The Duisdieker Home and First Pekin Savings Bank – the history of 532 Court St.

By Jared L. Olar

Local History Program Coordinator

An Aug. 2022 Google Street View image of First Pekin Savings Bank, 532 Court St. As part of Pekin’s Bicentennial celebrations, First Pekin Savings Bank has donated toward the Downtown History Markers project that will help to highlight the history of building in Pekin’s historic downtown.

A second Google Street View image of First Pekin Savings Bank from Aug. 2022.

An Aug. 2019 Google Street View image of First Pekin Saving Bank’s electronic sign, with the bank and its drive-through in the background.

The customers of First Pekin Savings Bank, 532 Court St., can read the bank’s motto and date of founding on the north wall of building: “Small enough to know you . . . Large enough to serve you — Since 1893.”

During its history, however, First Pekin Savings Bank has borne three other names. In addition, while the bank’s history commences in 1893, it has only been located at 532 Court St. since the summer of 1962. Before moving to its present location, the lots at 532 Court St. were occupied by a grand house that dated to about 1870 – the Duisdieker Home.

In this photograph taken about 1895 is shown the home of Charles H. Duisdieker (1851-1925), a very prominent Pekin businessman who served as Pekin Mayor in 1895-1896. The site of the Duisdieker Home is now the location of First Pekin Savings Bank, 532 Court St.

Maps and city directories indicate that the Duisdieker Home got its start as the home of a real estate speculator named David F. Lowrey (1798-1887), an immigrant from Ulster, Ireland. The 1871 and 1876 Pekin city directories show Lowrey living at the southwest corner of Court and Sixth streets, a site that originally was numbered 622 or 632 Court St., then 524 Court St., then 530 Court St., and finally 532 Court St. After 1876, Lowrey and his family moved to Nebraska, where he and many of his kin are entombed in the Lowrey Vault in Wyuka Cemetery, Lincoln. (His son T. W. Lowrey also ran a liquor store and cigar shop in downtown Pekin during the 1870s.)

This detail from an 1877 hand-drawn aerial-view map of Pekin shows the home of David F. Lowrey (1798-1887) at the corner of Court and Sixth streets. Originally numbered 632 Court, later 524-526 Court, then 530 Court, and finally 532 Court, Lowrey’s home was acquired about 1880 by Pekin industrialist Charles H. Duisdieker (1851-1925), who subsequently had several additions made to the home that made the structure very grand.

The next owner of the Lowrey home was a successful Pekin businessman and industrialist named Charles H. Duisdieker (1851-1925), owner of the Duisdieker & Smith Foundry at the northwest corner of Court and Fifth streets (present site of the historic Arlington Building). Duisdieker also served as Mayor of Pekin in 1895-1896, and in 1893 was one of the co-founders of Pekin Mutual Building & Loan Association. Duisdieker made several additions to the old Lowrey Home that greatly enlarged it to the south and east.

In this detail from the May 1885 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin shows a home at 632 Court St. (today numbered 532 Court St.). The 1876 Pekin city directory says David F. Lowrey (1798-1887), retired real estate speculator, lived at that address, while the 1887 directory says it was then the home of Pekin industrialist Charles H. Duisdieker (1851-1925).

The Jan. 1892 Sanborn map of Pekin shows several additions that had been made to the Duisdieker Home at 524 Court (formerly 632 Court) since May 1885.

This detail from the March 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin shows the Duisdieker Home at 524-526 Court (formerly numbers 632 Court). Note that the machine shop of Henry Weber and Charles P. Voll was across the street from the Duisdieker Home — Voll was the brother of Charles H. Duisdieker’s wife Martha.

The Nov. 1903 Sanborn map of Pekin again shows the Duisdieker Home and property at 524-526 Court St. (now numbered 532 Court St.).

The Duisdieker Home at 524-526 Court St. is depicted in this detail from the Dec. 1909 Sanborn map of Pekin.

This detail from the Oct. 1916 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin shows the Duisdieker Home and property at the southwest corner of Court and Sixth streets.

The Duisdieker Home is shown in this detail from the Sept. 1925 Sanborn map of Pekin, just three months before the death of former Pekin Mayor Charles H. Duisdieker.

