Ashers, Kresge, The Model – the history of the 353 Court St. building

By Jared L. Olar

Local History Program Coordinator

In 2019, Ashley and Russell Spencer opened a bar and grill in Farmington, Illinois, that they named “Ashers,” the restaurant’s name formed from the first half of Ashley’s name and the last two letters of Russell’s surname. Unfortunately, a fire destroyed their restaurant in Nov. 2021, but the following year they reopened in Pekin’s old town in Todd Thompson’s historic 353 Court St. Building, which Thompson had restored and refurbished in 2010. Ashers quickly established itself as one of Pekin’s most popular eateries. (The Spencers’ bar and grill was featured in a restaurant review by William Furry of the Illinois State Historical Society in the March-April 2024 issue of “Illinois Heritage” magazine of which Furry is the editor.)

The historic 353 Court St. building is shown in this photograph taken last month. Ashers Bar & Grill, owned and operated by Ashley and Russell Spencer, opened at 353 Court St. in 2022 and quickly established itself as one of Pekin’s most popular eateries. PHOTO BY PEKIN PUBLIC LIBRARY STAFF

Look back at the history of the 353 Court St. Building, it seems to have been in existence since at least the 1880s, and perhaps even the 1870s. As far as we can tell, the first business that may have existed at the present site of Ashers Bar & Grill could have been Schilling & Bohn, a firm owned by Conrad Schilling (1821-1895) and Andrew Bohn (1821-1891) that sold furniture, beds, mattresses, and coffins. 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 either at the site of the Hamm’s Building or the site of the 353 Court St. Building. An 1877 aerial view map of Pekin shows a structure in this block of Court St. that may well be the same one that still stands today at 353 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 either at the site today occupied by the Hamm’s Building or by the 353 Court St. Building, but it is unclear whether it was in the same structure that exists today.

At the left of this 1870 photograph is the building the preceded today’s 353 Court St. Building.

In this detail from an 1877 hand-drawn aerial map of Pekin, the black arrow indicates the location that is today the 353 Court St. building, showing a structure that was then a part of Roos’ Block. It is uncertain whether or not the building indicated by the arrow is the same as today’s building at 353 Court.

The history of this part of Court Street becomes clear in the 1880s, when city directories and maps show a hotel called Planter’s House or Planter’s Hotel, with the Irish immigrant Thomas Donegan Conaghan (1847-1922) as its proprietor. Conaghan previously appears in the 1871 and 1876 Pekin city directories as the proprietor of City Hotel at the northeast corner of Ann Eliza and Third streets. Planter’s Hotel is shown in the 1885 and 1892 Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Pekin as well as the 1887 and 1893 Pekin city directories.

An advertisement for Thomas D. Conaghan’s Planters Hotel from the 1893 Pekin city directory. Planters Hotel first appears on record in the 1885 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin. Despite expansion and extensive remodeling over the time of its existence, it seems the Planters Hotel building is the same structure that is still there today at 353-355 Court St.

At the time of the first Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin in May 1885, T. D. Conaghan was operating Planters Hotel at what was then numbered 421-423 1/2 Court St. (today 353-355 Court St.).

The Jan. 1892 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin again shows T. D. Conaghan’s Planters Hotel at 353-355 Court St.

Depicted in this drawing by Henry Hobart Cole is the Upper 300 block of Court Street — including the old Herget Block, the Odd Fellows Hall, and Planters Hotel — as it appeared during the 1880s and 1890s.

This detail from a Henry Hobart Cole photograph taken in the early 1890s shows 353-355 Court St. Note that the facade is almost identical to what may be seen today, apart from a peak and a pole atop the 353 Court St. structure. In the early 1890s, these adjoining buildings were the Planter’s Hotel, Thomas D. Conaghan, proprietor, but by the mid-1890s a number of businesses were sharing the building, including the Schradzki & Sklarek clothing store, Day Carpet & Furniture, and the Knights of Pythias Hall.

