Tazewell County Courthouse Square History Walk Preview

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Tazewell County Courthouse

Pekin, Ill., has been the county seat of Tazewell County since 1849. The original county seat was Mackinaw, where a log cabin was built in 1827 to serve as a courthouse. The Mackinaw courthouse was built by Amasa Stout at a cost of $125. In the summer of 1831, the county government relocated to Pekin, where court was held in the old Doolittle School at the corner of Elizabeth and Second streets. Pekin served as an interim county seat until June 6, 1836, when county government functions moved to Tremont, which the state had designated as the new county seat. In 1839 a grand classical stone courthouse as built at Tremont at a cost of $14,450.Ten years later, in 1849, the citizens of Tazewell County voted to move the county seat back to Pekin, where a new classical stone courthouse was constructed in 1850 at the site of the present courthouse, at a cost of only $8,000. That courthouse served the county until 1914, when it was razed to make way for the current, larger courthouse, which was built over the next two years at a cost of $212,964.

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McKenzie Building, 11 S. Fourth St.

The McKenzie Building is the location of several offices of county government, include the Tazewell County Clerk and Recorder of Deeds, the Tazewell County Coroner, and the Tazewell County Assessor. The building was originally constructed at a cost of $1 million over a three-year period, from 1960 to 1963, to serve as the site of county governmental offices and a new County Jail. For many years the south half of the McKenzie Building housed the jail and the Tazewell County Sheriff's Department, but in 2003 the jail and sheriff's department moved to the new $16.5 million Tazewell County Justice Center located at the corner of Capitol and Elizabeth streets.The McKenzie Building was built on the site of the former Tazewell County Jail and Sheriff's Residence, a brick structure which served the county from 1891 to 1960. That jail had in turn been built at a cost of $20,000 on the site of an earlier county jail structure that had been built in 1852 at a cost of $7,000. It was from a tree in front of the 1852 jail that the outlaw William Berry, leader of the Berry Gang, was lynched on July 31, 1869. The lynch mob had been enraged by Ike Berry's killing of Tazewell County deputy sheriff Henry Pratt earlier the same month. This was the only recorded lynching in Pekin's history.

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363 Court Street

Then: Herget National BankNow: Yesterday's Bar and Grill

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359 Court Street

Then: N. Reuling Co. Dry GoodsNow: Pekin Performing Arts/Classical Dance Academy

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357 Court Street

Then: Mrs. M. T. Miller, grocer; Dr. C. G. Muehlmann; and Jesse Black Jr, attorneyNow: Hawaiian Sun Tanning

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353-355 Court Street

Then: The Model Clothing; John Walter, jeweler; Pekin Music House; C. F. Holland Insurance; Dr. R. C. Horner, dentist; Prudential Insurance; Robert Van Deusen, surveyor; W. J. Reardon, attorney; Dr. R. L. Halsted, optometrist; C. C. Hatcher Farm Lands; Modern Woodmen Hall (3rd floor)Now: Vacant (previously Speakeasy Art Center)

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347 Court Street - The Steinmetz Building

Then: P. Steinmetz & Sons Co. Clothing; M. R. Huffman Piano Studio; Albert Van Horne, dentist; G. L. Junker Insurance; G. A. Himmel Real Estate; J. C. Hamilton Real Estate; C. L. Brereton, tailor; O. A. Smith, lawyer; G. A. Lucas Insurance; Dr. W. E. Lanan, dentistNow: Hamm's Furniture

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345 Court Street

Then: Illinois Restaurant (later Will Harms Office Supplies)Now: Vacant (formerly Treasures and More)

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343 Court Street

Then: A. C. Johannes, confectionerNow: DUI Countermeasures

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341 Court Street

Then: Louis Hofff Books; Dr. G. C. Cleveland, dentist; Illinois Bell Telephone CompanyNow: Vacant

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337 Court Street

Then: Pekin Hardware Co. (later Christ Centered Store)Now: 337 Court Street Law OfficesIn Dec. 1898, Phillip M. Hoffman and Ernest R. Peyton bought Henry Roos' hardware business, which then became the Pekin Hardware Co. The business later moved in 1939 to 341 Court St., where it remained until it went out of business around 1972.

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335 Court Street

Then: C. E. Kraeger Drugs, S. S. Kresge Co.Now: Vacant (and merged with the adjacent Farmers National Bank Building)

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333 Court Street - Farmers National Bank Building

Then: Farmers National Bank BuildingNow: Vacant (formerly U.S. Army Recruiters Office)

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331 Court Street

Then: Piggly-Wiggly Grocer (site was also where the Union League was founded during the Civil War)Now: Pekin National Bank (with Union League historical marker)The Union League was founded in Pekin on June 25, 1862 above the doctor's office of Dr. Daniel Cheever at 331 Court Street. Dr. Cheever, an abolitionist who was a conductor on the Underground Railroad at his farmstead near Delavan, joined with 10 other leading men of Tazewell County to organize a league to support the Union Cause during the Civil War. After the war, the Union League promoted civil rights for blacks in the South.