After Charles Duisdieker’s death on 12 Dec. 1925 at the age of 74, ownership of his home passed to his widow Martha R. (Voll) Duisdieker (1857-1946). She in turn lived at the Duisdieker Home until her death on 18 April 1846, age 88. Interestingly, before he bought the Lowrey Home, Charles Duisdieker was listed in the 1876 city directory as a barber who lived at 613 Catherine St. with Charles P. Voll (1853-1911). We later find Charles Voll as partner with Henry Weber in the firm of Weber & Voll, which ran a machine shop at the northwest corner of Court and Sixth, directly across the street from the Duisdieker Home. Charles Voll was an older brother of Martha Duisdieker.

Beginning with the 1934 Pekin city directory, we find Norma (Duisdieker) Meyer (1890-1966), daughter of Charles and Martha Duisdieker, living at the Duisdieker Home with her mother Martha. After her mother’s passing, Norma continued to live in the old family home until the late 1950s. A prominent and active member of the community, Norma was life member of the Pekin Garden Club and served as that club’s president. She was also active in the Esther Circle, and as a talented pianist and singer was a long-time member of the Amateur Music Club of Peoria. On 23 July 1957, she sold the house and its property to First Federal Savings & Loan Association of Pekin and retired to Knollcrest Nursing Home at the corner of Court Street and Allentown Road. Norma died there on 18 Jan. 1966. She and her parents are interred at Lakeside Cemetery. Her Pekin Daily Times obituary includes these remarks on the Duisdieker Home:

“The family lived in a large home at 528 Court street, next to the Larkin Bakery, on the site now occupied by the First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Pekin. Many Pekinites have memories of the charming summer house and iron deer which graced the lawn at the residence.”

After First Federal Savings & Loan Association of Pekin had purchased the Duisdieker property, the old Duisdieker Home was demolished to make way for a new structure for the association. It was perhaps fitting that First Federal would locate on the Duisdieker property, since Charles Duisdieker had been one of the founders of Pekin Mutual Building & Loan, predecessor of First Federal. Pekin Mutual had changed its name in Nov. 1956 to Pekin Savings & Loan Association, and then obtained a federal charter in Nov. 1960 to become First Federal Savings & Loan Association of Pekin. First Federal opened in its brand new building at 532 Court St. in July 1962.

The 1893 Pekin city directory heralded the organization of Pekin Mutual Building & Loan Association with just a brief note on the association’s capital and that it was “in course of organization.” It was incorporated on 31 Jan. 1893 and opened on 18 March 1893.

The officers then in charge of Pekin Mutual Building & Loan Association — predecessor of today’s First Pekin Saving’s Bank — are listed in this 1895 Pekin city directory entry.

The 1974 Pekin Sesquicentennial volume, pages 35-36, devote four paragraphs to the institution’s history to that year:

“The ‘newest’ of these organizations opened for business in the Farmers National Bank Building on March 18, 1893, as the Pekin Mutual Building and Loan Association, which had been incorporated January 31 of the same year by Charles Duisdieker, Charles Conklin, Henry Herget, J. C. Friedrich, and John Fitzgerald. The initial officers were Ketcham Conklin, president, J. C. Friedrich, vice-president and treasurer, and Judge William Don Maus, attorney. Subsequently, the association occupied several different sites before moving to 434 Court, where it remained for 34 years before moving to the present location at 532 Court in July of 1962.

“The organization became Pekin Savings and Loan Association in November of 1956, then converted to a Federal Charter to become the First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Pekin in November, 1960.

“First Federal was the city’s first savings and loan to offer a drive-up teller window, and it was the first financial institution in Central Illinois to install an electronic message center; the 17-foot wide moving message of 21-inch high, lighted letters is mounted on a 25-foot support and flashes information day and night.

“The association has enjoyed steady growth since the turn of the century at which time assets were $60,352. Present assets are over $32 million, and Fred R. Soldwedel is the current president.”

In the years since 1974, First Federal became a part of the Marion County Savings Bank family based in Salem, Illinois, and was changed from a savings & loan to a bank, as First Pekin Savings Bank. The bank’s board of directors includes Larry H. Clark, T. J. Burge, Jacqueline Malan, Trenton Ice, Christopher Daniels, Earl Riley, and Whitney Ruger, with the management team consisting of Burge, Stacy Flota, and Valerie Vincent, and lenders Earl Riley and Ron Harlan.

An advertisement for Pekin Savings & Loan Association, 434 Court St., from the 1958 Pekin city directory. Formerly known as Pekin Mutual Building & Loan Association, it got a new name in Nov. 1956.

This 1961 Pekin city directory advertisement shows First Federal Savings & Loan Association of Pekin — formerly Pekin Savings & Loan Association — still at its old address of 434 Court St. This was after this institution had obtained a federal charter in Nov. 1960 but before it had moved into its new building at 532 Court St.