By the time of the 1895 city directory, however, the Planter’s Hotel building had been remodeled into business and office space to become the Kuhn Building. The Kuhn Building’s tenants that year included a clothing store operated by Leopold Schradzki (1833-1902) and Joseph Sklarek (1856-1940) at 353 Court St. (the western half of today’s 353 Court St. building), Day Carpet & Furniture operated by Edward O. Deuermeyer (1860-1931) at 355 Court St. (the eastern half of today’s Court St. building), M. Bayne & Son highway bridge builders operated by Milton Bayne (1830-1910) and his son William M. Bayne (1860-1924), and the insurance agencies of Martin J. Heisel (1857-1909) and Rudolph Velde (1875-1947).

Edward O. Deuermeyer (1860-1931), who operated Day Carpet & Furniture at 355 Court St. during the 1890s. Portrait shared at Ancestry.com.

An 1894 portrait shared at Ancestry.com of Illinois bridge builder Milton Bayne (1830-1910) whose firm’s office was in the 353 Court St. Building during the 1890s.

A group of advertisements from the 1895 Pekin city directory for three businesses then located in the Kuhn Building (353-355 Court St.) The firm of Schradzki & Sklarek at 353 Court (the western half of today’s 353 Court St. Building) was succeeded by Salzenstein & Co. clothing, which was in turn succeeded by The Model clothing store.

A full-page advertisement for the Day Carpet & Furniture Company from the 1895 Pekin city directory. This business occupied 355 Court St., which is today the east half of the 353 Court St. Building.

An advertisement for Rudolph Velde’s insurance agency from the 1895 Pekin city directory. Velde’s office was in the Kuhn Building, 353-355 Court St., the building that is today the home of Ashers Bar & Grill.

At the time of the March 1898 Sanborn Map of Pekin, 353-355 Court St. was known as the Kuhn Building or Kuhn Block, which housed the Knights of Pythias Hall on the third floor, the clothing store of Schradzki & Sklarek and the bridge-building firm of M. Bayne & Son on the first floor, and various other offices.

The 1898 Pekin city directory again shows the clothing store of Schradzki & Sklarek and the bridge-building firm of M. Bayne & Son in the Kuhn Building. According to the directory, by this time Milton Bayne was living in Chicago while his son William ran the firm in Pekin. The Kuhn Building in 1898 was also the home of the Knights of Pythias Hall, and also housed the offices of Charles L. Morgan (1868-1965) and his brother Robert Morgan (1866-1935), real estate and merchandise exchange, Dr. Edward F. Pielemeier (1874-1953), physician, and G. A. Pielemeyer, dentist.

The Model clothing store at 353 Court St. is indicated in this hand-colored photograph by W. Blenkiron taken circa 1900.

Around the time of Nov. 1903 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin, the Schradzki & Sklarek clothing store had been succeeded at 353 Court St. by another clothing store called Salzenstein & Co., owned and operated by Albert Salzenstein (1878-1931). The Kuhn Building also housed several other offices and a third-floor Assembly Hall.

Six years later, the 1904 Pekin city directory shows that the Schradzki & Sklarek clothing store had been succeeded at 353 Court St. by another clothing store called Salzenstein & Co., owned and operated by Albert Salzenstein (1878-1931). Also located at 353 Court St. or 353 1/2 Court St. were Tazewell County judge and attorney Jesse Black Jr. (1870-1935), attorney Edward Reardon (1851-1923), and George W. Seibert (1839-1915), justice of the peace. Meanwhile, at 355 Court St. we find the Smith & Frey five-and-dime store, operated by Thomas B. Smith (1866-1946) and Walter U. Frey (1875-1956), Abraham Lincoln “A. L.” Champion (1860-1945), abstract and real estate, Jacob Rapp (1845-1910), justice of the peace, the Prudential Insurance Co. office with Louis Heimbach as assistant superintendent, and an Assembly Hall on the third floor.

