200 North Main St | Bloomington, Illinois | 309-827-0428
The library reading room is closed this week for lead abatement work.
200 North Main St | Bloomington, Illinois | 309-827-0428
This scene looks north where Clinton St. The house at the end of the street is gone: it was taken down when the intersection was reconfigured.
A heavy snowfall in February 1908 put a halt to this steam locomotive along the Illinois Central Railroad’s “Bloomer Line.”
Winter is hard on Twin City streets, with local residents always on the lookout for potholes, like the Laesch Dairy Driver.
None of these buildings are standing today. This is all surface parking and the Irvin Theater would be built on this block in 1915.
Pastor J.H. Yohe of First Pentecostal Church of Bloomington gives a sled a push. The boys were part of a 40-orphan contingent from Tupelo, Mississippi.
Three inches of snow had Don Locke of Bryan’s Standard Service Station out plowing the drive. Today, this site is occupied by Illinois State University’s Professional Development Building.
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.
Seen here is Illinois State Normal University senior Connie Townsend from Princeton, IL, enjoying an idyllic fall day back in early November of 1961.
Although you wouldn’t know it from this past weekend’s weather, the end of May and the beginning of June mark the traditional start of the garden walk season in Bloomington-Normal.
"McHistory" is a co-production of WGLT and the Museum of History using the letters, diaries, and documents of days gone by.
“Tornado Leaves Trail of Debris Strung Across Central Illinois" read the page 5 headline in the June 11, 1939 Pantagraph. Seen here is damage from that storm in downtown Arrowsmith, the small McLean County community east of Bloomington. A tornado and / or accompanying high winds tore off the corner of the Masonic building and left the Hess grocery store exposed to the elements.
Little is known about this photograph from the Museum archives except the date—March 7, 1931. A check of local newspaper microfilm at Bloomington Public Library tells us that in fact there was a major snowstorm at this time. “Winter's Worst Storm Grips State—Relief Today, Is Prediction" was the March 8, 1931 front page headline in The Pantagraph.
