By Jared L. Olar
Local History Program Coordinator
Since the spring of 2022, the historic 407 Court St. building has been the home of Artistic Community Theatre, a local theatre troupe with about four decades of history. ACT was founded in the 1980s in Bartonville as the Campus Players, changing its name to Artistic Community Theatre during the 1990s. ACT formerly had its theatre in the former Pekin Mall and presented plays at the Mineral Springs Park Pavilion and various other locations. In 2022, James and Nona Buster of Reprise Productions Inc. acquired the 407 Court St. building and extensively remodeled it, turning it into a theatre building for ACT.
For the greater part of Pekin’s history, however, the address of 407 Court St. has been better known for bakeries and barbershops than for community theatre. Though Artistic Community Theatre’s building has undergone extensive changes throughout its history, the building and the building’s site have a remarkable business history reaching back to the mid-1800s.
“We wanted to save a building in downtown Pekin to renovate and house Artistic Community Theatre before they disbanded after 20 years without a home base. The building is original to the block but through the years things have changed,” said Nona Buster of Reprise Productions Inc.
The most notable change was the removal of the building’s third floor, which seems to have occurred about the mid-1990s. The 407 Court St. building also received a new facade in or about 1994, and that facade, along with the rest of the building, was refurbished about 2015. Extensive repairs were also necessary after the structure’s back wall collapsed by the alley about 2010.
“We decided that ACT deserved a beautiful space to perform in, and Pekin deserved a beautiful space to visit and be entertained,” Buster said. “It took almost a year to do extensive renovations and now we have a theatre designed with Pekin’s river town history in mind.
“We’re small and intimate with cabaret seating for 50, with a stage, snack bar and comfortable lobby to meet friends, enjoy a beverage, and discuss the evening’s performance,” Buster added. “We are coming to the end of our second sold out season, and we are so grateful for all the love and support of our community. My husband and I are so proud to be able to help preserve a part of Pekin’s history and support live theatre in the Art Block of downtown Pekin. Check out our lighted sign after dark!”
It is also very appropriate that the Artistic Community Theatre building has an unexpected and very tangible continuity with the building’s past: Nona Buster’s own godmother belonged to the Nedderman family who previously owned the 407 Court St. building from the late 1800s until the early 1950s.
“Imagine my surprise when I found out that the building my husband and I bought in January of 2022 was the same one my godmother and her sisters’ family owned way back when!” Buster said.
“My godmother’s name was Minnie Nedderman Wiemer. Her husband William (my godfather) owned and operated Noel Funeral Home until his death in the mid 1960s when Mr. Henderson bought it. Aunt Minnie’s two maiden sisters, Emma and Frieda Nedderman, were my sister Karen’s godmothers. They also had brothers, but by the time I was old enough to know the family they were all older. They always talked about the family bakery when we got together. My dad grew up across the street from the Wiemers and they were members of St John’s Lutheran Church in Pekin.
“I was baptized there as an infant and we became members. My grandfather Frankenstein died of influenza in 1918 and the Wiemers helped my grandmother who spoke very little English with her three small children. We always visited the Wiemers on Christmas Eve and Santa came too. The Wiemers and the Neddermans were a big part of our lives. That’s why it thrills me to own their building now. I hope they are proud!”
Before the Nedderman family began their long tenure at 407 Court St., we find that the first Pekin city directory in 1861 shows two businesses that appear to have been located at or very close to today’s 407 Court St. One was a barbershop operated by a German immigrant from Hesse-Darmstadt named John Monath (born about 1834), located on the north side of Court Street three doors east of Fourth. The other was a store that sold dry goods, clothing, and hardware, operated by Abner Seelye and located on the north side of Court Street four doors east of Fourth.
Ten years later, the 1871 Sellers & Bates City Directory of Pekin shows another Hesse-Darmstadt immigrant named Henry Reinhart (born about 1850), barber and hairdresser, located on the north side of Court Street six doors east of Fourth. That appears to be the same site that came to be numbered 509 Court St. (later renumbered 407 Court St.). The 1876 Pekin city directory shows a saloon at “509” Court St. operated by Adam Reinhardt (1824-1886), who lived upstairs above his saloon. It is unknown if Henry and Adam were related, though it’s quite possible. Adam’s will, dated 8 Dec. 1885, says his building was located “on the West part of lot fourteen and on the East half of lot fifteen in Block number Seventy two (72) in the original town now city of Pekin.” That places his building precisely on the site of today’s 407 Court St. building — and a close examination of an 1870s photograph of Adam Reinhardt’s saloon, comparing it to other photos and records, shows that it is the very same building that is now the Artistic Community Theatre building. Adam left his building to his widow Elizabeth.
