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.

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Reuling’s dry goods store

By Jared L. Olar

Local History Specialist

Continuing now with our series on Pekin’s downtown businesses featured in the group of 19th-century business cards that we’ve been examining, this time we will recall the history of a business that once was a landmark of Pekin’s downtown: Reuling’s Dry Goods.

For most of its history, Reuling’s was located at 359 Court St., next door to Herget National Bank, on the north side of Court Street across from the Tazewell County Courthouse. But this vintage business card dates from Reuling’s early years, when the store was at 427 Court St.

Before Reuling’s moved to 359 Court St., where it was located for most of the business’ existence, the store operated out of various other buildings along Court Street. At the time of this early 1870s business card, Reuling’s was at 427 Court St.

Reuling’s was founded by and named after a German immigrant from Hesse-Darmstadt named Nicholas Reuling (1832-1913), whose wife was Mary Herget (1836-1913) of the well-known Herget family of Pekin. Charles C. Chapman’s 1879 “History of Tazewell County” (page 605) includes this brief biography of Reuling:

“Adam and Elizabeth Reuling, the parents of Nicholas, were natives of Germany, and he was also born in the Fatherland. Coming to this county in the year 1854, he engaged, not many years after, in the dry-goods trade, in which business he has been eminently successful, having, by his ability and integrity of character, rose to be one of the leading men in the trade in Tazewell county. In Dec. 1858, Mr. Reuling was united in marriage to Mary Herget, the fruits of the marriage being four children, all now living. Perhaps no man in the county has a larger personal acquaintance, and certainly none who stand higher in the estimation of the people. He is a member of St. Paul’s Evangelical Church.”

Reuling appears in the 1861 Roots City Directory of Pekin as a business partner with another prominent German immigrant named George Ehrlicher:

“Reuling & Ehrlicher (N. R. & G. E.), dealers in groceries and provisions, Court, ss., 11th d. e. Fourth.

“Reuling Nicholas, firm R. & Ehrlicher, res. Elizabeth, ns., 3d d. e. Fifth.”

The Reuling & Ehrlicher store was located in the 400 block of Court Street. Reuling’s daughter Amelia later married Ehrlicher’s son Henry M. Ehrlicher.

Records in the Local History Room files place the founding of Reuling’s Dry Goods in either 1868 or 1869. Be that as it may, the 1870-71 Sellers & Bates Directory of Pekin indicates that by 1871 Reuling had gone into business with his brothers-in-law John and George Herget. Together they operated a dry goods store known as N. Reuling & Co. that was located in the 300 block of Court Street west of Capitol St.:

“Reuling N. & Co., (N. R., J. & G. H.), dealers in dry goods, clothing, boots, shoes, hats, caps, notions, etc., ns Court 3 d w Capitol.”

Within a few years, Reuling had moved his store back to the 400 block of Court Street, because the 1876 and 1887 Pekin city directories give the store’s address as 427 Court. In the 1893 directory, however, the store was across from the courthouse at 339 Court St. Finally, in the 1895 city directory we find Reuling’s at the address where it was to remain for the rest of its history: 359 Court St.

The Reuling’s store front is illuminated with electric lights in this vintage photograph from circa 1898.

In the 1949 Pekin Centenary, page 64, the advertisement for Reuling’s includes this informative summary of the store’s history up till then:

“The year 1949 marks the 50th Anniversary of the incorporation of N. Reuling Company. The original store, which was operated for a good many years by Nicholas Reuling, occupied the west room of the property known as the Herget Building. Previous to that time, Mr. Reuling had been in partnership with a Mr. Becker, in the first 300 block Court Street.

“In the year 1899, the company was incorporated and enlarged to include an adjoining room, which had formerly housed a wholesale grocery. The dividing partition was removed, and a new front, modern for the times, installed.

“In 1925, the building was purchased from the Herget Estate, and since that time, the business has expanded to occupy the second floor and basement, in addition to the spacious main floor.

“In 1941 a modernization program was started and completed on the main floor, and the resulting increase in business proved very satisfactory.

“N. Reuling Company has endeavored through the years to provide quality merchandise in leading name brands at moderate prices, and to live up to its motto, ‘The Store of Satisfaction’.”

This photograph from the 1940s shows Reuling’s owner Oscar Winkel soon after a remodel of the store.

Reuling’s employee Emma E. Luick (left) and a friend pose for a photograph in front of the store in 1940.

