On the Square Blog
June 24th, 2016
Idle Youth Miller Park, July 1957
These unidentified boys are seen here a few days before Independence Day 1957, hanging out at Miller Park on Bloomington’s west side.This is what boys used to do before PC gaming and the Internet!...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
June 23rd, 2016
Black Baseball in Bloomington August 1944
These 12- to 16-year-olds played American Legion ball sponsored by the local Louis E. Davis Post. They’re posing here on Illinois Wesleyan University grounds. That’s the Van Leer Memorial Chime Tower at Broadview Mansion looming in the background.Front row, left to right: Alonzo Clark, Robert Gai...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
June 21st, 2016
Old McLean County Jail Undated
The view here is from the corner of Madison and Monroe streets, downtown Bloomington, looking southwest. That’s the fifth jail in McLean County’s history. It opened in 1882 and closed on March 1, 1977. It was torn down in the 1980s. Today this site is … what else but a parking lot!...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
June 18th, 2016
Auto Hotel Downtown Bloomington
In July 1937, a group of Bloomington businessmen purchased the old post office building at the northwest corner of East and Jefferson streets. They then razed the post office in order to build Bloomington’s first fireproof automobile garage.The Auto Hotel opened in late June 1938. By the early 19...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
June 17th, 2016
Museum exceeds $3 million campaign goal
The McLean County Museum of History has surpassed its $3 million campaign goal to fund significant improvements including a new permanent exhibit and Museum-wide technology upgrades.Campaign Co-Chair and Board President Carolyn Yockey made the announcement Thursday night during the Museum’s annua...
2 mins read by Lauren Lacy
June 17th, 2016
Red Cross Nurse’s Aide Corps World War II Home Front
Volunteers for this wartime home front program pledged 150 hours or more annually for non-technical nursing at stateside military and civilian hospitals. More than 200,000 women served in the Red Cross Nurse’s Aide Corps.This wonderful photograph was a donation in 2016. Unfortunately, no one is i...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
June 15th, 2016
Why So Serious? Knight of Pythias, 1934
The Knights of Pythias, a fraternal society organized in the 1860s, maintained a Bloomington chapter for more than a century. Seen here are unidentified members of Damon Lodge No. 10. Although this photograph is undated, research tells us that the local Pythians celebrated their 64th anniversary ...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
June 14th, 2016
Ironworkers and Old Glory June 1990
In this June 1990 scene, taken about a week after Flag Day, Ironworkers Mike Wallace (left) and Chris Bomen shake hands in front of an American flag displayed on the last steel beam secured on a five-story addition for Brokaw Hospital (today it’s Advocate BroMenn Medical Center)....
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
June 14th, 2016
One Dress, Eleven Brides
The beautiful wedding gown pictured here was worn by Miss Alice Myrtle Abbott for her ceremony to Rev. Frances McCarty in Mason City on 30 November 1904. Myrtle’s three daughters, (born in McLean County) Mary Helen, Alice, and Martha Louise, wore the same dress for their weddings in 1933, 1938, a...
4 mins read by Emma Meyer
June 12th, 2016
Adlai at Bloomington Country Club September 1953
In September 1953, Adlai E. Stevenson (right) spent five days in Bloomington, his boyhood home, visiting friends and family. Earlier this week we posted another photo from this visit.During those busy five days Stevenson, a former Illinois governor and Democratic presidential nominee, got in two ...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
June 10th, 2016
Bloomington Bloomers Fans Field, 1913
For the better part of four decades Bloomington fielded a team in the well-regarded Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League. In 1913, the Bloomers finished a disappointing seventh in the eight-team league. The Quincy Gems and Dubuque Dubs finished first and second respectively....
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
June 8th, 2016
The Duke in Pontiac June 11, 1957
This is a photo of one of Duke Ellington’s many visits to this stretch of Central Illinois. Ellington and his orchestra performed at the Elks Country Club in Pontiac in June 1957. This wonderful photo shows The Duke at that event chatting with Bob Pollitt (left) and Farley Sparks (right), both Po...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
June 4th, 2016
Mystery Photos The Museum needs your help! Mystery Solved!