An advertisement for the Smith & Frey five-and-dime store from the 1908 Pekin city directory.

The 1908 Pekin city directory heralded the arrival of The Model Clothing Co. at 353 Court St. The Model was one of the prominent fixtures of downtown Pekin during the first decades of the 20th century, operating from 353 Court St. until the end of the 1920s, when it seems to have fallen as one of the early victims of the Great Depression. Curiously, city directories do not identify The Model’s managers until the 1926 directory, when The Model’s listing showed it with a secondary name of “The Nusbaum Co.,” and the manager was listed as Henry Ehrhardt. Then in the 1928 city directory, The Model, a.k.a. The Nusbaum Co., was listed with M. S. Chamberlain as its manager. The Model went out of business after that, and the 1930 Pekin city directory lists 353 Court St. – that is, the western half of today’s 353 Court St. Building – as “vacant.”

Meanwhile, the 1908 city directory again lists the Smith & Frey five-and-dime store at 355 Court St., with A. L. Champion’s office on the second floor of the Kuhn Building, and the Prudential Insurance Co. office (J. F. Mang, superintendent), over 355 Court. The same directory again lists Jesse Black Jr. and Edward Reardon in their offices in the Kuhn Building, along with Dr. R. C. Horner, dentist. Smith & Frey is again listed at 355 Court St. in the 1909 city directory, but in the 1913 and 1914 directories the store is listed as the Smith Department Store. During these years we continue to find anywhere from four to six offices in the 353-355 Court St. building being occupied by attorneys, dentists, etc., including A. L. Champion and the Prudential Insurance Co. The Modern Woodmen Hall is also listed on the building’s third floor in the 1914 and 1922 Pekin city directories.

At the time of the Dec. 1909 Sanborn Map of Pekin, 353 Court St. housed The Model clothing store, while 355 Court St. housed the Smith & Frey five-and-dime.

An advertisement for The Model clothing store at 353-355 Court St. from about 1910.

Another view of The Model store front at 353 Court St., from a W. Blenkiron photograph taken in 1910.

The Oct. 1916 Sanborn Map of Pekin again shows the storefront space of The Model clothing store at 353 Court St. and the Smith Department Store (formerly known as Smith & Frey) at 355 Court.

The sign of The Model clothing store at 353 Court St. is seen in this Christmas-time photograph from the early 1920s. About this time, the east half of the building — 355 Court St. — housed John Walter, jeweler, Pekin Music House, the Prudential Insurance Co. office, and the Modern Woodmen Hall on the third floor.

A Christmas advertisement from The Model clothing store, from the 25 Dec. 1920 edition of the Pekin Daily Times.

In the 1922 city directory, we find that the Smith Department Store had been replaced by John Walter, jeweler, who along with the Prudential Insurance Co. and four other offices occupied rooms at 355 Court St., while The Model occupied 353 Court. After the departure of The Model from 353 Court at the end of the 1920s, the 1930 city directory again shows John Walter, jeweler, at 355 Court St. However, Walter that year shared 355 Court with the S. S. Kresge Co., a five-and-dime that would soon become a successful downtown department store and ancestor of Kmart.

By the time of the 1925 Sanborn Map of Pekin, the Smith Department Store at 355 Court St. had been replaced by John Walter, jeweler, while The Model Clothing store was still at 353 Court St.

The S. S. Kresge department store at 353 Court St. can be seen in this photograph from the late 1940s.