This advertisement from the 1962 Pekin city directory shows First Federal Savings & Loan Association of Pekin at its new address of 532 Court St., formerly the site of the Duisdieker Home. Fittingly, Charles H. Duisdieker who had lived in that home was one of the organizers in 1893 of Pekin Mutual Building & Loan Association, predecessor of First Federal Savings & Loan Association of Pekin.

Sporting a Christmas wreath, First Federal Savings & Loan Association of Pekin is shown in this Tazewell County Assessor’s photograph taken on St. Nicholas Day, 6 Dec. 2001.

First Federal Savings & Loan Association of Pekin is shown in this Google Street View image from July 2011. Note the addition to the north wall of the motto, “Small enough to know you . . . Large enough to serve you — Since 1893.”

#532-court-st, #arlington, #charles-conklin, #charles-duisdieker, #charles-h-duisdieker, #charles-p-voll, #david-f-lowrey, #duisdieker-smith, #duisdieker-foundry, #duisdieker-home, #first-federal-savings-loan-association-of-pekin, #first-federal-savings-of-pekin, #first-pekin-savings-bank, #fred-r-soldwedel, #henry-herget, #henry-weber, #j-c-friedrich, #john-fitzgerald, #ketcham-conklin, #knollcrest-nursing-home, #lowrey-home, #marion-county-savings-bank, #martha-r-duisdieker, #martha-r-voll-duisdieker, #norma-d-meyer, #norma-duisdieker-meyer, #pekin-history, #pekin-mutual-building-loan-association, #pekin-savings-loan-association, #t-w-lowrey, #t-w-lowrey-liquor-store, #weber-voll, #william-don-maus

From wagons to automobiles, music, and cameras: the story of 525-527 Court St.

By Jared L. Olar

Local History Program Coordinator

Pekinites of an older generation will remember the building at 525-527 Court St. as the home of the Pekin Music Store and The Photoggery. Though this downtown building has long stood vacant, the current owners, Gary and Crista Flynn, are currently renovating and revitalizing the structure to become the home of their daughter Ashley Simmons’ resale boutique Take 2 and Gigi’s Pet Treats. Their daughter’s businesses will be located at 527 Court St., while the Flynns intend to rent out the next door 525 Court St. space to a local business.

525-527 Court St. and its adjacent “pocket park” are shown in this Aug. 2022 image from Google Street View.

Layout of 525-527 Court St. from the Tazewell County Assessor’s website.

The exact age of the 525-527 Court St. building is uncertain. The Tazewell County Assessor’s website says it was built in 1957, but city directories indicate the building was already there by the early 1950s if not earlier.

The story of 525-527 Court St. begins in 1881, when a pair of German immigrants named Nicholaus or Nicholas Weber (1834-1920) and John Frey (1837-1913) partnered to create the wagon-making firm of Weber & Frey in a building located at 625-629 Court St. – an address that was soon renumbered as 525-529 Court St. Weber and Frey made and repaired wagons and carriages, and Frey was also a blacksmith.

The 1887 Pekin city directory not only lists Weber & Frey at 625-629 Court, but also shows the related firm of Weber & Voll next door at 631 Court St. (later renumbered 531 Court). The proprietors of Weber & Voll were Nicholas’ son Henry Weber (1860-1940) and Charles P. Voll (1853-1911), who were general machinists, manufacturers, and repairmen.

In the midst of his family is German immigrant “Uncle Nick” Weber (1834-1920), wagonmaker in the firm of Weber & Frey that was located at the site that is now 525-527 Court St. Photograph uploaded to Find-A-Grave by RMCharlie.

This detail from the May 1885 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin shows the Weber & Frey machine shop and foundry at 625-631 (525-531) Court St.

In this detail from the Jan. 1892 Sanborn map of Pekin, the Weber & Frey Wagon Works is shown at 525-527 Court St. and the Weber & Voll Machine Shop is shown at 529-531 Court St.

An advertisement for Weber & Voll from the 1887 Pekin city directory. Weber & Voll, the machine shop of Henry Weber and Charles P. Voll, was the companion firm of Weber & Frey, the wagon-making business of Henry Weber’s father Nicholas Frey and Nicholas’ partner John Frey. Weber & Frey and Weber & Voll were next door to each other.

The buildings of Weber & Frey and Weber & Voll occupied all the lots from 525 Court St. east to Sixth and Court. Weber & Frey are listed at 525 Court St. in the 1893 and 1895 city directories, and at 525-527 Court St. in the 1898 and 1904 city directories. Weber & Frey appear in Pekin city directories up to 1909, with their street address give as 525-529 Court St. in the 1908 and 1909 directories.

