stork Club New Year’s Day 1958

Nancy Sue Hannah was the first Bloomington-Normal newborn of 1958, arriving 12 hours and 25 minutes into the new year. Also pictured here at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Bloomington are the parents Esther and Larry Hannah. Nancy Sue was the first child for the couple, who lived at 815 W. Jefferson St...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

December 31st, 2015

Happy New Year! Dale Miller’s Orchestra, mid-1930s

Beginning in Roaring Twenties, area ballrooms, dance halls and clubs featured tuxedo-clad bands (or orchestras, as they were often called) playing a heavily syncopated, post-ragtime, pre-swing jazz. These early jazz bands were in great demand come New Year’s Eve.Seen here is the Dale Miller Orche...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

December 29th, 2015

Downtown Bloomington Early 1920s

This aerial view is undated but several clues helped us assign an approximate date.Note the vacant lot at the northwest corner of East and Washington streets indicated by the red arrow. This was the former site of the “old” Castle Theater, which was open from 1904 to the mid-1910s (the “new” Cast...
2 mins read by Bill Kemp

December 25th, 2015

Be of Good Cheer Livingston’s, Early 1950s

Seen here from the early 1950s is Livingston’s, the gone-but-not-forgotten local department store on the south side of the Courthouse Square. The giant waving Santas standing upon the store’s overhang were a beloved holiday tradition from the late 1940s into the mid-1970s.Merry Christmas a...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

December 23rd, 2015

Courthouse Caroling December 23, 1935

The ninth annual “Community Christmas Carol Sing” was held on the McLean County Courthouse Square on December 23, 1935. Seen here are lead caroler Harold D. Saurer (holding the papers) and the Rev. Frank L. Breen (who’s face can be seen above the unidentified Bloomington Municipal Band euphonium ...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

December 22nd, 2015

Christmas Caravan, 1935

During the Great Depression 80 downtown Bloomington merchants staged a “Christmas Caravan” promotion to boost holiday retail sales. The vehicle in the background, equipped with a calliope and pulling trailers loaded with prize giveaways, passed through more than 50 Central Illinois communities. T...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

December 18th, 2015

ISSCS Christmas Circa 1950

Christmastime at the Illinois Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Children’s School in Normal included many traditional activities, such as trimming the tree. Seen here are ISSCS students decorating a Christmas tree placed in front of the state orphanage’s Norman-style residential cottages. Built in the early...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

December 17th, 2015

Bright Lights in Time for Christmas Downtown Bloomington, December 1958

On Dec. 19, 1958, Bloomington Mayor Robert McGraw threw a ceremonial switch to light about half of the 65 new mercury vapor streetlamps along a stretch of Main Street from Walnut Street south to MacArthur Avenue.Seen here is the 500 block of North Main Street looking south. This block was once “f...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

December 15th, 2015

Winter Wonderland Miller Park Ice Skating, 1958

Ice skating was once popular at Miller Park on Bloomington’s west side. Fifty-seven years ago, mid-December 1958, three young women (left to right) Helen Johnson, Judy Johnson (standing), and Raylene Mitchell finish prepping before heading for the ice on the park’s smaller lagoon.Oh, that’s eight...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

December 14th, 2015

All I Want for Christmas … Lincoln School First Graders, 1965

Back in early December 1965, these six-year-old first graders from Lincoln School in Bloomington could sympathize with the wishes expressed in the grating holiday novelty song, “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth.”In the front row (left to right) are Tommy Suttle, Pam Belcher, and Jul...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

December 11th, 2015

Santa and His Six (?) Reindeer Bloomington Christmas Parade, 1929

The December 3, 1929 Christmas parade in Bloomington featured Santa Claus, six marching bands, a drum corps, and eleven floats, among many other attractions.Mr. Claus is seen here out front, his sleigh pulled by six reindeer. Of course, Museum staff wondered what happened to the standard “Clausia...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

December 9th, 2015

Corny Christmas Contest, 1934 Guess the Number of Kernels

Back in December 1934, the Bloomington Association of Commerce (now the McLean County Chamber of Commerce) staged a “corny” promotion to boost downtown holiday retail sales. The approximately 58-by-13 inch glass container shown here was filled with two bushels of shelled corn. With every downtown...
2 mins read by Bill Kemp

December 8th, 2015

U.S. Declares War The Pantagraph, December 8, 1941

The U.S. Congress declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941, in response to the attack on Pearl Harbor the previous day. On December 8, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered his “Day of Infamy” speech to a joint session of Congress at 12:30 p.m. (the address was reprinted on page 7 of tha...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

December 7th, 2015

Community Players Groundbreaking December 7, 1960

On December 7, 1960, Community Players Theatre broke ground for the playhouse on 201 Robinhood Lane. Seen here (left to right) are architect Harry Riddle, Jr. and C.E. Mulliken, Community Players building chairman, both of whom are handling building plans. Next to Mulliken is Alvin Keller with th...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

December 4th, 2015

Ho ho ho Livingston’s Santas, 1940s

From the 1940s to the mid-1970s, A. Livingston & Sons in downtown Bloomington hoisted two giants Santas onto its overhang for the holiday season. The two identical Santas (only one is shown here) were about 13 feet in height and likely made of some early plastic or fiberglass material. Living...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

December 3rd, 2015

Whoa dude! ‘Hemp for Victory,’ 1942

In late November 1942, during World War II, farm advisers and agriculture officials from Central Illinois gathered in Bloomington to hear about the importance of growing hemp for the war effort. That’s right, industrial hemp was needed to make rope and other things, such as harnesses and shroud l...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

December 2nd, 2015

Bah, humbug! Fred Hitch as Scrooge, 1926

From this 1926 publicity still we’d have to say Bloomington’s Fred Hitch captured the essence of the character Charles Dickens described as a “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner!” From the mid-1920s into the 1990s, the Scottish Rite Temple (now the Bloomingt...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp

November 27th, 2015

A. Livingston & Sons Christmas 1930s

We’re not sure this photograph was taken on a “Black Friday” sometime in the 1930s, but it sure looks like it! Seen here is an undated photograph of the main floor of the locally owned department store, A. Livingston & Sons, during a Christmas season in the 1930s. Livingston’s, located on the...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp