By Jared L. Olar
Local History Program Coordinator
The story of 408 Court St. begins about 1870, when German immigrant John P. Scheidel (1840-1896) moved his butcher shop to that location. Scheidel first appears in the 1861 Root’s City Directory of Pekin, which lists him and his butcher shop on the north side of Court St. four doors east of Third St.
It is probable that in 1861 no building had yet been erected at the site that is today known as 408 Court St. — it appears that it was Scheidel who built the original 408 Court St. building. The 1871 Sellers & Bates City Directory of Pekin shows Scheidel and his butcher shop on the south side of Court six doors east of Fourth, which we can deduce was the same address later known as “408” Court.
In the 1876 and 1887 city directories, Scheidel’s meat market has the address of “510” Court St., which old Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Pekin show is the old street number of 408 Court St. The 1885 and 1892 Sanborn maps shows Scheidel’s business at 408/510 Court St. and identifies it as “City Meat Market.” Interestingly, this address is not listed in the 1893 Pekin city directory. This suggests that the building may have been razed about that time, perhaps due to a fire – but whatever the case, an 1877 aerial view map of Pekin shows that the original building at this site is not the one that is there now. The Tazewell County Assessor’s website says the current 408 Court St. Building was built in 1901, but it may have been built a few years before that.
Be that as it may, in the 1895 directory we find the Peyton Bros. meat market at “410” Court, which is certainly the same address as today’s “408” Court. Peyton Bros. was the firm of Frank L. Peyton (1864-1927) and his older brother Harry B. Peyton (1861-1936), who was himself the husband of John P. Scheidel’s daughter Margaret. Harry is listed in the 1898 and 1904 city directories as the sole proprietor of the meat market at “408” Court St.
By the time of the 1908 directory, however, Harry had sold the business to Daniel A. Zimmerman (1883-1965) and Louis E. Zimmerman (1885-1929), who duly renamed their shop Zimmerman Bros. Daniel’s younger brother Louis disappears as business partner after the 1909 directory, and in the 1913 city directory we find that Daniel had a new partner named Otto Apfel (1885-1952) – and thus the meat market became Zimmerman & Apfel.
Moving ahead to the 1922 city directory, though, we see that Zimmerman & Apfel had been purchased by Peoria meat market owner George Bessler. Daniel Zimmerman continued on as manager of the business under Bessler, as we see in the 1926 city directory. by the time of the 1928 directory, however, Zimmerman had returned as owner of the shop.
More than six decades as a butcher shop or meat market, Zimmerman’s business fell victim to the Great Depression, last appearing in the 1932 city directory. The 1934 directory lists the property as vacant that year. Three years later, the city directory shows 408 Court St. as the home of Todd’s Lincoln Park Bakery, owned and operated by Elmer J. Todd, who advertised his business with the words: “Todd’s Oven Fresh Bakery Goods, Delivered at Your Door Daily. Rain or Shine, Our Wagon at Your Door on Time.” However, with the Depression still a grievous burden on the average American, and other bakeries already established in downtown Pekin, 1937 was probably not the best year for a new bakery to try daily at-home delivery of fresh bread. Todd’s bakery does not reappear at 408 Court St. after that year.
After 408 Court’s brief interlude as a bakery, the year 1939 saw the arrival of a home loan agency owned and operated by Eugene P. Maurer (1904-1985), who is listed in the 1952 city directory as the president of the Society of Residential Appraisers. In 1946, Maurer partnered with Tazewell County land developer Thomas H. Harris (1917-1994) in the Maurer & Harris real estate agency, which operated from 408 Court St. until 1958, when Harris started his own agency. The same year that Harris partnered with Maurer, Harris also served a Radio City Development’s sales agent and facilitated the construction of 169 homes in North Pekin. Harris was greatly involved in the Lake Arlann, Sheridan Estates, and Sheridan Hills subdivisions in the 1950s. Later, during the 1960s he developed Country Club Estates, donating 150 acres to Pekin Country Club for the clubhouse and golf course site, and building Country Club Manor Apartments and many homes in the subdivision.
After Harris’ departure from Maurer’s agency, Maurer next partnered with Leo F. Matthews (1922-1995), former owner of AA Ambulance Service. Maurer & Matthews Realtors was in business at 408 Court St. until Maurer’s death in 1985. The city directories show that Maurer and Matthews had also branched out into insurance during the years from about 1966 until 1978. In the decades that Maurer & Harris and Maurer & Matthews operated from the 408 Court St. Building, usually their agencies were the sole occupants of the building, but in the early years Maurer sometimes shared the building with other business: in the 1941 and 1943 directories we find Norman B. Antonson (1904-1990), chiropractor, and in the 1946 directory we find two watch repairers named Harm Weber (1897-1958) and Robert Hancock (1915-1979), while in the 1946 and 1948 directories we find an insurance agent named John C. Heald.
After Maurer’s death, the 408 Court St. Building was vacant for a while and is listed a such in the 1987 Pekin city directory. The building is then listed in the 1988 and 1989 directories as the location of K & M Express brokerage, operated by Jerry W. Peacock and Larry G. Leitner – but the building is again listed as vacant in the 1990 Pekin city directory. About that time, Pekin attorney Dennis M. Sheehan (1944-2019) briefly used 408 Court St. as additional space for his law office next door at 407 Court.
From that point until the present, 408 Court St. has served as law offices for various attorneys, including Edgar W. Weer, the Katherine Smith-Thornton law office, and (since the mid-2010s) Powers Law PC, the office of attorney Ryan Powers.
Powers moved into the 408 Court St. Building about the same time that the building was acquired by Terri Gambetti, who operates Leo’s Art Studio from her building, where she provides painting lessons. It is accurate to say that Gambetti’s purchase of the building brought 408 Court St. back into the family, because she is the daughter of the late Leo F. Matthews of Maurer & Matthews, after whom the art studio is named.
“My mom, Jean Matthews, worked at the Tazewell County Clerk’s office just three doors east of 408 Court,” said Gambetti. “My grandmother Alice Schmidt worked at Pekin National Bank (the blue building now owned by the County) just three doors west. I grew up playing and helping at my Dad’s real estate office. I have such fond memories in this building and of our vibrant downtown in the 1960s and ’70s. And now my daughter is a realtor! I know my dad Leo is smiling.”
From the History Room 