On the Square Blog
May 18th, 2017
Redd-Williams Legion Post McBarnes Building, January 1942
Seen here are Redd-Williams American Legion Post #163 members at the McBarnes Memorial Building on East Grove Street in Bloomington. For much of the 20th century the Twin Cities had segregated Legion posts. If you can identify any of these unidentified gentlemen, please let us know....
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 18th, 2017
St. Joseph’s Hospital, Bloomington Under Construction, circa 1967
This circa 1967 aerial looks northwest. That’s under-construction St. Joseph’s Hospital in the center, with the Route 66 “beltline” (now Veterans Parkway) in the foreground. To the right (or north) is Eastland Mall, which formally opened in February 1967. This east side St. Joe’s, which would ope...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 18th, 2017
4-H Gathering Undated
These patient 4-H members are waiting for something to wrap up before they can enjoy their meal. Note the needlework in front of them and the quilts behind. This mystery photograph comes from the Museum’s extensive collection of McLean County Home Bureau photographs. The Home Bureau is now known ...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 16th, 2017
Local Guardsmen Head to Chicago June 1938
On June 20, 1938, about 40 members of Bloomington’s 2nd Battalion, 108th Quartermaster Regiment, headed to Chicago for the annual Illinois National Guard military show at Soldier Field. They’re seen here boarding a truck near the old armory (which was lost in a building collapse in 2011) in the w...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 15th, 2017
300 Block North Main Street May 1937
This lovely Depression-era view of a bustling downtown Bloomington shows the east side of the 300 block of North Main Street, one block north of the Courthouse Square. What catches your eye?...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 12th, 2017
University School of Beauty Culture September 1939
Margarette Scott’s beauty school was located on the 400 block of North Main Street in downtown Bloomington. “We get personality training too, because we’ve got to please our customers,” one of the students said at the time of this photograph. “Most of the girls are 18 to 25 years old and high sch...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 11th, 2017
What a long, strange trip it’s been … William and Beverly Meyers road trip Spring 1949
William Meyers and his wife Beverly (seen here) spent eight weeks traveling by U.S. Army surplus jeep from the Panama Canal Zone to Central Illinois—some 7,040 miles in all. Beverley’s parents lived in El Paso, Ill. During the epic journey the young couple had but one flat tire....
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 10th, 2017
Illinois State Normal University Junior-Senior Prom, 1949
Several ISNU coeds show off their gowns for the June 10, 1949 junior-senior prom. Louise Claymore (left) is in a blue chiffon; Barbara Schonert (center) in blue satin; and Marilyn McCarthy in beige lace with a stole....
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 9th, 2017
Normal grocery readies opening May 1949
Warren Craft (left) and two clerks, Don Bradbury and Catherine Chambers, prepare for the May 25, 1949 grand opening of Craft’s Food Store at 108 E. Beaufort St. in Uptown Normal. Today, the technology incubator/startup space Slingshot CoWork occupies this building....
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 8th, 2017
Extra, extra, read all about it! Pantagraph’s graduation edition, May 1949
Danvers High School seniors are seen here pouring though The Daily Pantagraph’s 56-page graduation edition of May 18, 1949. The Pantagraph distributed complimentary copies to some 2,370 senior from 77 Central Illinois high schools.These seniors delayed their “skip day” to Starved Rock State Park ...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 6th, 2017
Eugene Field School Reading Class, October 1949
Eugene Field teacher Kathryn Carnahan leads a crowded classroom of 40 first graders in this October 1949 scene. Opened in 1936, Eugene Field in Normal closed as an elementary school in 2005, and today the 81-year-old building serves as the Vocational Training Center for McLean County Unit Distric...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 5th, 2017
BHS Student Lounge May 1948
Bloomington High School students Wanda Rust (right) and Margaret Schlemmer work on murals in the newly opened student lounge, a repurposed second floor classroom. At this time the high school was located on the 500 block of East Washington Street. The current high school opened in 1959....
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 4th, 2017
Artist and Author Visit Bloomington May 1948
Artist Bob Hooton (left) and writer Dan Wickenden, both fresh from an extended stay in the Central American nation of Guatemala, arrived in Bloomington in mid-May 1948. Hooton, the son of Bloomington architect Phillip Hooton, intended to stay in the Twin Cities for the summer. Wickenden planned t...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 3rd, 2017
The Great Levant, February 1950 Pianist performs in Bloomington
Oscar Levant (right), the famed American pianist, composer, and actor, performed with the Bloomington-Normal Symphony on two consecutive nights, February 23 and 24, 1950, at the Scottish Rite Temple (now the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts).Levant is seen here talking to Dr. Kenneth Cu...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 2nd, 2017
Municipal Workers on Strike May 1968
Bloomington’s public service employees responsible for garbage pickup and cleanup work staged a seven-day strike in early May 1968. This May 6 scene shows the wives and supporters of the striking workers gathered on the south side of the Courthouse Square. The following day the 60-plus municipal ...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 1st, 2017
Route 66 Hit-and-Run Towanda, May 1948
In the early morning hours of May 19, 1948, a hit-and-run truck driver knocked down two gasoline pumps at D.E. Henderson’s service station in Towanda. Fortunately no one was hurt.Who remembers when gas pumps looked like this?...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
April 29th, 2017
Normal Fire Department New pumper, May 1968
Fire Inspector Charles Smalley (left) and Fire Chief Victor “Spud” Sylvester, Jr. take a close look at the controls of Normal’s new 1,000-gallon-per-minute pumper truck. It cost $23,000 at the time, which would be more than $162,000 in today’s dollars, adjusted for inflation....
