200 North Main St | Bloomington, Illinois | 309-827-0428
200 North Main St | Bloomington, Illinois | 309-827-0428
In 1950, farmer Herman Jack planted 1,500 evergreen seedlings. In late December 1952 Jack selected one of the surviving 1,300 evergreens.
Clarence W. Frey & Sons was a longtime auto dealership and service center. Seen here is a Frey showroom with circa 1929-1930 Studebakers.
The staff of Kleinau & Son’s is seen here in front of the storefront. Kleinau’s sold candy, ice cream, and fruit at this location.
This shows the one-room Rose Hill School being moved to its new site on the Illinois State Normal University campus. In 1964 it was renamed for Lura Eyestone, an 1892 ISNU graduate who served as a faculty member from 1903 to 1939.
This snowy Depression-era scene shows the corner of Main and Jefferson streets on the northeast corner of the Courthouse (now Museum) Square.
This “Turkey Day” card comes from the Museum’s Greetings Cards Collection.
Ed Peifer of Peifer’s Madison Market shows a shopper the finer points of the Thanksgiving turkey.
The period from Wednesday through Sunday around Thanksgiving is usually the busiest travel time of the year in the U.S. Fortunately for folks flying in or out of Bloomington, local airport facilities have expanded dramatically since 1964!
Village of Colfax, looking east. “A” is Main Street; “B” Center Street; “C” the Illinois Central Railroad’s “Bloomer Line”; “D” a lovely L-shaped row of Osage orange hedge that is gone today.
Illinois State Normal and Illinois Wesleyan universities were bitter gridiron rivals going all the way back to 1887. Seen here is an unidentified Wesleyan runner getting by ISNU defender Edward Lesnick (#13).
Led by Bruce Taylor Donald Biefeldt, the Anchor High Aces finished the 1945-1946 season as the Colfax District champions before losing to Gridley.
Jesse Fell built this house in 1856-1857, nearly a decade before the establishment of the town itself. It was later moved to 502 S. Fell Ave., and then torn down in mid-August 1980.
The Trotter Fountain might be the most significant work of public art in the Twin Cities. The fountain stands near the corner of East and Washington streets in Withers Park, just south of the PNC bank building.
A Corn Belt harvest time tradition involves farmers helping fellow farmers in need. Sixty-six years ago, in early November 1950, friends of Euel Roberts picked his 560-acre corn crop and then filled his crib.
This photograph offers a partial view of the 200 block of North Main Street, looking southeast. The Unity Building, one of the great office buildings, was lost in a fire in 1988.
This photograph shows George Stewart, a local (and well-decorated) World War I veteran. Though hard to believe, at one time Bloomington had separate Legion posts for black and white veterans.
Veterans Day was first known as “Armistice Day.” Seen here is the 1945 Armistice Day ceremony a little more than two months after the end of World War II.
From the late 1920s to the mid-1940s, W.H. Gronemeier operated a bakery at the northwest corner of East and Front streets. In 1935, you could bring your Thanksgiving turkey to Gronemeier’s and have it baked “to a queen’s taste.”
Arthur Wilson “Bob” Tucker signing copies of his latest mystery novel, “To Keep or Kill,” at W.B. Read & Co., 210 N. Center St. in downtown Bloomington. Tucker enjoyed a second career as a mystery and science fiction writer, until he passed away in 2006.
This aerial, looking due north, shows the Route 66 “Beltline” which is now Veterans Parkway.