When the 1974 Pekin Sesquicentennial volume was prepared, Reuling’s got a brief but notable paragraph and three photographs on pages 43-44. This was the paragraph:

“The Reuling’s ‘dry goods’ store alone preserves for present-day Pekin a name from its commercial past. The shop, founded in 1868 (although not incorporated until 1899) by Nicholas Reuling, still stands on the same spot it occupied in the post-Civil War city; and the present owners are descended from the Reuling family line. The original store was only one room, with a hitching post out front and dry goods displayed in boxes on the sidewalk or hung above the door, as well as inside. Since those early days, though, the store has been extensively remodeled and extended, and it is today an ‘institution’ in Pekin’s downtown section.”

“Pekin: A Pictorial History” (1998, 2004), page 91, likewise says Reulings Dry Goods was founded 1868. As we have seen from the early city directory entries, the earlier write-ups on Reulings’ Dry Goods have some omissions, not mentioning where Reuling’s earliest store locations were.

Harriet Harris and her father Oscar Winkel are shown in this Pekin Daily Times newspaper clipping from 20 Oct. 1960, announcing Reuling’s re-opening after a major remodel of the store.

A lengthier historical account of Reuling’s Dry Goods was published by the Pekin Area Chamber of Commerce in their “Commerce Newsbreak” newsletter (Jan. 1991), in an article simply titled, “Reuling’s.” The article does have one error – the store did not operate at the same Court Street location under the same name since 1869, but only since about 1895 – but otherwise is very informative:

“For 122 years, four generations of the Reuling family have owned and operated the Reuling dry goods store on the corner of Court and 4th Streets. Founding in 1869 and incorporated in 1899 by Nicholas Reuling, Reuling’s has operated at the same Court Street location under the same name for its entire history. Because of this longstanding tradition, Reuling’s was recognized as one of the few centennial businesses in the state and has been added to the State Centennial Business Register in 1985.

“For over 62 years, Oscar Winkel was an active part of the operation at Reuling’s. He started his career with Reuling’s as a bookkeeper in March of 1923 upon the insistence of his Aunt Martha Reuling. Martha was married to Lewis Reuling, the son of founder Nicholas Reuling. Lewis and his brother Edward had married Winkel’s aunts Mina and Martha, and thus the second generation of Reuling’s to run the business.

“Upon the death of Lewis Reuling in 1927, Winkel became a corporate vice-president. In 1937 when Martha Reuling and her daughter left California, Winkel became president of the company. Winkel’s daughter, Harriet Harris, started working in the store in high school and never considered not joining the family business. Harriet Harris became president in 1987 upon the death of her father, Oscar Winkel.

“In the case of Reuling’s, not only is the original family still running the business, but the same name is being used, the nature of the business is the same and the original building is still in use.

“Originally the building was attached to the Herget Bank. When the bank chose to remodel externally shortly after the turn of the century, Reuling’s was also remodeled. When Winkel came into the business, merchandise was kept behind the counter, customers waited for help, and operations were on one floor. The basement and upstairs were expanded later. The design of the front window display has been changed twice, and in 1960 all the fixtures on the main floor were replaced.

“Retailing, fashions, and customers have changed during the many years of operations. What hasn’t changed is that many people who were brought up in clothes purchased in the children’s department now bring in their own children. In the age of self-service stores, more and more people who walk through Reuling’s front door come for personal service.

“The motto, ‘The Store of Satisfaction,’ has served for many years.”

Harriet Harris and her husband Walter kept Reuling’s going for a few more years after that article’s publication. Pekin city directories continue to list Reuling’s until 1995, about which time what was a living piece of Pekin’s past finally passed into history. Harriet Harris still lives in Pekin, though, now 101 years of age. An oral history video interview with Harriet Harris may be viewed at the Pekin Public Library’s YouTube channel.

This Pekin Daily Times newspaper clipping from Dec. 1980 shows Reuling’s longtime owner Oscar Winkel, 89, helping Jane Hellrigel of Tremont.

Oscar Winkel and his daughter Harriet Harris are shown arranging a clothing display at their store in July 1985 in this Pekin Daily Times newspaper clipping. Winkel passed away two years later at the age of 96.

Harriet Harris, owner of Reuling’s, from a Jan. 1992 Peoria Journal Star article. Harris retired and the store closed about three years later.

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