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338-340 Court Street - The Schipper & Block Building

Then: Schipper and Block Co. Dry GoodsNow: Vacant (formerly Illinois Department of Children and Family Services)The beloved Schipper and Block building formerly housed a department store. The original Schipper & Block building at the corner of Court and Capitol streets opened in 1879, but was destroyed by fire in 1898. The second Schipper & Block building was erected in 1898 to replace the 1879 store after a fire, but the new building itself succumbed to flames in 1922. The Schipper & Block building that stands vacant today was the home of Block & Kuhl of Pekin until the store went out of business in March 1968. Within the next year, Allen’s Vogue moved from its former address, 313 Court St., into the Schipper & Block building, operating from that location until 1984 (with a second location in the Pekin Mall from 1972 to 1986). After Allen’s Vogue closed its downtown location in 1984, the Schipper and Block building would remain vacant for about a decade. Most recently the building was leased for a few years by the State of Illinois as local offices of the Department of Children and Family Services.

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15 S. Capitol Street - The Arcade Building

Then: Ehrlicher Bros. Co.; Allen Nixon, barber; Rahn & Russell, attorneys; various attorney and insurance agent offices; J. H. Stumm, Justice of the Peace; C. R. Towne Real Estate; Dr. C. F. Grimmer, physician; Dr. W. A. Thrush, dentistNow: Tazewell County Museum, Pekin Main Street (Suite 219), Tazewell County Veterans Assistance Commission, State Senator Dave Koehler's Office, Gateway Foundation, Chicago Title Insurance Co., Vanguard Contractors Inc., various attorneys' law offices

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101 S. Capitol Street

Then: Pekin Theater (formerly site of the Turner Opera House)Now: Tazewell County Justice Center (County Sheriff's Office and Jail)The Turner Opera House was built in 1890, and had a capacity of 700 people. The house included a gymnasium in the basement. Notable names of the stage and vaudeville who sang and acted at the opera house includes Walter Frederick ("Frederick the Great"), Gus Talbot, Benny Wells, The Coriell Family, Emil Neuhaus (formerly Tazewell County Sheriif), Paul Sallee, and Emma Loomis (star of "The Chocolate Soldier").The opera house was replaced by the Pekin Theater in 1928. The theater, well known for its Chinese-style decor, closed in 1975, and was demolished in 1987 after an auction of some of the furnishings and memorabilia. The Tazewell County Justice Center was built on the former site of the theater in 2003.

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334 Elizabeth Street - The Old Post Office Building

Now – Tazewell County Adult and Juvenile ProbationThen – Pekin Post Office, built at the former site of the Benjamin S. Prettyman homestead. Prettyman was a pioneer settler who served as Pekin mayor and held other local government offices.“In 1892 an appropriation of $70,000 was made ‘with an additional appropriation up to $80,000,’ for a Federal Building for Pekin . . . . After much heated controversy concerning the location of the new Federal Building, the site of the former Prettyman Homestead at Elizabeth and South Capitol was chosen and purchased for $15,000. But when local bids, based on plans and specifications submitted to the supervising architect of the Treasury Department in 1904, were forwarded to Washington, they were all rejected because they were not within the limits of the contract price; and so new bids had to be submitted. Consequently, it was not until 1905 that the structure was finally completed at a cost of approximately $100,000.“Besides the post office, the building housed, on the second floor, Pekin’s Home Bureau, the Army Recruiting Office, and the Treasury Department’s offices.” -- 1974 Pekin Sesquicentennial

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340 Elizabeth St. - The Masonic Temple

Now - Masonic TempleThen – Empty lot between Old Post Office and Marshall BlockOriginally this was part of the property of the Benjamin S. Prettyman homestead during the 1800s. Prettyman's son William built a new house on the site in the latter 1800s. The lot was vacant circa 1920, but the Masonic Temple was erected in 1930-31.

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342 Elizabeth St.

Now -- Kuhfuss and Proehl, attorneysThen -- Marshall Block (attorneys offices)The Marshall Block building, which was situated on the west side of the old Tazewell Hotel, still houses a law office today.

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350-362 Elizabeth St.

Now – Busey/Herget Bank parking lotThen – Tazewell Hotel (former site of Woodard's Hotel), Smith & Vogelsang Taxi, G. W. Stephens Barber, Family Service Laundry, E. S. Flynn Billiard Hall.

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22 S. Fourth St.

Now – County parking lotThen – Zerwekh Building (later known as the Pekin Times Building), including Prettyman, Velde & Prettyman, attorneys, Masonic Hall (3rd floor). At around 1920, the Pekin Daily Times at 26 S. Fourth had not yet expanded to take over most of the Zerwekh Building.

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16-18 S. Fourth St.

Now – parking lotThen – CILCO, United Appliance Co.

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12-14 S. Fourth St.

Now – Parking lotThen – Schurman Agency Insurance, Pekin Loan & Homestead Association

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10 S. Fourth St. – The Frings Building (now numbered 6 S. Fourth St/).

Now - Murphy & Dunn, attorneysThen – B.P.O. Elks, Ashley & Co. Cleaning

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8 S. Fourth St.

Now – Alcohol & Drug ProfessionalsThen – The Aladdin Dance Hall