Now It Is a Parking Lot

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.

Articles

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

5 items

Before railroads, stage lines crisscrossed the prairies

One of the more striking modern day conveniences we take for granted is the ease of long distan...

Article

Brown’s delivered white-collar education

Business colleges played an important but often-overlooked role in American education. For the ...

Article

The fifth jail in McLean County’s history, seen here in this undated postcard, was located at the southwest corner of Madison and Monroe streets. It served as the county’s jail for 95 years — from 1882 to 1977. Today this site is a parking lot.

County jail too often destination for troubled souls

On Sept. 25, 1857, John Houseman, a German immigrant “deranged for some months,” committed suic...

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

Turner Hall lost monument to German pride

More than a century ago, Turner Hall was the cultural hub of Bloomington’s large and influentia...

Article

Biographies

1 item

Major, William Trabue

William Trabue Major was born on March 1st, 1790 about three miles from Frankfort, Kentucky. H...

Biography

Blog

5 items

Annual YMCA Circus Downtown Bloomington, March 1938 Part 1

For nearly a century, Bloomington-Normal served as winter training grounds for trapeze artists ...

Blog Post

Annual YMCA Circus Downtown Bloomington, March 1938 Part 2

Seen here are two members of the Billetti Troupe, a nationally touring high-wire act that winte...

Blog Post

Brown’s Business College, 1930 526-530 N. Main St., Bloomington

Brown’s Business College, a chain of schools established by G.W. Brown of Jacksonville, offered...

Blog Post

National Bank of Bloomington Drive-In 400 block East Washington Street, c. 1970

Much of what’s seen here is long gone, lost forever to the wrecking ball. The view is the 400 b...

Blog Post

Tilden-Hall’s Sad Demise February-March 1962

Yesterday we showed the Tilden-Hall Hotel in its 1930s glory. The six-story hotel, located at t...

Blog Post

Finding Aids

1 item

Brown’s Business College

Brown’s Business College (1893-1972) offered training for young men and women entering the work...

Finding Aid

Speakers Bureau

2 items

McLean County Lost: An Illustrated Tour of Vanished Worlds

Speakers Bureau

The 'Lost Speech' Found: Abraham Lincoln and the Founding of the Illinois Republican Party

Speakers Bureau