The 1885 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin shows a saloon and barbershop at 509 Court St. (todays’ 407 Court). The proprietor of the saloon is unknown, but the barber at the time of the 1885 map was almost certainly Charles Traub (1847-1898), who is listed in the 1887 Pekin city directory as owner of a barbershop at that address. Besides Traub’s barbershop, the 1887 directory also says John Moenkemoeller and Henry Schlottmann had their cigar factory at 509 Court St. – however, that section of the 509 Court St. building was afterwards renumbered as 409 Court, the address that the Moenkemoeller & Schlottmann cigar factory had in later city directories.
By the time of the 1893 city directory, Wessle B. Wiemers (1854-1897) had established a bakery and confectionary at 407 Court St. In the 1887 directory, Wiemers’ bakery had been at “513” Court, two doors east of “509” (407) Court St. Besides Wiemers’ bakery, the 1892 Sanborn map of Pekin also shows that a barbershop was still located at 407 Court., though the identity of that barber is unknown. Wiemers’ bakery is listed in both the 1893 and 1895 city directories.
In 1896, Wiemers sold his bakery to two men: one of his employees, Edward J. Kunkel (1870-1949), and a former employee of prominent Pekin baker and confectioner Albert Zerwekh (1859-1908) named Reinhardt John Neddermann (1876-1939). They carried on the business under the name Kunkel & Neddermann Bakery, under which name the business is listed in the 1898 Pekin city directory. Besides the bakery, the 1898 directory also shows Charles Lohnes (1869-1906) as a barber at 407 1/2 Court St. After selling his bakery, Wiemers moved in March 1986 to Toulon, Illinois, where he died 28 May 1897. His body was brought back to Pekin and interred in Lakeside Cemetery.
On 22 March 1899, Reinhardt Neddermann bought out Kunkel, and Reinhardt’s younger brother John Engelbarth Neddermann (1874-1951) came on as partner to found what was originally known as Neddermann Bros. Bakery at 407 Court St., later Neddermann’s Sanitary Bakery, and finally just Neddermann’s Bakery. Following is a brief account of the Neddermann brothers’ bakery from the 1949 Pekin Centenary, page 52:
“Their only machine was one used in making cookies, and the ovens were fired with coke. Neddermann’s bakery is still in the same location, and bakes from some of the same recipes used before the turn of the century. The Pumpernickle bread which is a favorite of customers is prepared from the recipe that delighted purchasers in 1899.
“In the days of the horse and buggy, Neddermann’s was a favorite gathering place of farmers who came to Pekin to shop. Many customers of today are the third generation of their families to enjoy ‘Neddermann’s’ delicacies.”
“Pekin: A Pictorial History” (1998), page 126, also hands on the Pekin old-time memory that Neddermann’s was “famous for aromatic Redskin peanuts and the Neddermann brothers always in starched French cuffs (and the Neddermann sisters in gingham aprons).”
Reinhardt lived in an apartment above the bakery at 407 Court St. When he passed away in Sept. 1939, his younger brother succeeded him as head of the business and also moved into Reinhardt’s residence above the bakery. Their younger sister Emma S. Neddermann (1880-1971) assisted John in running the business. Neddermann’s did not long survive John’s passing on 9 Feb. 1951, however, and the 1952 Pekin city directory listed 407 Court St. as vacant.
Meanwhile, the barbershop at 407 1/2 Court St. had seen a long succession of owners. After Lohnes in 1898, the 1904 city directory shows William M. Fuchs and John Zillion as co-owners of the Fuchs & Zillion barbershop. By 1908, Zillion had been replaced by William J. Solomon (or Soloman) in the barber firm of Solomon & Fuchs – but in the 1909 directory it is just Solomon alone. Then in 1913 the barber was Joseph M. Whistler, followed in 1914 by W. M. Beal, then Robert England in 1922 and 1924, Earl E. Champion in 1926 and 1928, Roy L. Bailey in 1930, Arthur E. Bailey in 1932, and William M. Weeks in 1934 and 1937.
