Long a pillar of Pekin’s community life, the Pekin YWCA at 315 Buena Vista Ave. was established about a century ago, starting out in 1927 as an affiliate of the Peoria Young Women’s Christian Association. The Pekin YWCA obtained its own articles of incorporation from the State of Illinois on 29 Oct. 1928 — the date that the Pekin Y regards as its “birthday.” The following year, on 29 April 1929 the Pekin YWCA obtained its own charter as an independent member of the national Young Women’s Christian Association, and it has operated under that charter ever since. Manda Brown, executive director of the YWCA of Pekin, says the association is already looking ahead to its 100th birthday which it will celebrate on 29 Oct. 2028.
A close-up of the YWCA of Pekin’s facility at 315 Buena Vista Ave., from an Aug, 2022 Google Street View image.
A Google Street View image of the YWCA of Pekin’s facility at 315 Buena Vista Ave., from Aug. 2022.
Plan of the Pekin YWCA facility at 315 Buena Vista Ave. from the Tazewell County Assessor’s website.
Describing the Pekin YWCA’s mission and community role, a Pekin Daily Times article dated 24 Feb. 1929 says, “The Y. W. occupies a unique position as a community meeting place for hundreds of women and girls, and no less than ten organizations who are in no way connected to them hold their regular meetings there. It is a community organization endeavoring in every way possible to co-operate with other organizations.”
The history of the YWCA on a national level began in 1873, when a student association was established on the campus of Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. Since then, the Young Women’s Christian Association has grown to 194 local associations. Though the YWCA started out as a Christian mission and included chapel services, it is no longer officially or strictly a religious organization. “It’s an organization with Christian roots, but we no longer teach any particular religion or have any religious offerings,” explained Melinda Figge, past executive director of the Pekin YWCA on the occasion of the Pekin Y’s 75th anniversary in 2004. “But I think that our willingness and desire to help people, to empower people, comes out of our Christian beliefs that all people are created equal.”
The YWCA of Pekin’s community programs include an early learning center, physical fitness, swimming lessons, and adult literacy and learning. The association has also long been active in promoting social justice and working against racism, with its Coalition for Equality as one of its prominent committees. In their mission statement adopted in 2009, the Pekin YWCA says it is “dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all.” The association has a 14-woman board of directors under the presidency of Hope McAllister, and, as mentioned above, is headed by Manda Brown, executive director, Meredith Kerley, Early Learning Center director, Anna Green, Adult Literacy director, and Maureen Naughtin, Community Outreach director.
Martha (Herget) Steinmetz (1868-1947), founding president of the Young Women’s Christian Association of Pekin.
From its small start in 1927, it did not take long until, by early 1929, Pekin YWCA membership has grown to include 600 adults and 300 members of the YWCA Girl Reserves, with a 70-member Business Girls Fellowship Club and a Blue Tri Club of 30 members. The Pekin YWCA’s founding president was Martha (Herget) Steinmetz (1868-1947), daughter of John Herget (1830-1899) and widow of George A. Steinmetz (1864-1915). The Pekin YWCA in 1929 also hired Mrs. Mary Watt as its first full-time secretary.
Though the Pekin YWCA has been based on Buena Vista Ave. for more than six decades, their first building was the former Stoltz House that used to be located at 612 Broadway. In more recent newspaper reports on the YWCA’s history, however, the address of their first building is sometimes given as 616 or 610 Broadway. Nevertheless, old city directories and Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps make clear that the Stoltz House was at 612 Broadway. Demolished decades ago during the construction of St. Joseph Catholic School (the site is now part of the school’s playground/parking lot), for many years it was the home of John W. Stoltz (1825-1899), a prominent Pekin businessman who served a Pekin mayor in 1872. After his death, his widow Emma Stoltz (1845-1923) continued to live there until her death, after which Frank Brown lived there for a few years.
A drawing of the old Stoltz Home that formerly stood at 612 Broadway. Formerly the home of Pekin Mayor John W. Stoltz (1825-1899), this house served as the first YWCA of Pekin building from 1927 to 1931, and housed the Pekin YWCA Tea Room.
This detail from the Sept. 1925 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin shows the Stoltz Home at 612 Broadway. In 1927 the Stoltz Home became the first location of the Pekin YWCA, which operated from that building until 1931.
