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Category Archives: Parks
Henson Robinson Co./Henson Robinson Zoo
The standard version is that Henson Robinson planned to go to California but got distracted by Springfield. The real story is more complicated, but the result was the same. Robinson (1839-1900), a tinner born in Ohio, became the founder of … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Industry, Museums, Parks, Prominent figures, Uncategorized
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The Oak Ridge Park pagoda
In the 19th century, the Oak Ridge Pagoda drew merrymakers, thrill-seekers, and sometimes street gangs to what now is Lincoln Park. But the building’s last users were a few pitiful victims of what might have been smallpox. Oak Ridge Park, … Continue reading
Dreamland Park/Amos Duncan
“To my way of thinking, the colored people should at least have a place where they can congregate for the purpose of holding picnics, celebrations and public gatherings,” Sangamon County Republican Party chairman George Fish told the Illinois State Journal … Continue reading
1910 Springfield Park Board election: ‘Shameful & disgraceful’
Political insiders went all-out to rig the 1910 Springfield Park Board election. “Spreading around the apparent victory (of incumbent park board members) lurks the shadow of the most amazing corruption of the elective franchise known in the history of Springfield,” … Continue reading
Memorial Pool
On June 16, 1928, a crowd of about 750 people attended the grand opening of Soldiers’ and Sailors Memorial Pool on Springfield’s north end. The pool was named to honor all U.S. service personnel who perished in wars spanning the … Continue reading
Jerome Leland’s pigeons
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
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Comer Cox, Urban League leader
Comer Cox, the namesake of Comer Cox Park in Springfield, was an Alabama native and star athlete in his youth who went on to lead the Springfield Urban League. Comer Lane Cox was born May 9, 1905, in Athens, Ala. … Continue reading
Posted in African Americans, Business, Parks, Prominent figures, Social services
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Springfield Sallies (professional women’s baseball)
The Springfield Sallies were one of the least successful, and also shortest-lived, teams in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The league, whose memory was revived by the 1992 movie “A League of Their Own,” lasted from 1943 to 1954. … Continue reading
Posted in Amusements, Parks, Prominent figures, Sports and recreation, Women
2 Comments
Women’s golf, 1899
“A crowd of young society women in 1899 shocked the conventions of the day by reckless indulgence in a game called golf,” the Illinois State Journal recalled in 1931. Most of that sentence was nonsense. There’s no evidence anyone was … Continue reading
Rees Memorial Carillon
Before the Springfield Park Board could build a carillon in Washington Park, it had to answer two questions: how many bells would it hold, and what kind would they be? When newspaper publisher Thomas Rees died in 1933, he left … Continue reading