Category Archives: Buildings

Glenwood Park and the Kalb family

Posted on November 16, 2025 by editor

Glenwood Park was a small resort that operated along the South Fork of the Sangamon River from the mid-1890s until the early 1900s. Facilities included a small dam, docks and rowboats, an excursion steamboat and a pavilion with a dance … Continue reading →

Posted in Buildings, Business, Communities, Parks, Sangamon River, Social life, Sports and recreation, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Pillsbury, 1940: 100 steps between wheat & flour (illustration)

Posted on July 29, 2025 by editor

The Pillsbury Flour Mills Co. celebrated the 10th anniversary of its Springfield plant with, among other things, this advertisement in the Feb. 29, 1940, edition of the Illinois State Register. As this entry is written in summer 2025, the plant, … Continue reading →

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First game at Reservoir Park/Robin Roberts Stadium, 1925

Posted on May 26, 2025 by editor

On May 12, 1925, 9,000 people watched the very first baseball game ever played at what today is Robin Roberts Stadium. They filled the grandstand, crowded the foul lines and jammed temporary bleachers erected around the outfield. “Not even on … Continue reading →

Posted in Amusements, Architecture, Buildings, Celebrations, Sports and recreation | Leave a comment

Forum 30/Wyndham Springfield City Centre

Posted on April 18, 2025 by editor

Three factors drew attention to Springfield’s Forum 30 hotel even before it opened in 1974: its height, its site and its whiz-kid developer. At 30 stories high, the building was the tallest in downstate Illinois – by most measurements even … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Buildings, Hotels & taverns, Restaurants | Leave a comment

‘German Settlers Row’ (300 block of West Cook Street)

Posted on March 23, 2025 by editor

German Settlers Row, a group of buildings centered around the 300 block of West Cook Street, takes its name from the families who built the first homes there in the 1860s: Mack, Schutte, Lauer, Godenrath, Dressendorfer. From Cook Street today, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Buildings, Ethnic groups, Family life, Germans, Historic Sites | Leave a comment

Ku Klux Klan rally at Illinois State Fairgrounds, 1922 (photo)

Posted on December 29, 2024 by editor

A Ku Klux Klan rally held in the Illinois State Fairgrounds Coliseum in October 1922 became a political flashpoint when Len Small sought a third term as governor six years later. The anti-Small Chicago Tribune published the photograph above on … Continue reading →

Posted in Buildings, Illinois capital, Illinois State Fair, Photos and photosets, State government | Leave a comment

St. John’s Sanitarium

Posted on November 19, 2024 by editor

St. John’s Sanitarium near Riverton was a refuge for tuberculosis patients and disabled children for more than 50 years. The project was the idea of a Catholic priest, the Rev. Joseph Straub, and the final product was almost as elaborate … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Buildings, Churches, Medicine, Prominent figures, Public health, Social services | 3 Comments

‘Rachel,’ the Springfield High School ghost

Posted on October 22, 2024 by editor

There is some truth to the folklore around “Rachel,” the supposed ghost that haunts Springfield High School. SHS was built on the former site of Hutchinson Cemetery, once the city’s largest graveyard. Hutchinson Cemetery covered five acres southwest of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Buildings, Education, Schools and school districts, Videos | Leave a comment

Springfield High School sketches, 1930 (Alda Raulin)

Posted on October 8, 2024 by editor

                                    Alda Raulin captured classic views of Springfield High School in five line drawings that led off the 1930 edition of The Capitoline, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Arts and letters, Buildings, Education, Illustrations, Lithuanians, Lithuanians, Schools and school districts, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

413-15 E. Adams St. fire, 2024

Posted on June 20, 2024 by editor

Furniture stores occupied the building at 413-15 E. Adams St. for more than 70 of its 121 years in existence. The three-story structure, devastated by a fire on June 19, 2024, was torn down the next day. Leonard Reisch (1858-1933), … Continue reading →

Posted in Buildings, Business, Fires | 1 Comment