Category Archives: Hotels & taverns

Saloon free lunches

Posted on May 18, 2023 by editor

In November 1927, Illinois State Journal writer A.L. Bowen embarked on a three-day series of columns remembering the restaurants, saloons and hotels that dotted downtown Springfield when he arrived in the city at the turn of the 20th century. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Amusements, Business, Hotels & taverns, Prominent figures, Restaurants, Social life, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Bell Miller, businesswoman

Posted on February 24, 2023 by editor

Bell Miller was only 22 in 1892, when she opened a small flower shop at her home on South Second Street. One greenhouse soon grew to seven, covering the area around First and Canedy Streets. The Illinois State Journal took … Continue reading →

Posted in Buildings, Business, Hotels & taverns, National Register, Prominent figures, Women | Leave a comment

Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame members, Sangamon County

Posted on September 19, 2022 by editor

The Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame includes plaques for a dozen – or so, depending on how you count them – inductees from Williamsville to Divernon in Sangamon County. U.S. Route 66, “the Mother Road,” probably the most famous … Continue reading →

Posted in Buildings, Business, Hotels & taverns, Maps, Markers, Museums, Prominent figures, Restaurants, Route 66, State government, Transportation | Leave a comment

Jerome Leland’s pigeons

Posted on June 24, 2022 by editor

In the early 20th century, Springfield hotel menus often included squab – breast of squab, “royal squab sur canape,” etc. But pigeons (the more common name for squab) made their way into the heart, not the stomach, of Jerome A. … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Animals, Buildings, Farming, Hotels & taverns, Parks, Prominent figures | 3 Comments

The Booker’s Tavern corner (11th and South Grand)

Posted on April 11, 2022 by editor

“Squire Butler is Dead”, proclaimed a headline in the April 12, 1902, Illinois State Journal. “George H. Butler, familiarly known as ‘Squire’ Butler, was a character in the neighborhood of his home at 1124 South Grand avenue, east,” the Journal … Continue reading →

Posted in Amusements, Buildings, Business, Hotels & taverns, Social life | 1 Comment

Leland Farm (1880)

Posted on August 25, 2021 by editor

The Leland Farm, 600-some acres on what today is Springfield’s near west side, supplied the Leland Hotel with the freshest of food for decades. The hotel operated at Sixth Street and Capitol Avenue from 1867 until 1970 (not counting a … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Business, Hotels & taverns, Restaurants | 2 Comments

Skyrocket Inn

Posted on June 30, 2021 by editor

What to do after a long day – and night – at the Illinois State Fair? The after-fair, after-hours mecca for everyone from carnies to Hell’s Angels to local movers and shakers was the Skyrocket Inn, right across the street … Continue reading →

Posted in Amusements, Business, Hotels & taverns, Illinois State Fair, Lithuanians, Lithuanians, Social life | 3 Comments

Harry Lane, ‘boss gambler’

Posted on April 20, 2021 by editor

Chester M. “Harry” Lane was Springfield’s gambling kingpin at the turn of the 20th century, apparently with the connivance of police, city officials, and the courts. He stepped down in the mid-1900s, after a fatal shooting, the election of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Amusements, Buildings, Business, Crime and vice, Hotels & taverns, Journalism, Law enforcement, Media, Politics, Prominent figures | 1 Comment

St. Nicholas Hotel early days

Posted on April 17, 2021 by editor

J. Emil Smith, editor, publisher and columnist for the Illinois State Journal, wrote the following memory of the early St. Nicholas Hotel on Nov. 28, 1943, a few days before the McCreery family relinquished ownership. The McCreerys had operated the … Continue reading →

Posted in Buildings, Business, Historic Sites, Hotels & taverns, National Register, Prominent figures, Restaurants, Social life, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Three killed in saloon shootout, 1905

Posted on January 19, 2021 by editor

A drunken shootout in a Springfield saloon in 1905 left three men dead and two brothers charged with murder. The cause was a previous fistfight, followed by a series of telephoned challenges, newspaper articles reported. Those killed were all from … Continue reading →

Posted in Communications, Crime and vice, Hotels & taverns, Journalism, Law enforcement | 5 Comments