The partnership of Nicholas Weber and John Frey was brought to a sudden end on 25 Sept. 1913, when Frey died of a stroke at the age of 76. Weber then retired, selling the wagon-making and blacksmithing business to Bert Fisher and his brother Henry Fisher, who thus changed the firm’s name to Fisher Bros. The business is listed under that name at 525-529 Court St. in the 1913 and 1914 Pekin city directories.

The firms of Weber & Frey and Weber & Voll are shown at 525-531 Court St. in this detail from the March 1898 Sanborn map of Pekin.

The Nov. 1903 Sanborn map of Pekin shows the Weber & Frey Wagon Shop at 525-531 Court St.

The Weber & Frey Wagon Shop at 525-531 Court St. is shown in this detail from the Dec. 1909 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin.

But by that time, wagons and carriages were fast giving way to automobiles. The Oct. 1916 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin shows that the old Weber & Frey, Weber & Voll, and Fisher Bros. buildings had been remodeled to become an automobile dealership and garage called “Court Garage,” with a 20-car capacity. By the time of the 1922 city directory, Court Garage had become a Ford dealership called Conaghan Motor Co., owned and operated by James T. Conaghan (1874-1936), son of Irish immigrant Thomas Donegan Conaghan who had founded the Planter’s Hotel (today’s Ashers Bar & Grill) at 353-355 Court St.

By the time of the Oct. 1916 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin, the former Weber & Frey Wagon Works had been Court Garage, 525-531 Court St.

This advertisement for Conaghan Motor Co., owned by James T. Conaghan, appeared in the 1922 Pekin city directory.

By 1926, the city directory shows that Conaghan Motor Co. had become the Dowdle Motor Co., owned by William R. Dowdle, and the Sept. 1925 Sanborn map shows that the Conaghan garage had been further remodeled to accommodate up to 50 cars. The 1930 Pekin city directory lists Dowdle Motor Co. at 525-529 Court St., but also shows that the building was being shared with Robert Orvil Schwenk Sr. (1884-1945) who had a bakery at 527 Court St., and with Henry Shutler “Harry” Kluever (1893-1949), who sold electrical appliances at 525 Court St. (Kluever also served on the Pekin City Council.)

With the 1932 Pekin city directory, however, we find Dowdle Motor Co.’s address listed as 529-531 Court St., while Toney D. Taylor was teaching music at 525 Court St. and Leland E. Jayne (1869-1952), a machine operator for Pekin Leather Products at 1101 Margaret St., was living at 527 Court St.

The garage shown at 525-531 Court St. in the Sept. 1925 Sanborn map of Pekin was first Conaghan Motor Co. and then Dowdle Motor Co., both Ford dealerships.

This advertisement for Dowdle Motor Co., 525-531 Court St., owned by William R. Dowdle, appeared in the 1926 Pekin city directory.

In the 1934 city directory, we find John W. Davis and Muriel Davis, a dressmaker, living at 525 Court, while 527 Court was the location of Progressive Miners of America, Charles Grant (1893-1950), secretary, which met every Friday. Three years later, the directory shows Elmer Alvis, locksmith, along with something called Pekin Dime Delivery, at 527 Court St., while the Central Illinois Light Co. (CILCO), Willis M. Beardsley (1890-1950), district manager, had moved their offices to 525 Court St.

From the 1937 Pekin city directory until the 1956 directory, CILCO’s address is listed as 525-531 Court St., but starting in 1956 the address is listed as only 531 Court St. After Beardsley, the Pekin district manager for CILCO during those years was Arthur L. Grob (1897-1962), who is first listed as district manager in the 1941 Pekin city directory. The 531 Court St. building is now Deverman Advertising.

This advertisement for the Central Illinois Light Co. appeared in the 1936 Pekin city directory, at which time their district office was located at 525-529 Court St.

As for the 525 Court St. address, the 1939 and 1941 city directories say that was then Lofthouse Dress Shop, owned by Fred Lofthouse (1888-1944). In the 1943 and 1946 directories, however, we find that Lofthouse Dress Shop had moved to 436 Court, while 525 Court St. was the home of one of Lofthouse’s dressmakers, Lillian G. Elkins. But by 1948, 525 Court St. was a substation for Peoria Newspapers Inc. (i.e., the Peoria Morning Star and Peoria Journal-Transcript). Peoria Newspapers Inc.’s office was then at 318 Elizabeth St., managed by Paul H. Massey. We continue to find Peoria Newspapers Inc.’s substation at 525 Court St. in the 1950 and 1952 Pekin city directories.