The Pekin YWCA first appeared in Pekin city directories in 1928, when it was listed at 612 Broadway as the Young Women’s Christian Association Tea Room, managed by Mrs. Emma Lutz.
The above-quoted 24 Feb. 1929 Pekin Daily Times article says that when the Pekin YWCA sought a building to serve their needs, “The Stoltz homestead was purchased and remodeled. It is situated on Broadway, convenient to the business section of the town.” One of the original services provided by the Pekin YWCA at 612 Broadway was a tea room that provided lunch to guests for a modest fee. Of the tea room, the article says:
“The tea room with its checked gingham curtains and its ever present orange candles attract many who are living temporarily in the city and those who are looking for wholesome food under pleasant surroundings. While it has always paid its own way, yet it is not a money-making proposition. It is there to give service and invites its patrons to ‘bide a wee’ if they so desire.”
Pekin’s YWCA only occupied the old Stoltz Home for four years. Seeking a more spacious building, in 1931 the YWCA purchased of the Otto Koch Home at 310 S. Fourth St., former home of Otto Koch (1849-1920), who was co-founder and later president of the W. A. Boley Ice Company. After Otto’s death, his widow Ida Koch (1850-1929) remained at the home until her death. The YWCA of Pekin was the next owner and occupant of the Otto Koch Home, where the YWCA remained from 1931 to 1959.
An early 1930s photograph of the YWCA of Pekin’s second building, the former Otto Koch Home that formerly stood at 310 S. Fourth St.
This photograph taken in 1941 shows the YWCA of Pekin’s facility at 310 S. Fourth St. The current YWCA facility is located on Buena Vista Ave., behind the site of their former building on Fourth Street.
The Otto Koch Home at 310 S. Fourth St., and the Alice L. Russell Home at 315 Buena Vista Ave. are shown in this detail from the Sept. 1925 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin. In 1931, the Otto Koch Home became the home of the Pekin YWCA. The Russell Home was later the home of the Erven G. Abel family, who lived there in the 1950s just before the YWCA purchased the property to build a new, larger facility.
A year after moving to 310 S. Fourth St., the Pekin Young Women’s Christian Association was listed in the 1932 Pekin city directory with Mrs. Hulda M. Harmel as general secretary.
This photograph from the 3 July 1942 Pekin Daily Times shows the YWCA of Pekin’s then-new Reading and Recreation Room that had just been opened at the Y’s 310 S. Fourth St. facility. The new room was the brainchild of the Y’s Education Committee headed by Mrs. Louise Reuter. Shown at the left are Mary Jean Dimler and Mary Holiman playing a game at the table with Pauline Fox standing behind then. Reading magazines on the couch are Ruth Dennis, Betty Alfs, Billie Jean Allen, Shirley Petrie, and Betty Thacker.
By the mid-1950s, it had long been evident that the Pekin Y needed a new and larger facility. The YWCA then acquired the property at 315 Buena Vista Ave. and moved one block east to a lot behind their former 310 S. Fourth St. building, which has since been demolished. The house at 315 Buena Vista, formerly the home of Erven G. Abel (1918-2010) and his family, was torn down in 1958 and the present facility – which included a swimming pool — was built in its place. Notably, the Y’s next-door neighbor to the south is the mid-19th century historic Gaither-Dirksen Home, home of U.S. Senator Everett M. Dirksen and his wife Louella, and before that the residence of Mary E. Gaither who played a chief role in the plans to build the 1902 Pekin Carnegie Library. Since the construction of the 315 Buena Vista facility, the YWCA’s building has undergone two large expansions, with the second one being completed in 2001. Their swimming pool has also been refurbished.
The same year the Pekin Y’s current facility opened at 315 Buena Vista Av., the 1959 Pekin city directory listed the association, with Mrs. Idalee L. Woodson as executive director.
This swim team group photograph dates from the earlier years of the Pekin YWCA’s swimming pool.
Besides giving program and office space for the Pekin YWCA and its own activities, the facility at 315 Buena Vista continues to provide space for other community groups, with rooms and its pool available for rental. That is only fitting, because the Pekin YWCA building is in fact Pekin’s civic center. The Pekin Y became the city’s civic center in the 1980s, at a time when the association was facing numerous financial challenges, with a decline in donations, a leaky roof, a boiler in need of repair, and a payroll that couldn’t be met.