John Walter, jeweler, continues to be listed at 355 Court St. until the 1939 Pekin city directory, but beginning with the 1932 city directory we find S. S. Kresge Co. occupying both 353 and 355 Court St., and after 1939 Kresge is the sole occupant of the building. The Kresge department store thrived at 353-355 Court St. until the late 1960s. Pekin’s city directories show a succession of 10 managers throughout the store’s existence at 353-355 Court St: Elwood F. Harr (1932), Ernest Arfsten (1934), Leslie L. Jones ( 1937, 1939, 1941, 1943, 1946), Ancil M. Scheiderer ( 1948, 1950), Curtis T. Mullen (1952, 1955, 1956, 1958), Russell Hansen (1959), John E. Curtis (1961), Donald J. Schroeder (1962), Warren Larson (1964, 1965, 1966), and Mark D. Heine (1968, 1969). Heine was Kresge’s last manager in downtown Pekin, and at that time the S. S. Kresge Co. nationwide became Kmart, and built a store at 2901 Court St. Kresge disappears from Pekin directories in 1970, then reappears as Kmart in 1971 with Robert P. Matheny as its manager.

Shown is an S. S. Kresge advertisement from the 19 Dec. 1964 Pekin Daily Times.

After Kresge, the next store to occupy the 353 Court St. Building was a 5-cent-to-1-dollar store, or variety store, called The Jupiter, which is listed at that address in the Pekin city directories from 1970 to 1974, changing managers about once a year. Jupiter’s succession was managers was: Robert Ruhl, Richard Swank, Phillip Brandis, Thomas Hallett, and Larry Rutledge.

353 Court St. is shown toward the left of center in this early 1970s photograph of downtown Pekin. The building then housed the Jupiter variety store.

The storefront 353-355 Court St. is shown in this 1977 Pekin Daily Times photograph. At the time, the building housed the S & H Green Stamp Redemption Center, Joyce Dentinger, manager.

Pekin directories show the 353 Court St. Building as “vacant” in 1975 and 1976, but in 1977 we find the S & H Green Stamp Redemption Center there, managed by Joyce Dentinger. She remained as manager of the Redemption Center for as long as it operated from that storefront, with the Redemption Center and Dentinger last appearing in the 1983 Pekin city directory.

The 1984 directory does not have a listing for 353 Court St., but in 1985 we find a restaurant called Coles Open Hearth, operated by John M. Lawson. Coles Open Heart reappears in the 1986 directory, but with Russell Boger as owner. He changed the restaurant into a night club called Bogey’s Emporium, under which name his business appears in the 1987 directory, but the business quickly failed there.

From 1988 to 1992, Pekin directories list 343 Court St. as “vacant.” In 1993’s directory we find a brief and obscure listing for something called “Visions Onie” — a typographical error for “Visions,” a teen hangout that was not there for very long. In 1994 the building is again listed as “vacant.” Then in 1995, we find Gerald W. Adams’ Bangkok Restaurant, which only lasted about a year.

The 1996 directory lists 353 Court St. as the location of Joseph M. and Penny M. Berardi’s Peek-In Ceramics & Gift Shop. The Berardis continued to operate their business there up to and including the 1998 Pekin city directory. That year we also find Wayne Wilton Thompson Jr., retired, and Ruth P. Thompson, occupying and working out of the building alongside the Berardis. The 1999 city directory again shows Peek-In Ceramics & Gifts, with Joseph Berardi, president, along with a business called Ceramic Treasurers, run by Ruth Thompson; with Wilton W. Thompson Jr. listed there as well.

From the 2000 Pekin city directory until the 2009 directory, we find Ceramic Treasurers, owned by Ruth P. Thompson, as the only business in the building, with Wilton W. Thompson Jr. and Ruth P. Thompson also listed apparently as residents. But Ceramic Treasurers disappears from Pekin city directories after 2009. That is because it was in 2010 that Todd Thompson and his partner Steve Foster refurbished the 353 Court St. building – and it is from this building that Todd Thompson’s 353 Court LLC derives its name.

Ruth P. Thompson’s Ceramic Treasures at 353 Court St. is shown in this Feb. 2002 photograph from the Tazewell County Assessor’s website. Ceramic Treasures operated from that location from the late 1990s until 2010, when Todd Thompson and Steve Foster refurbished the building and brought in the Speakeasy Art Center.

This June 2013 photograph from the Tazewell County Assessor’s website shows the Speakeasy Art Center, which was located in the 353 Court St. building from 2010 to 2016.

