Grocers, butchers, liquors . . . and coffee: The story of the 404 Court St. Building

By Jared L. Olar

Local History Program Coordinator

Rivalling if not surpassing the Hamm’s Building for the title of most attractive and striking of the surviving buildings in Pekin’s historic Old Town is the 404 Court St. Building, which has been home to Dianna Howard’s popular Coffee Connections café since 2022.

Coffee Connections at the 404 Court St. Building is shown in this Aug. 2022 Google Street View image.

Although the Tazewell County Assessor lists 1901 as the date of construction for the 404 Court St. Building, in fact the building was probably built in the 1880s or 1890s. The earliest directories are imprecise in their building addresses, but it is probable that the grocery store of Nicholas Reuling (1832-1913) and George Ehrlicher (1824-1876) was located on or near the site of the present 404 Court St. Building. The 1861 city directory says the Reuling & Ehrlicher store was the 11th door east of Fourth Street on the south side of Court St.

Johann Georg Ehrlicher (1824-1876), a Pekin shoemaker and grocer, patriarch of the Ehrlicher family of Pekin.

Ten years later, we find Ehrlicher listed in the 1871 directory as sole proprietor of a store selling grocery, provisions, liquor, and queensware, located somewhere between Fourth and Fifth streets on the south side of Court. The same directory also shows Jacob John Woelfle (1826-1923) operating a watchmaking and jewelry shop somewhere between Fourth and Fifth streets on Court’s south side. Either Ehrlicher’s or Woelfle’s shops could have been at the future site of the 404 Court St. Building.

We reach firmer ground by the time of the 1876 Pekin city directory, which shows Adam Heilmann and Louis “Loue” Trinkaus (1836-1902) as co-owners of the Heilmann & Trinkaus grocery store at 500 Court St. Despite the number “500,” their store was not directly at the southwest corner of Court and Fourth – for that was rather the site of the Arbeiters Heimath boarding house – but instead Heilmann & Trinkaus operated from a building at the site now known as 404 Court.

At the center of this cropped detail from an 1877 aerial view map of Pekin can be seen the Heilmann & Trinkaus grocery store. The structure depicted on this map was replaced in the 1880s or 1890s by the current 404 Court St. Building.

Louis Trinkaus’ grocery store at 506 Court St. (i.e., 404 Court St.) is shown in this detail from the May 1885 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin.

By the time of the 1887 city directory, Trinkaus was the sole owner of the grocery store, which by then was numbered as “506” Court St. – the same address that appears in all later directories as “404” Court. It is likely that the current 404 Court St. Building was constructed about this same period of time, being given a classic late 19th century American business façade. The same façade is still almost entirely intact today – the only visible differences being the removal of a decorative urn from atop the façade’s peak, and the removal of the building’s weather vane.

The Jan. 1892 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin shows Trinkaus’ grocery store at 404 (506) Court St.

The Louis Trinkaus grocery store at 404 Court St. is shown in this detail from the March 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin.

In the 1898 Pekin city directory, we find Trinkaus’ son Martin Henry Trinkaus (1878-1942) clerking in his father’s store. When Louis Trinkaus passed away four years later, his son Martin succeeded him as head of the business. However, Martin H. Trinkaus sold the grocery store about 1908 – he last appears as owners of the grocery store at 404 Court St. in the 1908 city directory, and the following year we find Fred Herman Johannes (1864-1917) as proprietor of the store.

The detail from the Dec. 1903 Sanborn map of Pekin shows the location of Martin H. Trinkaus’ grocery store at 404 Court St.

The Dec. 1909 Sanborn map of Pekin shows the grocery store at 404 Court St., now owned by Fred H. Johannes.

The south side of the 400 block of Court Street — including Fred Johannes’ grocery store at 404 Court St. — is shown in this 1912 photograph. Note the decorative urn and weather vane atop Johannes’ building.

In the Oct. 1916 Sanborn map of Pekin, Fred Johannes’ grocery store is shown at 404 Court St. Johannes died the following year.

Johannes continued to run the grocery store until his death – the 1916 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin still identifies 404 Court St. as a grocery store. But by the time of the 1922 Pekin city directory, Johannes’ grocery store had been succeeded by the Apollo Billiard Hall, operated by Henry Schroeder (1888-1965). Also in the 404 Court St. Building that year was Irve Hewes’ barbership. The 1924 directory also shows Schroeder’s billiard hall, but that year the barbershop was being run by Walter Harrison.

About the middle of the 1920s, William J. Moran of Peoria purchased the former Trinkaus-Johannes Building and opened Moran’s Market, a butcher shop that operated at 404 Court St. until about 1940. The manager and meat cutter at 404 Court St. was Henry Ulrich (1880-1955), who lived above the store with his wife Josephine. Moran also had a second Moran’s Market location at 321 Court St. that he ran personally. “Pekin: A Pictorial History,” page 119, includes the following personal memory of Moran’s Market:

“My dad was a butcher at Moran’s Meat Market where calves were butchered. I got a nickel a night to clean the butcher block using a wire brush. I stood on a three-foot ‘soadey’ case and cleaned that huge block seven days a week when I was eight years old in 1929.”

Moran’s Meat Market, 404 Court St., is shown in this detail from the 1925 Sanborn map of Pekin.

