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West Bloomington

Resources are listed in alphabetical order. More information can always be found by using our website search bar, or contacting a member of our staff.

A Community in Conflict

Digital Exhibit

4 items

1871
In 1871, Martha and Henry Crow wanted their children to get as much education as possible.

Digital Exhibit

1919
During the late 1800s, Black people in McLean County were provided with equal access to public facilities and accommodations. But in the early 1900s, Jim Crow segregation dramatically increased in Central Illinois and Black people were increasingly treated as second-class citizens.

Digital Exhibit

1965
Low income residents faced challenges when it came to home ownership. Their treatment by government officials made it nearly impossible for them to improve their circumstances, and sometimes made their situations worse.

Digital Exhibit

1994
On December 15, 1994 Diamond Star Motors (DSM) was slapped with a lawsuit charging the company with sexual and racial harassment and discrimination.

Digital Exhibit

Articles

A small selection of Pages from our Past articles written by Bill Kemp

13 items

Buck Mann Park hidden west side gem
Tucked away on Bloomington’s far west side, Buck Mann Park is one of the lovelier, out-of-the-w...

Article

Community fund drive kept C&A Shops in Bloomington
Local and state governments often offer incentives to keep existing businesses or attract new o...

Article

Halloween 1945 followed world war’s end
World War II still loomed large over American life during the Halloween season of 1945. The sur...

Article

“In appearance the grand master suggests the banker or the prosperous businessman,” it was said of Patrick H. Morrissey. “In height he is about 5 feet 10 inches, weighs perhaps 185 pounds, wears a mustache and hair that is reddish in hue, and possesses a pair of blue eyes that can see things and understand.”

Labor leader product of west side railroad shops
Born and raised on Bloomington’s west side, Patrick Henry Morrissey became a national labor lea...

Article

a drawing of a three-story frame building. The second story has a balcony that overhangs the sidewalk. People are walking, and a horse and carriage are in the road.

Pre-Civil War Butler House survived into 1920s
On the western edge of downtown, the no-frills, mom-and-pop Butler House was an old friend to t...

Article

6 men are in this photograph, two standing at a contraption with hoses attached. The floor is wet.

Project to mark firefighter graves lesson in history
As part of a Memorial Day observance last month, active and retired Twin City firefighters plac...

Article

Although of poor quality, this is the only known photograph of the Pullman Strike of 1894 as it unfolded at the Union Depot on Bloomington’s west side. Note all the idle Pullman coaches and sleepers. Marooned passengers found various ways to while away the hours. Riders on a Pullman sleeper attached to a C&A limited spent much of July 3 — “all the afternoon and all the evening till midnight” — singing popular songs of the day, such as “Sweet Marie,” “John Brown’s Body” and “In Old Madrid.”

Pullman Strike left Twin Cities at standstill
On July 3, 1894, area residents flocked to the Chicago & Alton Railroad on Bloomington’s we...

Article

aerial view of the shops

Railroad shops center of deadly 1920 typhoid outbreak
For much of its first 100 years, Bloomington’s formerly unreliable water supply threatened to h...

Article

Railroaders’ library once west side hub
Many longtime Twin City residents will remember long-gone Withers Library, located at the corne...

Article

WW I freighter ‘Evergreen City’ named for Bloomington
At the end of World War I, Bloomington citizens were given the honor of having a freighter name...

Article

13 children and young adults sit on a long bench at a table. The table has a white table cloth and place settings for each person. One man is at the head of the table, wearing a bow tie. A woman stands behind the table in a dress. They are all looking at the camera, many of the children are smiling. All of the people in the photograph are African American. The walls appear to be lightly-painted brick.

Washington Home couple worked ‘through the heart’
“Cooks and counselors, painters and referees, they are also mom and pop to up to twenty childre...

Article

Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad passenger train rumbling through Bloomington's west side.

West side Subway Club earned notoriety in late ’50s
Try as he might, Bloomington Mayor Robert McGraw could not close the Subway Club, an afterhours...

Article

1947 Halloween party at the Day Nursery, 1320 W. Mulberry St.

‘Angel of the West Side’ met daycare needs a century ago
Ah, the good old days when all fathers were breadwinners and all mothers were homemakers. Well,...