After restoring the building, Thompson and Foster turned the building in the Speakeasy Art Center, which from 2010 until Fall 2016 was the home of the Pekin Academy of the Fine Arts, directed by Shannon Cox. The art center’s name harks back to tales that the building had once had a speakeasy hidden there during the Prohibition Era. Curiously, the Speakeasy Art Center never appeared in any Pekin city directories, which instead continued to list only Wilton W. Thompson Jr. and Ruth P. Thompson until 2017’s directory. The 353 Court St. building disappeared from city directories in 2018 and 2019, but the directories from 2020 to 2023 list Kindermusik and Ruth P. Thompson as the only occupants of 353 Court St. The most recent directory listings for this address are probably only “ghost” entries, though.

After the Pekin Academy of Fine Arts moved in late 2016 to the old Rupert Mansion on Walnut, Travis Guthman of Lacon, Illinois, owner of Pizza Peel in Lacon, in late 2019 proposed opening a second Pizza Peel in the 353 Court St. Building. However, Guthman’s plans never came to fruition. But with the arrival of Ashers in 2022, this historic structure has again come to life and does much to to draw customers and community activity to Pekin’s old town.

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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.

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.

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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Of hotels, hardware, Bibles, and law: the history of 337 Court St.

By Jared L. Olar

Local History Program Coordinator

Since the early 2000s, the building at 337 Court St. has been the home of the 337 Court Street Law Offices, owned by Pekin attorney Dale Thomas and his wife Joy. This building at 337-339 Court St. is about 140 years old if not older, though it has undergone a lot of change and had to be rebuilt after it was almost completely destroyed in a fire 80 years ago.

The 337 Court Street Law Offices, shown in this Google Street View image from Aug. 2022, is owned by Pekin attorney Dale Thomas and his wife Joy. In this past, this building has housed Henry Roos’ hardware store, Philip Hoffman’s Pekin Hardware Co., Carp’s Department Store, and the Christ Centered Store.

Throughout its history, this structure has been the home of hardware stores, a department store, a restaurant, a tavern, and a Christian book store. But the history of 337 Court St. can be traced prior to the construction of the 337 Court St. building almost to the middle of the 1800s. The Tazewell County Assessor’s website says this structure was first built in 1910, but there can be little doubt that the original construction was during the 1870s and that the building as we have it today is the one that was rebuilt immediately after a fire in 1944.

Omi Root’s very first Pekin city directory in 1861 says that the establishment located on Court Street three doors east of Capitol St. was a hotel called American House, whose proprietor was Robert C. Stickley (1819-1907). Stickley also had a livery stable on the west side of Fourth St. two doors north of Court to serve his hotel guests and others in town. American House is again listed three doors east of Capitol St. on Court in the 1871 Sellers & Bates City Directory of Pekin, at which time the hotel’s proprietor was an otherwise unknown D. Martin.

This advertisement for Robert Stickley’s hotel “American House” and his livery stable appeared on page 73 of Omi Root’s 1861 City Directory of Pekin. “American House” on Court Street was the third door east of Capitol Street, apparently on the site of today’s Dale Thomas law offices.

In this detail from an 1877 aerial view map of Pekin, the site of Robert Stickley’s and D. Martin’s American House hotel is indicated by the blue arrow, while the site of Stickley’s livery stable is indicated by the black arrow. But by 1877, the building indicated by the blue arrow was the hardware store of Henry Roos

American House disappears from Pekin city directories after 1871. The 1876 Bates City Directory of Pekin does not identify any specific Court Street business located three doors east of Capitol, but lists various businesses across from the Tazewell County Courthouse in a building or series of buildings known as the Roos Block. This city directory is unclear about exact address of the Roos Block, but it appears to have covered the area that today includes the 337 Court Street Law Offices.