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
April 22nd, 2017
Franklin Park’s new evergreens April 1958
In the spring of 1958, the Bloomington-Normal Garden Club planted a series of evergreens at Franklin Park, the city’s oldest green space. Seen here is Joyce Lynn Hall, an Illinois Wesleyan University student, admiring three Pfitzer junipers and a vertical yew recently set in the concrete planter ...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
April 21st, 2017
Free range … no more! City Hall booking, March 30, 1958
Bloomington Police officer Robert Shepherd (left) books a startled hen on accessory charges. That’s officer John Hauptman keeping the prisoner from flying the coop. She was picked up when officers arrested a man they found trying to stuff her in a paper bag....
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
April 20th, 2017
Corn farming in McLean County … 800 years ago!
Area farmer Nuel Downs, a lifelong collector of Native American relics, is shown here in mid-July 1972 assisting with an archeological dig at the Noble-Wieting site north of Heyworth. Did you know the area’s first corn farmers were also mound builders? Read all about this A.D. 1200 Mississ...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
April 19th, 2017
Eureka Williams aerial June 1966
This summer 1966 view of the near southeast side of Bloomington, looking east, offers a wealth of information. “A” is Oakaland School; “B,” Holiday Club, a private park that the city purchased in 1970; “C,” Meadows subdision; “D,” Lakeside County Club; and “E,” Eureka Williams Co. What else can y...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
April 18th, 2017
Saybrook’s last Civil War widow Emma Cook, May 1938
In May 1938, the Village of Saybrook prepared to celebrate its first Decoration Day (now known as Memorial Day) without a Civil War veteran. The last two Saybrook veterans, L.H. Cherrington and Joseph Rennabarger, passed away in November 1937.Seen here is 85-year-old Emma Cook, on the porc...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
April 17th, 2017
National Air Mail Week May 1938
Art Carnahan (left), manager of the Bloomington Municipal Airport (now Central Illinois Regional Airport), greets Harold Medbery, a pilot from the Tazewell County community of Armington. Medbery brought in nine pouches of airmail from towns southwest and west of Bloomington. That mail was then lo...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
April 15th, 2017
Easter Lily Sales March 1958
Here’s a group of Y-Teens from the Bloomington YWCA, March 29, 1958, selling Easter lilies in the State Farm Insurance Co. headquarters downtown. The girls are not identified, but that’s Gladys Martin (left) and Betty Moore in the back. The girls were raising money for the local chapter of the Na...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
April 14th, 2017
Bloomington’s Federal’s ‘electronic brain’ January 1963
Bloomington Federal Savings & Loan Association claimed to be the first financial institution in Illinois to make use of the NCR 390 computer, which was capable of calculating dividends and mortgage interest—among many other miraculous feats! The caption for this photo identified the NCR 390 o...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
April 13th, 2017
Free-range Kids April 1938
This mystery photograph comes from the Museum’s collection of Pantagraph negatives. We don’t know the names of these kids or the rural location of this cistern or stock pond. If you can help with the identification, let us know!...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
April 11th, 2017
Museum announces 2017 History Maker Honorees
The McLean County Museum of History announced today five recipients of the 2017 History Makers award to be presented during the Museum’s sixth annual History Makers Gala on Thursday, June 15 at Illinois State University’s Brown Ballroom in the Bone Student Center.Each year, the History Makers Gala r...
2 mins read by Lauren Lacy
April 11th, 2017
Judy Stone Named 2017 History Makers Honoree
Judy Stone was born in Columbus, Ohio on July 21, 1932. After growing up in Ohio, Judy received her bachelor’s degree in English from DePauw University and attended Garrett Theological Seminary in Evanston to continue her studies. It was in Evanston that Judy met her husband Jerry, who was workin...
9 mins read by Lauren Lacy
April 11th, 2017
Jeanne and Charles Morris Named 2017 History Makers Honorees
The story of how Jeanne and Charles Morris met “usually gets a smile,” according to Charles. The two met as college students working at a summer resort on Squam Lake in New Hampshire. Each September for two years, they went their separate ways - Jeanne returned to Spelman College in Atlanta, GA a...
7 mins read by Lauren Lacy
April 11th, 2017
Craig Hart Named 2017 History Makers Honoree
Craig Hart was born on January 11, 1934 in Streator, Illinois. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Economics and his Master’s degree in Business from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. While in school, Craig was in the naval training program at the University and upon gra...
8 mins read by Lauren Lacy