Old Chicago Amusement Park in Bolingbrook, Illinois, (1975-1981). World's First Indoor Amusement Park.

Old Chicago was the world's first completely enclosed amusement park and shopping center at 555 S. Bolingbrook Drive, Bolingbrook, Illinois. It was open 365 days a year.

Old Chicago consisted of a large square building with a domed center. The rides and attractions (the "Old Chicago Fairgrounds") were in the center, under the dome, and the shopping area surrounded them. When it opened in 1975, part of the grand opening celebration included a tap dancer dancing on the top of the dome.

Old Chicago Shopping Center Tenants List.

In November of 1975, the "Comedy King of Air," 56-year-old Jimmy Troy, fell 20 feet to his death from the trapeze in an aerial accident at the Old Chicago Circus.

The "Shopping Mall" had a cobblestone floor designed to resemble a turn-of-the-20th-century street. One long hallway followed the entire perimeter of the building. At strategic points, there were windows where you could look out into the amusement park area.

A spiral entrance ramp led from the mall level down to the park level, where the rides were arranged in a large circle. Trees, benches, and streetlights provided a park-like atmosphere. The "Fairgrounds" had "31 great rides and attractions," all crammed into the domed center of the building.

It was amazing that they could fit everything in the small space. When it opened, Old Chicago charged $1.00 for admission to the amusement park (50¢ for children) and then charged a flat fee for unlimited rides. They had a small souvenir shop by the entrance to the amusement park. In addition to standard style rides (some with new names) like the Round-up, Tilt-a-Whirl, Chicago Bobs, Scrambler, Spider, Merry-go-round, Monster of the Midway, Rotor, Antique Cars, Barnstormer, Crash of '29 (bumper cars), Enterprise, Trabant, Ferris wheel, Paratroopers, Four Seasons (dark ride), Yo-Yo, Toboggan, Screamer, and the Windy City Flyer, there were two Roller Coasters; the Zyclon and the Chicago Loop. There was also a water ride called the Chicago Log Race.

The Fairgrounds also hosted a circus, a vaudeville theater, a haunted house, a few Kiddie rides, and some games of skill and chance. Various events took place at Old Chicago from time to time. Chicago radio stations held back-to-school bashes, and the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon donated a "fishbowl" and did remote broadcasts during their Chicago segments.

Many rock bands, musicians, and other celebrities appeared at Old Chicago. They performed in an area called the "Old Chicago Stage," which was added in 1978. The stage was placed where the Paratrooper ride stood (next to the Haunted House). The Paratrooper ride was sold instead of being moved elsewhere in the park. Here is a partial list of performers: Black Oak Arkansas - (Go Jim Dandy!), Tommy James and the Shondells, The Coasters (Alley OOP, Charlie Brown), Wild Cherry (Play that Funky Music), Willie Aimes - (Eight is Enough, Charles in Charge), Anson Williams (Potsie from Happy Days), Freddie' Boom Boom' Cannon (Palisades Park), Chubby Checker, Chuck Berry, Peter Tork and the Monkees (He was the only touring member), Jan and Dean (Surf City), Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Rip Taylor (Toupee and all), Sha-Na-Na, The Ramones (One of the original punk bands), Rex Smith, Gary' US' Bonds, The Shirelles, Blood, Sweat, and Tears, The Hudson Brothers (The Razzle Dazzle show), Gloria Gaynor (I Will Survive), The Guess Who (American Woman), Rick Nelson, The Star Wars Robots (C3PO and R2D2), and Karl Wellenda.

Peter Labella, playing the trumpet, led the Circus Band at Old Chicago from 1975 to 1981.

Old Chicago seemed like an idea that couldn't fail. In retrospect, however, it's easy to see why it did. The mall consisted solely of small specialty shops, restaurants, and snack bars but needed an anchor or large chain store like Marshall Field, Sears, Wards, or J.C. Penny to draw in shoppers. There needed to be more than the small stores to make a shopping mall successful.

The famous magician Marshall Brodien, aka "Wizzo the Wizard" on "Bozo's Circus," had a magic shop in the mall. 

Brodien demonstrated and sold professional magic tricks at Baer's Treasure Chest Arcade and Professional Magic Shop, downtown Chicago, on the private 2nd floor that catered to professional magicians.