In 1876, a prominent shoe and boot store then existed at 236 Court St., known as J. & H. Roos, owned and operated by John Roos and his brother Henry Roos (1845-1922), one or both of whom was the owner of the Roos Block building or buildings. Henry Roos’ biography in the 1905 History of Tazewell County says he was proprietor of the shoe store from 1865 to 1876, “when, on account of ill health, he disposed of the enterprise.”

Once his health had recovered, in 1879 Henry Roos opened a hardware, farm implements, and seed store in a building that was then numbered 405-407 Court St. (presumably part of the old Roos Block). This same store is shown in the 1885 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin and the 1887 Pekin city directory. At some point in the early 1890s, Roos’ building was renumbered 337-339 Court St., and that has been the mailing address ever since. Roos’ hardware and agricultural implements store is listed at 337-339 Court in the 1893, 1895, and 1898 Pekin city directories.

The first Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin, dated May 1885, shows 405-407 Court St. (later renumbered 337-339 Court St.) as the location of a hardware store and tin shop. The 1887 Pekin City Directory shows that this store was owned by Henry Roos, who continued to operate his business there until 1898.

Henry Roos’ hardware store is shown at 337 Court St. at the time of the Jan. 1892 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin.

Henry Roos’ hardware store at 337-339 Court St. is shown at the time of the March 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin, the year that Roos retired and sold his business to Philip Hoffman, Benjamin Strickfaden Sr., and Ernest R. Peyton.

Roos’ biography in the 1905 Tazewell County history says he retired in 1898. By the time of the 1904 Pekin city directory, Roos’ former hardware store had been acquired by three business partners named Philip M. Hoffman (1872-1936), Benjamin Strickfaden Sr. (1863-1949), and Ernest R. Peyton (1866-1954), who were co-proprietors of the Pekin Hardware Co. This hardware store operated from Roos’ old building at 337-339 Court St. until 1929, though Strickfaden is no longer listed as a partner from the 1913 city directory onward – he left Illinois and ended his days in New Mexico.

Philip M. Hoffman, Benjamin Strickfaden, and Ernest R. Peyton, co-owners of Pekin Hardware Co., stand with their employees in front of their business at 337-339 Court St. in this vintage photograph from circa 1900.

This Pekin Hardware Co. advertisement ran in the 1908 Pekin city directory.

The Nov. 1903 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin shows “Hardw.” and “Tin Shop” at 337-339 Court St. The building was then still the home of the Pekin Hardware Co.

The Dec. 1909 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin again shows the Pekin Hardware Co. at 337-339 Court St.

The Oct. 1916 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin again shows the Pekin Hardware Co. at 337-339 Court St.

337-339 Court St. appears in the Sept. 1925 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin. Though the map does not identify the business at that address, city directories show it was still the Pekin Hardware Co.

The Pekin Hardware Co. at 337-339 Court St. can be seen in this Christmas-time photograph from the early 1920s.

Hoffman and Peyton carried on the business at 337-339 Court St. until 1929, when Pekin Hardware Co. moved to the southwest corner of Margaret and Capitol streets for a few years. Hoffman was succeeded by his son Ernest P. Hoffman (1902-1974), who moved the business back to Court Street by the time of the 1939 Pekin city directory. The younger Hoffman moved the store to 341 Court St., because in 1929 the former location at 337 Court St. had become the home of Carp’s Department Store, owned by Bernard S. Carp (1895-1963) of St. Louis, Mo.

The 1930 directory says Carp’s Department Store’s manager then was Richard L. Joliff, but in the 1932 directory lists the manager as Jack W. Bennett. In the 1934 directory, Carp is shown as personally managing the store, but by the time of the 1937 city directory the store’s manager was Joseph J. Bottger (1897-1949), who remained in that position until his death on 4 Sept. 1949.

The 1949 Pekin Centenary, page 14, provides the following historical overview of Carp’s Department Store:

“For the past twenty years, Carps (sic) Department store has been serving Pekin and its surrounding communities. In 1929, its doors opened at its present address, 337 Court Street. At that time, the store consisted of only the main floor and a balcony for ladies ready-to-wear.