The Pekin YWCA then worked with the city to obtain a grant from the Department of Commerce and Community affairs. That provided enough money to repair the structure and even build a daycare addition. As part of the arrangement, title to the building and to a large portion of the Y’s land is held by the City of Pekin, which legally designated the YWCA as the official civic center of Pekin. That is why Tazewell County records list the official owner of the 315 Buena Vista property as “Pekin Civic Center Authority c/o YWCA.” Eventually full title will revert to the YWCA.
Of Pekin’s remaining historic downtown storefronts, perhaps Hamm’s Furniture’s high-peaked façade at 347-351 Court St. is the most attractive and striking. The Hamm’s Building is about 150 years old, if not older, and Hamm’s Furniture, a second-generation family business owned by Russ Hamm that has occupied this beautiful structure for about 35 years, is a well-known fixture of Pekin’s old town.
Sporting what is perhaps the most striking of the historic storefronts still remaining in Pekin’s old town, Hamm’s Furniture at 347 Court St., a second-generation family business owned and operated by Russ Hamm, is shown in this photograph taken 27 March 2024. PHOTO BY PEKIN PUBLIC LIBRARY STAFF.
The first business known to have existed at the present site of Hamm’s Furniture was Schilling & Bohn, a firm owned by Conrad Schilling (1821-1895) and Andrew Bohn (1821-1891) that sold furniture, beds, mattresses, and . . . coffins. Schilling and his partner Bohn were also undertakers, and when they weren’t selling furniture, they were selling plots at Oak Grove Cemetery on Pekin’s north side (the oldest part of today’s Lakeside Cemetery). The 1871 Sellers & Bates City Directory of Pekin says Schilling & Bohn’s furniture store was on Court Street across from the courthouse, four doors west of Fourth Street. That would place it at the site of the Hamm’s Building – and in fact could well be that Schilling & Bohn’s building is the very same structure as the Hamm’s Building. On the other hand, Schilling & Bohn and their building may rather have been on the site of or in the building at 353-355 Court St.
This advertisement for Schilling & Bohn’s furniture and undertakers business comes from the 1871 Pekin city directory. Schilling & Bohn seems to have been located at the site today occupied by the Hamm’s Building, but it is unclear whether it was in the same structure that exists today.
As undertakers, Conrad Schilling and Andrew Bohn also sold cemetery plots at Oak Grove Cemetery, the oldest part of today’s Lakeside Cemetery.
The Schilling & Bohn store does not reappear in Pekin directories after 1871. In the next directory published in 1876, we find several businesses and individuals occupying space in the Roos Block. One of those businesses was the dry goods store of Peter Steinmetz Sr. (1839-1908), whose wife Fredericka (1842-1906) was related to the building’s owner Henry Roos. At one time, the Steinmetz family, who were related by marriage to the Herget family, was one of the most prominent families in Pekin, and they even had a special funeral chapel – the Steinmetz Chapel – built at Lakeside Cemetery. (A bas relief of the Last Supper is now on the site where the Steinmetz Chapel formerly stood.) Peter and Fredericka and most of their children are entombed in Lakeside Mausoleum, while the rest are buried in the Steinmetz burial plot at Lakeside.
Peter Steinmetz Sr. (1839-1908) was the owner of the P. Steinmetz & Sons dry goods store in the 347-351 Court St. building. Steinmetz was also City of Pekin Supervisor and Inspector, and served on the school board.
The buildings of Roos’ Block in the upper 300 block of Court St. are shown in this detail from an 1877 hand-drawn aerial map of Pekin. The arrow indicates the location of Peter Steinmetz Sr.’s dry goods and clothing store.
From the 1870s on, Peter Steinmetz’s dry goods store was located in a building at 349-351 Court St. (formerly numbered 417-419 Court St.). If it wasn’t the same structure as the Schilling & Bohn store, then it was probably a structure that Henry Roos had built. In any case, the structure in which Steinmetz’s store was located in the 1870s is the same one today known as the Hamm’s Building. The 1885 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin shows Steinmetz’s store at “417-419” Court St.
In the 1887 Pekin city directory, we find the Steinmetz operation under the name of P. Steinmetz & Son, owned by Peter and his son George A. (1864-1915), with George’s younger brother Henry (1868-1930) working as a clerk in the store. The same directory shows Jacob Saal (1860-1895), grocer, at 415 Court St. – that is the address currently known as 347 Court St., and is today included in the Hamm’s Building.