Once the novelty wore off, the building only attracted repeat visitors if those who attended special events or lived nearby. Unlike an outdoor park, which can constantly update and add rides, Old Chicago was confined to the space between its walls, and it quickly got old. It was also in a remote location 30 miles southwest of Chicago. The cost of operating the building year-round was very high. I'm sure that when Marriott's Great America (now Six Flags Great America) opened in 1976, the downward death spiral for Old Chicago's amusement park began.

Old Chicago didn't fare well financially either. There were too many empty stores, and the amusement park was too confined to attract amusement park aficionados. Old Chicago abruptly closed the amusement park in 1980, and the mall followed in 1981. The building was razed in 1986.

The map below is from Old Chicago's first year of operation. Consequently, rides that were moved or added later will not be shown here.

1. Four Seasons

2. Arcade games

3. Entrance ramp

4. Shooting gallery

5. Round-Up

6. Tilt-a-Whirl

7. Chicago Bobs

8. Guess-Your-Weight

9. Chicago Loop

10. Games

11. Dunk tank

12. Scrambler

13. Chicago Log Race

14. Handwriting analysis

15. Chicago Cat 

16. Spider

17. Kiddie Rides

18. Moonwalk

19. Trabant

20. Paratroopers

21. Merry-go-Round

22. Snacks Concession stand

23. Rotor

24. Circus

25. Yo-Yo

26. Bumper Cars

27. Ferris Wheel

28. Haunted House

29. Games

30. Hats

31. Vaudeville Theatre

VISIT OUR OLD CHICAGO AMUSEMENT PARK SOUVENIR SHOP

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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RADIO COMMERCIAL

Radio Commercial on WMET in 1977 for Old Chicago. 

VIDEOS

Old Chicago Amusement Park - Interior Footage

Old Chicago Amusement Park - Final Days

February 5, 1976: Children and teenagers use the pinball machines at the Town Arcade in Bolingbrook's Old Chicago, a combination shopping mall and indoor amusement park.

Visit our Old Chicago Souvenir Shop on your way out.

The Largest Train Robbery in U.S. History Happened in Rondout, Illinois in 1924.

On June 12, 1924, at 10:30 p.m., in the small community of Rondout, between Lake Forest and Libertyville, on a rail intersection along the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul right-of-way, a gang of gunmen heisted a payroll of more than $3 million, the biggest take in American train robbery history.

A QUICK NOTE ABOUT THE NEWTON GANG: 1919-1924
The Newton Gang was an outlaw gang of the early 20th century, and the most successful train robbers and bank robbers in history. From 1919 through 1924 the gang robbed dozens of banks, claiming a number of eighty seven banks (unconfirmed) and six trains (confirmed). According to Willis Newton, the brothers "took in more money than the Dalton Gang, Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch and the James-Younger Gang combined."

“The Newton Boys,” organization included Doc who had made a successful jail break (his fifth), the two younger brothers Joe and Jess, and Brentwood Glasscock, an expert with high explosives and a skilled safe-cracker.

Also according to their own claims, they never killed anyone. It's true they were never charged with any death or injuries associated with their robberies, although one daylight robbery in Toronto, Canada proved nearly fatal for one bank messenger. Notable enough for the 1924 train robbery near Rondout, Illinois (the world's largest at the time), the brothers gained a second round of fame in retirement, when they participated in a 1975 documentary film, and then a more in-depth oral history project that eventually was published in book form, possibly one of the clearest records of a criminal career of the period, as told by the participants. This second round of fame led to a feature film being produced by a major Hollywood studio, after the death of the last surviving brother.

HISTORY

The Newton brothers came of age in Uvalde County, Texas, four sons of a large cotton farming family, sharecroppers on the newly settled Great Plains. Raised on outlaw stories by their mother, leader and mastermind Willis Newton entered the workforce at an early age and followed the present day exploits of outlaw Harry Tracy in the purple press of the time, as a newsboy. He says he cried when he heard the news of Tracy's suicide in Oct 1902. Willis quit school after a single year of attending classes, too proud to continue when his pants had to be patched in the seat.

It's unclear when the brothers first ran afoul of the law but sharecropping didn't seem to suit their fierce pride, and Willis Newton claims that at age twenty he was convicted for a crime he didn't commit - his brother Wylie "Doc," or "Dock" Newton (b. 1891) {Prison #639) stole loose cotton from the loading dock of one processing gin and tried to sell it at another. Unable to find Doc, local authorities arrested J. Willis Newton (born January 19, 1889) and charged him instead.

