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West Bloomington

A Community in Conflict

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

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

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

Speakers Bureau

1 item

'Forty Acres:' Bloomington’s Irish Railroad Neighborhood

Speakers Bureau