Article

Biographies

29 items

Paul F Beich in 1936

Beich, Paul F.
Paul F. Beich was a German immigrant who worked in the candy-making business, first as a salesm...

Biography

Judith Bradner

Bradner, Judith Ann
Judith Major Allin Bradner was born on May 9, 1814 in Bourbon County, Kentucky to William T. an...

Biography

Henry Brown

Brown, Henry L.
Henry Brown was never afraid to learn new skills to overcome the challenges life threw at him. ...

Biography

Calcote, Matilda
Matilda Bell Heaston entered the world on November 30, 1910. Born to Jake and Doshie (Robinson)...

Biography

Claxton, Belle Blue
Belle Blue Claxton was born in Bloomington, IL on April 30, 1872.  She was a daughter of Richar...

Biography

Colby, Dr. June Rose
June Rose Colby, known to friends and family as Rose, was born at Cherry Valley, Ohio on June 4...

Biography

Cotting, James M.
James M. Cotting was born on March 18, 1825 in North Chatham, New York. He married Katherine M....

Biography

Cotting, Katherine M.J. Vanderpool
James M. Cotting was born on March 18, 1825 in North Chatham, New York. He married Katherine M....

Biography

Crandall, June W.
June Crandall (1878-1910), a Kentucky native, came to Bloomington in 1898 and began working as ...

Biography

Ruby Edwards

Edwards, Ruby
Ruby A. Jackson was born on January 29, 1906 in Bloomington, Illinois.  She was the daughter of...

Biography

Alexander Erickson

Erickson, Alexander G.
Swedish immigration during the nineteenth century was part of a larger trend occurring in the w...

Biography

Headstones in a wooded cemetery

Esque, Eliza (Davis)
Eliza Davis Esque was born around 1845 in St. Charles County, Missouri.  Little is known about ...

Biography

Ferre Goodman

Ferre, Goodman
Goodman Ferre (pronounced Ferry) was born on January 27, 1806 and died on September 24, 1897.  ...

Biography

Crude illustration of a middle-aged woman's side profile, with raised eyebrows and short bobbed haircut.

Fox, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Irons Folsom
Elizabeth “Lizzie” Irons was born in September 1861 in Peoria to Charles and Ettie Maria Englis...

Biography

Carl Hanner

Hanner, Carl Gustav
Carl Gustav Hanner was born in Kungsholmen Parish, Stockholm, Sweden on August 8, 1840. His mot...

Biography

Samuel Hawks

Hawks, Samuel Lockhart
Samuel Lockhart Hawks, known as “Louis” Hawks, was born in Scotland on March 7, 1832 the son of...

Biography

Sarah Jackman

Jackman, Sarah Farnum Sargent
Sarah Farnum Sargent Jackman was born on December 18, 1816 in Boscawen, New Hampshire. She was ...

Biography

Mayes, John Jackson
John Jackson Mayes, Jr., (1851 -1918) known as J.J., was engaged in the photography business, a...

Biography

Moratz, Paul
Paul O. Moratz had a passion for building and design that started at a young age. For 34 years ...

Biography

Lucy Orme Morgan

Morgan, Lucy Orme
Lucy Orme Morgan was born on January 21, 1858 in Bloomington, Illinois. She was the third of fo...

Biography

Murray, Ethel
Much of what we know today about Murray comes from oral history which can sometimes contradict ...

Biography

Portrait of Arthur Pillsbury

Pillsbury, Arthur L.
Arthur L. Pillsbury was born in Bloomington, Illinois on November 29th, 1869. He grew up in Blo...

Biography

Rice, Martha Baker
Martha H. Baker (Rice) was born in Richmond, Kentucky on September 4, 1817.  Her parent’s names...

Biography

Roeder, John Conrad
John C. Roeder was born in Nordeck, Germany in about 1836.  He was the son of Conrad and Elizab...

Biography

Willis Stearles

Stearles, Willis
Much of what we know today about Willis Stearles comes from oral history, members of the commun...

Biography

Ella Stokes

Stokes, Ella Lee
Ella Lee Luallen is one of many important voices in the Black history of McLean County. She was...