These two school photographs were recently donated to the Museum. Unfortunately, other than being stamped “Camera Craft, Normal, Illinois” on the back, there is no indication as to what school or what students and teacher are shown here.If anyone can help out with identifications, please contact ...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
June 2nd, 2016
FDR’s Death, April 1945 Flags at Half-Staff for 30 Days
Franklin D. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, early in his fourth term as U.S. president. In response, Illinois Gov. Dwight H. Green ordered flags at all public buildings set at half staff for thirty days.Seen here is the flag in front of Old Main on the Illinois State Normal University campus a ...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
June 1st, 2016
Booker T. Washington Home West Side of Bloomington, Undated
Impoverished, neglected, and unwanted children in the Twin Cities were once separated by race.Established in 1918, the McLean County Home for Colored Children (later renamed the Booker T. Washington Home) was located on the 1200 block of W. Moulton St. (now MacArthur Ave.) In 1925, construction b...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 30th, 2016
Memorial Day 1960
Americans began regularly placing flowers on the graves of those who gave their lives in defense of the country in the years after the Civil War. Back then it was known as Decoration Day.Seen here is an unidentified woman laying flowers in an unknown cemetery in the Bloomington area. If you can h...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 28th, 2016
Memorial Day 1960 African-American Legionnaires
The Redd-William American Legion Post color guard heads north on East Street in downtown Bloomington during the Memorial Day parade of May 30, 1960. Redd-Williams was the Legion post for local African-American veterans.Seen in the background is the still-standing McBarnes Memorial Building (left)...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 27th, 2016
Memorial Day, May 30, 1935 Downtown Bloomington
Memorial Day 1935 in Bloomington included a parade that began at the McBarnes Memorial Building on East Grove Street.This photographs shows the local Boy Scout contingent heading south along the 100 block of South Main Street. The red arrow points to the former McLean County Bank building, locate...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 26th, 2016
My Store, undated Downtown Bloomington
Oscar Mandel and brother-in-law Albert Schwarzman opened this five-story “trade palace,” located on the northeast corner of Center and Grove streets, in April 1913. It replaced a much smaller retail outlet at the same location. My Store, Bloomington’s largest discount retailer, closed in early 19...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 25th, 2016
Ritter School, 1941 Martin Township
Before paved roads, school buses, and district consolidation, there were something like 250 one-room schools in McLean County alone. Seen here is Ritter, a representative one-room school (in size and architectural style) in Martin Township, east of Bloomington-Normal. Ritter School was located ab...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 24th, 2016
Irving School, Bloomington Eighth Grade Graduates, 1925
Here’s the Irving School class of 1925. In 2016 Irving is still a public school on Bloomington’s west side (though the old building in the background was long replaced with a more modern structure). Note the two boys in the first row, second and third from the right end, hamming it up!...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 23rd, 2016
Neon Glory Mr. Quick, undated
The first Mr. Quick opened at 609-611 N. Main St. in Normal in 1959. Eventually the hamburger chain, founded by Twin City resident Marcel Comte, boasted locations in four states. The last Mr. Quick restaurant, located at the northeast corner of Washington and Clinton streets in Bloomington, close...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 20th, 2016
Eighth Grade Graduates Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home, 1928
Twelve eighth grade graduates from the Illinois Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home (later renamed the Illinois Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Children’s School, or ISSCS) pose for this late spring 1928 photograph. Unfortunately, the only students positively identified are Richard Griffith (middle, back row) and The...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 19th, 2016
When Uptown Was Downtown Normal Theater, 1967
This photograph is undated but we know the Robert Redford-Jane Fonda romantic comedy “Barefoot in the Park” played at the Normal in late September through early October 1967. This view of the south side of the 200 block of North Street also shows (left of the theater) Washburn Flowers and Gifts, ...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 18th, 2016
Cooksville High School Class of 1909
Seen here are 1909 graduates from Cooksville, a small community some fifteen miles northeast of Normal. Left to right, beginning with the top row, are Grace Fossett, Ethel Wright, Eddie Manning, Merle Douglass, and Clarence Crumbaker.In 1949, Cookville merged with the nearby towns of Anchor and C...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 17th, 2016
‘Golden Gleam’ Grabs Trophy Society Horse Show, Bloomington, 1953
This photo was from the June 20-21, 1953, horse show, held at Fans Field, an old minor league ballpark once located on Bloomington’s south side. This show, sponsored by the Corn Belt Horseman’s Association, featured some 285 horses in 34 classes.Seen here is “Golden Gleam,” who captured the top p...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 16th, 2016
Chopping and Blowing Hay Brown Estate, June 1941
Farmers have always been innovators willing to try out new methods and adapt new technologies. Back in June 1941, E.D. Lawrence, who farmed the Brown estate ten miles east of Bloomington, experimented with blowing chopped hay in the barn mow instead of moving baled hay the traditional method.Seen...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 13th, 2016
Warren “Ike” LaBounty Normal Pole Vaulter
On May 24, 1941, Illinois State Normal University competed in the Illinois Intercollegiate Conference track and field championship in DeKalb, on the campus of what was then called Northern Illinois State Teachers College.ISNU finished second behind Northern, with Western Illinois State Teachers C...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp
May 12th, 2016
Museum Continues Long History of Serving Older Adults
May is Older Americans Month. Designated in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy, this time is set aside to recognize the contributions that seniors make in their communities. We at the McLean County Museum of History agree that history is made every day and by people of all ages. No matter the mont...
4 mins read by Anthony Bowman
May 12th, 2016
Bloomington High School Class of 1898
The June 3, 1898, Bloomington High School commencement exercises were held at the Grand Opera House on East Market Street. At this time the high school was located on the north side of Monroe Street between Prairie and Gridley streets. That high school is long gone and Jefferson School was later ...
1 mins read by Bill Kemp