At the time of the first Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin in May 1885, Peter Steinmetz was operating a clothing and dry goods store at what was then numbered 417-419 Court St. (today 349-351 Court, the eastern two thirds of the Hamm’s Building).
An early advertisement for P. Steinmetz & Son, from the 1887 Pekin city directory.
The Steinmetz Building can be seen toward the right in the cropped photograph of downtown Pekin taken during the 1890s.
The Steinmetz Building is indicated in this cropped detail from a hand-colored Blenkiron photograph of downtown Pekin from circa 1900.
The Jan. 1892 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin shows Jacob Saal’s grocery store at 347 Court St. and P. Steinmetz & Sons dry goods and clothing store at 349-351 Court St.
An old P. Steinmetz & Sons advertisement.
By the time of the 1893 directory, the dry goods store is listed as P. Steinmetz & Sons, with Peter’s sons George and Henry in partnership with their father. Jacob Saal, grocer, again appears in the building adjoining the Steinmetz Building on the west. By this time, Saal’s grocery store had been renumbered as 347 Court, while the Steinmetz store had been renumbered 349-351 Court.
With Saal’s death in 1895, his grocery store was not listed in the 1895 city directory, which instead shows Erastus Rhodes (1829-1901), insurance agent and justice of the peace, at 347 Court St. Meanwhile, P. Steinmetz & Sons was still going strong at 349-351 Court St. The 1898 directory’s entries for 347 and 349-351 Court are almost identical to the 1895 directory, except in 1898 Erastus Rhodes shared the building at 347 Court with The Chicago Record’s local newspaper office. The Chicago Record does not reappear at that address in later directories, though. Notably, the Pekin Public Library was located on the second floor of the Steinmetz Building from 1899 to 1903, when Pekin’s Carnegie Library opened at 301 S. Fourth St.
An advertisement for Erastus Rhodes, justice of the peace and insurance agent, from the 1876 Pekin city directory. At that time, Rhodes’ office was in the building that was later numbered 347 Court St.
This advertisement for P. Steinmetz & Sons Co. was published in the 1893 Pekin city directory.
Another P. Steinmetz & Sons Co. advertisement, this one from the 1898 Pekin city directory.
At the time of the March 1898 Sanborn Map of Pekin, 349-351 Court St. was occupied by P. Steinmetz & Sons dry goods and clothing store, while 347 Court St. was shown as vacant.
The 1904 Pekin city directory shows that 347 Court St. then had six different occupants: on the first floor was Zion Tabernacle, A. N. Black, real estate agent, and Orville A. Smith, attorney, and on the second floor was Julius G. Epkens & Co. insurance agency, John C. Hamilton & Co. general collecting agency and city real estate, and W. Fletcher Copes, insurance agent. But even more remarkable, the 1904 directory shows P. Steinmetz & Sons with the address of 347-349-351 Court St, occupying the same buildings that are today the Hamm’s Building – and the Steinmetz dry goods store continued to occupy 347-349-351 Court until the early 1920s. P. Steinmetz & Sons in 1904 was still operated by Peter and his sons George and Henry. In addition, Peter Steinmetz and his son-in-law J. Frederick “Fred” Kaylor (1870-1940) had a jewelry store at 343 Court St.
Peter Steinmetz last appears in city directories in 1908, the year of his death. The directory that year says he and his sons George and Henry were still the co-owners of their business at 347-349-351 Court, while the second floor of 347 Court was also occupied by A. N. Black, real estate agent, and Orville A. Smith, attorney. After 1908, Peter’s son George A. Steinmetz succeeded him as owner of P. Steinmetz & Sons Co., the sole occupant of 347-349-351 Court St.
By Nov. 1903, P. Steinmetz & Sons was the main occupant of 347-349-351 Court St., though there were other offices at 347 Court.
At the time of the Dec. 1909 Sanborn Map of Pekin, all the buildings from 343 to 351 Court were a part of the Steinmetz Block.
The black arrow indicates the Steinmetz Building in from detail from a Blenkiron photograph from 1910.
The storefront of P. Steinmetz & Sons Co. clothing and dry goods store, occupying 347-349-351 Court St., is shown in this July 1912 photograph taken by Pekin pioneer photograph Henry Hobart Cole.