Biography

Thompson, Jennie
Jane “Jennie” Lynd Thompson was born on October 28, 1860 in Bond Head, Canada—located in the pr...

Biography

William Van Schoick

Van Schoick, William
Thomas William Van Schoick was born on August 2, 1829 in Monmouth County, New Jersey to David a...

Biography

Private Gus Williams funeral

Williams, Private Gus
Augustus “Gus” Williams was born in Jacksonville, Illinois on September 22, 1892. He was the so...

Biography

Blog

8 items

Independence Day 1964 Miller Park, Bloomington
For well over a century, Miller Park on Bloomington’s west side has served as home to many the ...

Blog Post

McHistory: Bloomington's Settlement House
Listen to the audio on WGLT's website hereMcHistory goes back in time to explore big momen...

Blog Post

McHistory: George Hoagland’s ‘Oil of Gladness’
Listen to the audio on WGLT's website hereMcHistory goes back in time to explore big momen...

Blog Post

McHistory: Life, literature and children

Blog Post

McHistory: Louise Calimese and the McLean County Home for Colored Children
Listen to the audio on WGLT's website hereMcHistory goes back in time to explore big momen...

Blog Post

McHistory: Workin' In A Coal Mine
Listen to the audio on WGLT's website hereMcHistory goes back in time to explore big momen...

Blog Post

McHistory: ‘King of Swedes’ kept Bloomington streets clean
Listen to the audio on WGLT's website hereMcHistory goes back in time to explore big momen...

Blog Post

Photo of the Week, 102: West Washington Street Toughs
Boys and young men gather outside Paul Scholz cigar and tobacco shop, 1018 W. Washington St., i...

Blog Post

Finding Aids

6 items

Booker T. Washington Home
The Booker T. Washington Home was founded in 1918 by Mr. and Mrs. Alex Barker.  They housed six...

Finding Aid

Exhibit: A Deadly Deception: The Asbestos Tragedy in McLean County

Finding Aid

Kingsley—McElroy Collection
Lorraine McElroy was born in September 1869 in Pennsylvania, the daughter of James and Emily Mc...

Finding Aid

McLean County Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument
The McLean County Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, dedicated in 1913, is located at Miller Park...

Finding Aid

Miller Park
This collection contains various newspaper articles associated with Miller Park, programs from ...

Finding Aid

Miller, George
George H. Miller (1856 - 1927) was one of eight children born to German immigrants in Bloomingt...

Finding Aid

Making a Home

Digital Exhibit

5 items

Larson Family
Many Swedish immigrants came to McLean County, some directly from Sweden, some from other parts...

Digital Exhibit

Livingston Family
In 1860 Hannah Eliel, age nine, boarded the sailing ship Clobus with her teenage sisters Betty ...

Digital Exhibit

Maria del Socorro Luna del Real
In 1975 Maria del Socorro Luna del Real piled into a station wagon with her seven younger sibli...

Digital Exhibit

Mau Family
The Mau family was lucky. Unlike many other German immigrants, they knew exactly where they wer...

Digital Exhibit

O'Neil Family
Mary Motherway O’Neil lost her husband from fever at the height of the Irish famine. Because sh...

Digital Exhibit

Speakers Bureau

1 item

'Forty Acres:' Bloomington’s Irish Railroad Neighborhood

Speakers Bureau

Videos

2 items

Miller Park: An Evening of Stories with Bill Kemp

Video

The Silent Killer: Dangers of Asbestos in the Workplace Panel Discussion

Video

Working for a Living

Digital Exhibit

5 items

Building for a Growing Population
A growing community in need of housing meant a greater need for workers in the construction tra...

Digital Exhibit

Changing Shipping Practices
Many business owners continued to use the railroad to ship their products. But the trucking of ...

Digital Exhibit

Powering the Community
Coal, used for generating electricity and for heating homes and businesses, was discovered bene...

Digital Exhibit

Railroad Workers Were Still in Demand
Despite the rising popularity of auto travel, rail transportation remained prominent. Laborers ...

Digital Exhibit

Working in a Dangerous and Challenging Environment
Running the trains, whether freight or passenger, meant higher pay, as well as increased risks....

Digital Exhibit