In the 1955 directory, 525 Court is listed as the Peoria Journal Star substation (following the merger of the Peoria Star and the Peoria Journal-Transcript). In the same directory, though, Pekin Music Shop makes its first appearance at 525 Court St. The proprietors of this popular business were Richard C. “Dick” McCloud (1921-2011) and his wife Merla M. McCloud (1926-2017). In 1967, Dick and Merla sold Pekin Music Shop to Charles Sisney, who changed the business’ name to Hi-Fi One Stop. Sisney’s store last appears in Pekin city directories in 1974. In the 1975, the music store at 525 Court St. is listed as Royal Sounds, owned by David Prince.

Richard C. McCloud (1921-2011), owned Pekin Music Shop at 525 Court St. from the early 1950s until 1967.

An advertisement for Pekin Music Shop, 525 Court St., from the 1961 Pekin city directory. The business, owned by Richard C. and Merla M. McCloud, had opened at that location in the mid-1950s.

Pekin Music Shop at 525 Court St. and The Photoggery camera shop at 527 Court St. are shown in this March 1958 photograph. The J & J Tap building on the left of the photograph has since been demolished and is now the site of a downtown “pocket park.”

Meanwhile, since the mid-1950s Bernard W. Heberer Sr. (1914-2002) had been running a successful photography and camera shop called The Photoggery at 527 Court St. The Photoggery first appears in Pekin city directories in 1956. In the 1969 directory, we find that Heberer had also started a companion business devoted to video and sound, called Engineered Sound-Video (later abbreviated as E. S. V.). Bernard W. Heberer Sr. is listed as president of The Photoggery until the 1989 city directory. After that he retired and his son Steven H. Heberer moved the business from 527 Court St. out to the Pekin Mall, and the old storefront at 527 Court went vacant for a few years.

As for E. S. V., Bernard W. Heberer Jr. took over that side of the family business, being first listed as president of Engineered Sound-Video Inc. in the 1977 Pekin city directory. The year before that, Engineered Sound-Video had moved into 525 Court St. after Royal Sounds went out of business there. After The Photoggery left 527 Court St. at the end of the 1980s, E. S. V. at 525 Court began to use the space at 527 Court as additional space.

E. S. V. Inc. last appears in Pekin city directories in 2000. Since that year, neither 525 Court St. nor 527 Court St. have been listed in Pekin city directories – both storefronts have been vacant since then. But Gary and Crista Flynn are now working to bring that long hiatus to an end.

525-527 Court st. sits vacant in this Dec. 6, 2001, photograph from the Tazewell County Assessor’s website.

This July 2011 Google Street View image shows 525-527 Court St.

#525-court-st, #525-527-court-st, #527-court-st, #arthur-l-grob, #ashley-simmons, #bernard-w-heberer, #bernard-w-heberer-jr, #bernard-w-heberer-sr, #bert-fisher, #central-illinois-light-co, #charles-grant, #charles-p-voll, #charles-sisney, #cilco, #conaghan-motor-co, #court-garage, #crista-flynn, #david-prince, #deverman-advertising, #dick-mccloud, #dowdle-motor-co, #e-s-v-inc, #elmer-alvis, #engineered-sound-video, #fisher-bros, #fred-lofthouse, #gary-flynn, #gigis-pet-treats, #harry-kluever, #henry-fisher, #henry-s-kluever, #henry-shutler-kluever, #henry-weber, #hi-fi-one-stop, #james-t-conaghan, #john-frey, #john-w-davis, #leland-e-jayne, #lillian-g-elkins, #lofthouse-dress-shop, #merla-m-mccloud, #muriel-davis, #nicholas-weber, #nicholaus-weber, #paul-h-massey, #pekin-dime-delivery, #pekin-history, #pekin-leather-products, #pekin-mall, #pekin-music-shop, #peoria-journal-star, #peoria-journal-transcript, #peoria-morning-star, #peoria-newspapers-inc, #progressive-miners-of-america, #richard-c-mccloud, #robert-o-schwenk, #robert-orvil-schwenk-sr, #robert-orville-schwenk-sr, #royal-sounds, #steven-h-heberer, #take-2, #the-photoggery, #thomas-donegan-conaghan, #toney-d-taylor, #weber-frey, #weber-frey-wagon-works, #weber-voll, #william-r-dowdle, #willis-m-beardsley