“To meet the demands of a fast growing community, Carps was in the process of remodeling and expanding when the building was completely destroyed by fire on February 9, 1944. Carps immediately began looking for a temporary location, and on March 9th business was resumed in the building which now houses the Court Motors, on the corner of Capitol and Margaret streets. Work began at once on erecting a modern building at the old site, consisting of a main floor, an enlarged balcony, and a full basement.

“Bernard Carp is well known in the Pekin community and his children attended the Pekin schools. His interest is always in the progress of the city.

“J. J. Bottger, the manager, has been associated with the Carps for the past fourteen years.”

The main front page story in the 10 Feb. 1944 Pekin Daily Times was of the devastating fire that night before that destroyed Carp’s Department Store at 337 Court St., leaving nothing but the front and back walls.

The fire that destroyed Carp’s Department Store was the main front page story in the 10 Feb. 1944 edition of the Pekin Daily Times. News reports show that two Pekin firefighters were injured while fighting the blaze during that night’s bitter February cold. When the fire was extinguished, all that was left of Henry Roos’ old building were the front and back walls. But Bernard Carp had the store rebuilt with a wholly new interior and roof while retaining the original façade.

After Bottger’s passing, the next Carp’s store manager was James F. Harris, who stayed on until the late 1960s, last appearing in that capacity in the 1966 Pekin city directory. The 1968 directory shows Calvin Schermann as the store manager, but in the 1971 directory Schermann had been succeeded by Joe Gunn. The last manager of Carp’s Department Store is listed in the 1973 Pekin city directory as Robert Adams. The store closed around that time, a victim of the shift of commerce from Pekin’s old town to the eastern part of town.

Carp’s Department Store at 337-339 Court St. can be seen on the right edge of this cropped detail of a Ralph Goodwin photograph taken in Nov. 1966.

Carp’s Department Store, 337 Court St., is shown in this cropped detail of a photograph from the 1974 Pekin Sesquicentennial. Also shown is Pekin Hardware Co. at 341 Court St., which formerly was located in the 337 Court St. building from circa 1900 until 1929.

City directories show 337-339 Court St. to have remained vacant until 1977, when the directory lists a restaurant and lounge at that address: Walt’s French Quarter, whose proprietor was Linda Fluegel. That business didn’t last very long, though, because the 1979 city directory again shows the building as vacant. Then in 1980, we find another restaurant and lounge there called The Courtyard, operated by Jack McCarty. In 1982, The Courtyard’s owner is listed as Janet L. Maile, but the restaurant closed about that time.

In the 1983 and 1984 city directories, we find John M. Lawson operating a tavern and diner at 337 Court St. called The Hideout and the Quick Stop Diner. But again that business did not last long, because the 1985 Pekin city directory once more lists 337-339 Court St. as vacant. In the next directory, a “youth center” known as Illusions, run by Linda M. Litterst and Larry Brown, is shown to have briefly occupied the 337 Court St. building. Illusions proved to be a disruptive presence in Pekin’s old town and did not last very long. The 1987 and 1988 city directories again list the building as vacant.

In the 1989 city directory, however, we find that Kenneth O. “Kenny” Crawford (1929-2022) and his wife Patricia J. (Spiesz) Crawford (1933-2018) had moved their business, The Christ Centered Store, from 317 Court St. to 337-339 Court St. The Crawfords sold Bibles and other religious books and articles. (My parents bought their children’s first Bibles from the Crawfords.) They operated their store there until their retirement in the mid-1990s. Kenny Crawford sold the store on 7 Jan. 1995 to Wiliam E. Hillegonds (1970-2020) and retired to call for his wife Pat, who had a rare form of Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Hillegonds was listed as the owner of The Christ Centered Store until the 2004 Pekin city directory. The 2005 directory shows Connie Lennox only that year, as the store’s last owner. Pekin attorney Dale Thomas has had his law offices at 337 Court St. since then.

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