The Oct. 1916 Sanborn Map of Pekin indicates that by then 347 Court St. and 349-351 Court St. were separate business ventures. By 1922 if not earlier, the Steinmetz family had sold their dry goods business at 349-351 St. to William J. Lohnes and his associates, but continued their clothing store at 347 Court.
Following George’s death in 1915, by the early 1920s major occupant changes had come to the buildings at 347-349-351 Court St. The 1922 Pekin city directory shows that the Steinmetz family had sold their dry goods operation to three merchants named William Jacob Lohnes (1867-1951), William P. Merkel (1885-1928), and Otto Conrad Renfer (1871-1935), co-proprietors of the Lohnes, Merkel & Renfer dry goods store at 349-351 Court St. William J. Lohnes should not be confused with William Andrew Lohnes, who operated Central Book & Toy at 345 Court St. with his son Eugene F. Lohnes. William J. Lohnes’ brother-in-law was Philip M. Hoffman, owner of Pekin Hardware Co. at 337-339 Court St.
William Jacob Lohnes (1867-1951) was proprietor of the Lohnes & Merkel dry goods store at 349-351 Court St. during the 1920s. He is not the same person as William Andrew Lohnes (1866-1941), father of Eugene F. Lohnes of Central Book & Toy at 345 Court St.
As for 347 Court St., that address in the 1922 directory is called the Steinmetz Building, which was the home of the P. Steinmetz & Sons Co. Clothing Store, with George Steinmetz’s son-in-law Walter Theodore “W. T.” Conover (1890-1962) as treasurer and manager of the business. In addition to the Steinmetz clothing store, the 1922 city directory says the Steinmetz Building was also occupied by M. R. Huffman’s piano studio, Albert Van Horne’s dentist office, G. L. Junker’s insurance, G. A. Himmel’s real estate agency, A. N. Black’s real estate agency, C. L. Brereton’s tailor shop, Orville A. Smith’s attorney’s office, G. A. Lucas’s insurance, and Dr. W. E. Lanan’s dentist office.
The Steinmetz clothing store can be seen in this detail of a Christmas-time photograph from the early 1920s.
The Steinmetz Building can be seen in this second photograph from the 1920s.
By the time of the 1925 Sanborn Map of Pekin, the former Steinmetz dry goods store had become the Lohnes & Merkel dry goods store, owned and operated by William J. Lohnes and William P. Merkel.
The Steinmetz clothing store, managed by W. T. Conover, remained at 347 Court St. until the late 1920s, along with at least 10 other offices on the first and second floors. As for 349-352 Court St., Renfer soon dropped out as one of the business partners – the city directories in 1924 and 1926 show just Lohnes and Merkel as co-owners of the dry goods store there, and then in the 1928 directory Lohnes is listed as the sole owner due to Merkel’s death that year.
The 1928 directory was the last to list P. Steinmetz & Son’s clothing store and the Lohnes & Merkel dry goods store. In the 1930 directory, The Steinmetz Building at 347 Court St. was occupied by Bowman Bros. Shoe Store, managed by Albert R. Smith, along with 16 other offices on the first and second floors., while 349-351 Court St. was now the home of McLellan Stores Co.’s department store, formerly a well-known and prominent fixture of Pekin’s then-bustling business district. McLellan’s manager in 1930 was Gustave C. Ullmann.
McLellan’s Department Store remained at 349-351 Court St. until the early 1970s, last appearing in Pekin city directories in 1974, Pekin’s Sesquicentennial year. For about three or four years, from 1959 to 1962, the city directories list this business with the name “McCrory-McLellan Store,” but the directories revert to just “McLellan Store” in 1964. Over the years, McLellan’s saw a succession of 12 store managers. After Ullmann, the city directories list the store managers as Roy P. Wiesen (1932), then Homer J. West (1934), then James B. McCoy (1937, 1939), then Peter Freeland (1941, 1943), then Glenn A. Haygreen (1946).
Starting with the 1948 directory, we find Robert Swendsen as McLellan’s manager – Swendsen had the longest tenure of McLellan’s managers, last appearing in city directories in that capacity in 1965. The 1966 directory then lists William B. Detrich as McLellan’s manager. Detrich was succeeded by Rob Schaefer (1968), then Glenn Dials (1969-1971), and then Rick Ashe (1972). McLellan’s last manager was Jerry P. Ray (1973, 1974).