The 1939 city directory heralded the arrival of the Boston Barber Shop at 407 1/2 Court, with barber Russell G. C. Beaver. He is again listed as owner of the Boston Barber Shop in the 1941 directory, but Arthur E. Bailey returns as owner of the barbershop in the 1943 directory – because Beaver had sold his business and enlisted in the U.S. Marines to fight for his country during World War II. Bailey continued as barber at 407 1/2 Court until the early 1960s, last appearing there in the 1962 city directory.
After Bailey, in the 1964 directory we find Roy Carr of Creve Coeur as owner of Roy’s Barber Shop at 407 1/2 Court St. Carr sold his business to Mack Simpson, who opened Mack’s Barber Shop at that location, as indicated in the 1965 city directory. Mack’s Barbershop continued until the early 1970s, and is last listed in the 1973 Pekin city directory.
After Neddermann’s Bakery went out of business in 1951, it was not long before a new business moved into the former Neddermann’s Building. The 1955 Pekin city directory shows that Bard Optical Co. had opened a branch at 407 Court St., operating there until the mid-1960s and lasting appearing at that address in the 1965 city directory. During that time, Pekin’s Bard Optical saw a rapid series of managers: Willard Benson in 1955, then Earl Goin in 1956, then Stuart S. Levine in 1958, then Leonard Greenberg in 1959, and finally Bernard Stern, who is listed as Bard Optical’s manager from the 1961 to the 1965 directories.
After Bard Optical’s departure from 407 Court St., the 1966 directory does not show a listing for the address, only for Mack’s Barber Shop. In the 1968 directory, however, we find Ferdinand’s Wigs, owned and operated by John F. Hawkins until the time of the 1971 city directory. We then see a quick succession of ephemeral businesses at 407 Court St. In the 1972 directory, none other than Jay Goldberg is listed as trying his hand at a record store in the old Neddermann’s Building, calling his shop Ian’s Music Parlor. Goldberg’s shop was succeeded in 1973 by Kevin Diekhoff’s The Freak Boutique, which was in turn succeeded in 1974 by Ora Logsdon’s Headquarters Boutique beauty shop.
The 1975 Pekin city directory shows 407 Court St. as vacant. This was the start of a long hiatus at 407 Court St., because by the time of the 1978 directory the address had completely disappeared from Pekin’s directories. It did not reappear in city directories until the mid-1990s. It was evidently during that hiatus that the old Neddermann’s Building underwent extensive modifications that included the removal of the building’s third floor and the installation of a very different façade.
The Tazewell County Assessor’s website says the current 407 Court St. building was constructed in 1994. Significantly, the 407 Court St. address reappears in the 1995 Pekin city directory, which lists Larkin’s Home Bakery & Café at that location, owned and operated by John Martin Larkin (1944-2010) and his wife Jeanie Kristin (Sinn) Larkin. The history of Larkin’s Home Bakery long predates this business’ arrival at the former site of Neddermann’s Bakery. The Larkin Bakery got its start in 1909 as Rubart Bros. Bakery, 519 Court St. (later at 526 Court St.), which was purchased in 1926 by Martin Nelson Larkin (1904-1987) and his wife Lillian Darlene (Schuetts) Larkin (1910-1995). They moved the bakery to 1211 Court St. in 1968, but they closed their business and retired in 1975. Then in 1988, their son John reopened the bakery at Eighth Street Plaza, and in 1994 moved the bakery to 407 Court St.
John and Jeanie operated Larkin’s Home Bakery & Café until 2000, and sold the 407 Court St. building in Feb. 2001 to MTCO Communications. The address again disappeared from Pekin city directories after 2001, not to reappear until the 2017 directory. It was apparently during 407 Court’s second hiatus from Pekin city directories that the building suffered the collapse of its back wall. But the building was saved by Todd Thompson of 353 Court LLC, who purchased the former bakery building in Jan. 2015 and refurbished it.
The building next appears in the 2017 directory, which lists Kevin Stark as the owner of Will Harms Office Supplies at 407 Court St. (Will Harms had formerly been located at 345 Court St.). Other recent directory listings for 407 Court St. include Cindy Bonnette’s Vinyl Art Studio (beginning with the 2018 city directory) and The Dewitt HQ Inc., owned by Chris Dewitt, consultant (beginning with the 2019 city directory). Finally, on 7 Jan. 2022, the building was acquired by Reprise Productions Inc., and Artistic Community Theatre moved in that spring.
From the History Room 