Moran also provided three apartments – called “Moran’s Apartments” – above his 404 Court St. business that saw a number of tenants over the decades. Another longtime tenant at 404 Court St. was the dentist’s office of Dr. Clyde H. Shawgo (1902-1980), whose office first appears in the building in the 1926 Pekin city directory. Dr. Shawgo maintained his dentist’s office at that same location until his death.

After Moran’s Market closed at 404 Court St. about 1940, Benjamin P. “Ben” Marcus opened Ace Liquor Store in its place. Moran’s former manager Ulrich continued to live in one of the building’s apartments until his death, and his widow Josephine also continued living there for some years after his death. Ace Liquor Store continued operating at 404 Court until the early 1950s, when it moved to 14 N. Fifth St. After Ace’s departure, we find in the 1955 Pekin city directory that Edward Achenbach (1913-1991) had opened Pekin Venetian Blind & Shade Service in its place.

An advertisement for Ben P. Marcus’ Ace Liquor Store from the 1941 Pekin city directory. Ace Liquor had opened at 404 Court St. about a year before, succeeding Moran’s Market which had been there for about 15 years.

This photograph from the late 1940s shows the 404 Court St. Building, then home to Ben P. Marcus’ Ace Liquor Store.

Achenbach’s business is listed in city directories at that location until the 1970 directory. The main business area of the building was then vacant for a couple years, until Weisser Jewelry & Optical Co. moved in about the time of the 1973 Pekin city directory. Weisser remained at 404 Court St. until the latter half of the 1980s, last being listed there in the 1987 Pekin city directory. During its time at 404 Court, the business had seen a fairly frequent turnover of managers or optometrists. The first manager, Matthew Ondrey Jr., appears in the directories from 1973 to 1975, after which we find a rapid succession of five optometrists: Bernard Stern in 1976, Lawrence S. Scott in 1977, Ernest C. Erickson in 1978 and 1979, Roger C. Croland in 1980, and finally Henry C. Paweske (or Paweski) from 1981 to 1987.

The building again went vacant (except for its residential apartment dwellers) for the rest of the 1980s, but in the 1990 Pekin city directory we find DUI Counter Measures Inc. and Developmental Services Group, both of which were served office manager Lorraine M. Comstock (1933-2016), operated from the ground floor of 404 Court St. By the time of the 1992 directory, however, DUI Counter Measures had moved across the street to the 405 Court St. Building, and then in 1993 Developmental Services Group had also crossed the street to 405 Court. (Comstock was office manager for DUI Counter Measures from 1987 to 1996.)

Once more the building’s main business area went vacant, as shown in the 1993 and 1994 city directories. Annette’s Fashions, a women’s apparel store, made a go of it at 404 Court St. in the mid-1990s, being listed at that address in the directories from 1995 to 1997, but yet again the building is found vacant (except for its upstairs apartment residents) in the 1998 and 1999.

With the 2000 Pekin city directory, however, we see the debut of the business that has fixed the association of 404 Court St. with coffee in the minds of Pekinites:  CJ’s Café. Year by year, city directories consistently show CJ’s Café at 404 Court over the course of two decades. Beginning in 2007, the directories also show the business’ owner Mary Smith. Tazewell County Assessor’s records show that she and her husband Michael Smith acquired title to the building on 30 Aug. 2013. However, CJ’s last appears in directories in the fateful year of 2020 – and in the 2021 directory, 404 Court St. is not listed at all. That was, thankfully, but a brief hiatus, and the arrival of Dianna Howard’s Coffee Connections was heralded in the 2022 Pekin city directory.

A photograph of CJ’s Cafe, 404 Court St., taken 7 Feb. 2002, from the Tazewell County Assessor’s website.

Another photograph of CJ’s Cafe, 404 Court St., this one taken 5 June 2013, from the Tazewell County Assessor’s website.

#404-court-st, #ace-liquor-store, #adam-heilmann, #annetts-fashions, #apollo-billiard-hall, #ben-p-marcus, #benjamin-p-marcus, #bernard-stern, #cjs-cafe, #coffee-connections, #developmental-services-group, #dianna-howard, #dr-clyde-o-shawgo, #dui-countermeasures, #edward-achenbach, #ernest-c-erickson, #fred-h-johannes, #fred-johannes, #fred-johannes-grocery-store, #george-ehrlicher, #hamms-building, #heilmann-trinkaus-grocery-store, #henry-c-paweski, #henry-schroeder, #henry-ulrich, #irve-hewes, #jacob-j-woelfle, #jacob-john-woelfle, #johann-georg-ehrlicher, #john-j-woelfle, #josephine-ulrich, #lawrence-s-scott, #lorraine-m-comstock, #loue-trinkaus, #louis-trinkaus, #martin-h-trinkaus, #martin-henry-trinkaus, #mary-smith, #matthew-ondrey-jr, #michael-smith, #morans-market, #morans-meat-market, #nicholas-reuling, #pekin-history, #pekin-venetian-blind-shade-service, #reuling-ehrlicher-grocery-store, #roger-c-croland, #trinkaus-grocery-store, #walter-harrison, #weisser-jewelry-optical-co, #william-j-moran, #woelfle-watchmaker-and-jeweler

The history of the Hamm’s Building: 347-351 Court St. – formerly Steinmetz and McLellan’s

By Jared L. Olar

Local History Program Coordinator

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.

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