McLellan’s Department Store at 349 Court St. and the Steinmetz Building at 347 Court St. (then the home of the Commonwealth Loan Co.) are shown in this photograph of downtown Pekin from the late 1940s.
Meanwhile in the Steinmetz Building at 347 Court St., we again find Bowman Bros. Shoe Store in the 1932 city directory, with Walter Hurlhey as manager. Also in the Steinmetz Building that year was Russell Reed McClintick (1896-1954), jeweler, along with 17 other offices, including the insurance agency of John Armand Steinmetz (1898-1961), son and successor of George A. Steinmetz. McClintick’s jewelry store remaining at 347 Court St. until the 1939 directory. As for Bowman Bros., the 1934 city directory shows that it had been replaced by a women’s clothing store called The Style Shop, co-owned by Karl A. Kreeb and George J. Krei. Like McClintick’s jewelry store, The Style Shop only lasted until the 1939 directory. The 1941 Pekin city directory shows that The Style Shop and McClintick had relocated to 343 Court St.
The Steinmetz Building continued to host a varying number of insurance agencies, attorneys, and others for the next several decades. One of those offices was always that of John A. Steinmetz himself, who is last listed at 347 Court St. in the 1961 Pekin city directory, the year of his death. His building continued to bear the name “Steinmetz Building” until the 1981 directory, but the building went empty by the time of the 1973 city directory, followed soon after by McLellan’s closing at 349-351 Court St. The directories list the Steinmetz Building “vacant” from 1974 to 1978, and 349-351 Court St. as “vacant” from 1975 to 1980.
McLellan’s at 347-351 Court St. is shown in this detail from an early 1970s photograph. The store closed by 1974, after more than four decades in business at the same location.
Hamm’s Furniture’s customers still step over the name of the former McLellan’s Department Store at both the west and east entrances. Shown here is the McLellan’s logo at the west entrance (347 Court St.). PHOTO BY PEKIN PUBLIC LIBRARY STAFF.
Shown here is the McLellan’s Department Store logo at Hamm’s Furniture’s east entrance (349-351 Court St.). PHOTO BY PEKIN PUBLIC LIBRARY STAFF.
In 1979, the Steinmetz Building’s sole occupant was Pekin Players Inc., quickly succeeded in the 1980 directory by Wilma Thomas’ Capitol Used Furniture (which was also located at 320 S. Capitol St. that year). The 1981 directory lists not only Capitol Used Furniture at 347 Court, but also Doris Windle’s Teller Training Center, while the former McLellan’s building was used by Capitol Used Furniture as additional space. However, both 347 and 349-351 Court were again listed as vacant in the 1982 directory.
In the 1983 city directory, we find Gil’s T.V. Furniture & Appliances sales and service at 347 Court St., while 349-351 Court is not even listed that year. Gil’s business was ephemeral, though – the 1984 directory lists all the store fronts from 347 to 353 Court as vacant, and 347 Court St. continues to be listed as vacant until 1988. That year, at 347 Court St. we find Sue Z’s cocktail lounge, owned and operated by R. James Evans, president, and Susan E. Evans, secretary-treasurer, with 349-351 Court used by Sue Z’s as additional space. But again, that business did not last long, and the 1989 city directory again listed all the store fronts from 347 to 353 Court as vacant.
At last, with the 1990 directory, we see the debut at 347-351 Court St. of Trade Mart Furniture & Appliances, with the proprietors Alvin Hamm (1923-1994) and his wife Edith Ruth (Smith) Hamm (1927-2021), and their son Russell A. “Russ” Hamm as deliveryman and salesman. The Hamms had moved their furniture business to the former Steinmetz and McLellan’s buildings from 328 Court St. Soon after moving to 347 Court St., the Hamms placed their focus on furniture and bedding.
City directories continue to list the business as “Trade Mart Furniture & Bedding” until 2001, which marks the first appearance of the new name “Hamm’s Furniture.” After Alvin’s passing in 1994, Edith briefly continued as sole owner in the mid-1990s before retiring and handing the business over to her son Russ, who has carried on the family business ever since.
Hamm’s Furniture, 347 Court St., is shown in this photograph from the Tazewell County Assessor’s website, taken 7 Feb. 2002.
Another view of Hamm’s Furniture from the Tazewell County Assessor’s website, in a photograph taken 5 June 2013.
From the History Room 