A local jury reportedly convicted Willis on slim evidence and he was sentenced to a year in the brutal Texas State Prison system, where he was forced to pick more cotton. His attitude hardened quickly in the face of the inhuman conditions and his perception of the injustice of it all. Doc soon joined him, entering the prison system soon after, possibly for robbing a Post Office of stamps. (The record indicates simply it was for a theft of less than fifty dollars.) From 1909 until 1918-1920 the two brothers were in and out of the Texas penal system due to their many escape attempts, which lead to further sentences and a deeper hardening of attitudes. Eventually released, Willis began a career of petty theft, usually involving the night time theft of clothing from general stores. Brothers Jess (older) and Joe (much younger) stayed out of the penal system until later, working regularly as bronc busters and ranch hands.

In 1914, Willis Newton and an accomplice robbed a Southern Pacific Railroad passenger train in Cline, Texas (eighteen miles west of Uvalde in southwestern Uvalde County), taking $4,700 at gunpoint from passengers. Then in 1916 Willis robbed a bank in Boswell, Oklahoma in the company of a gang he joined in Durant, Oklahoma, taking just over $10,000 and escaping on horseback. In 1917, he went back to prison {Prison #83732} for burglary but eventually forged letters to secure a pardon.

Upon release Willis served an apprenticeship of sorts with a crew of bank burglars with a rotating lineup due to accidental death and reckless behavior. Pride and intelligence led Willis to decide to form his own crew and eschew the wilder elements of his previous partners in crime. Joining forces with an experienced safecracker seems to have been a turning point. In 1920, operating out of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Willis Newton formed what others eventually called "the Newton Boys," along with Brentwood "Brent" Glasscock, a safecracker and expert in high explosives, convincing his cowboy brothers Joe and later Jess to join his outfit. Doc's successful 1920 escape from prison in Texas (his fifth) enabled him to join his brothers soon after, and with this quintet as a nucleus, the crew had a good run, robbing banks across Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado, North Dakota, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Canada. Other suspected robberies in Oregon and Washington State have not been confirmed.

Most of their heists were committed at night, with them breaking in and busting the bank safe without ever having to come into contact with any people or authorities. Through bribing a corrupt insurance official with the Texas Association of Bankers, Willis obtained a list of banks that still possessed older models of safes that were vulnerable to their brand of attack, which involved forcing nitroglycerin into the cracks in the square door and setting the explosive off with dynamite caps. The resulting explosions were messy and loud but the gang liked to operate in the dead of winter in small farm towns where two men armed with shotguns could keep the few townspeople at bay while the money was hustled out to waiting cars - Studebaker and Cadillac being the preferred makes. Prior to entering the bank, Willis usually shinnied up a pole outside the telephone office and cut the phone lines at a strategic point, thereby insuring a clean getaway once the county line had been reached. In Hondo, Texas, the gang hit two banks the same night after discovering the first vault door open.

Occasionally the tactics would change, and the crew planned daytime robberies, like in New Braunfels, Texas, a simple bank hold-up on March 9, 1922, or the daring and overly ambitious multiple attack on pedestrian bank messengers in Toronto, Canada, on July 24, 1923, when the Toronto Currency Clearinghouse was hit in downtown morning rush hour. A melee ensued when the bank messengers refused to surrender their bags at gunpoint, and the Newtons' reluctance to actually carry out the threats to shoot collided. Gunfire was exchanged eventually, and two messengers were wounded by Willis in the struggle and subsequent getaway. Two bags netted the gang some $84,000 Canadian dollars, but spoiled their reputed non-violent record. In other robberies the patrons and bank employees often described them as being extremely polite, going out of their way to make sure everyone was comfortable, etc.

The take from most bank jobs was not large, often less than $10,000 in combined cash and negotiable bonds. Liberty Bonds and Victory Bonds often formed the bulk of the take, stolen from individual deposit boxes. Various bonds and other securities were fenced through underworld connections in Chicago, where Willis and Glasscock cultivated contacts. Methodical to the last, Willis insisted on carrying out even the coins from the banks. "We never get enough. When I go in to get anything, I want a get it all," he liked to brag. Ambitious, Willis invested a great deal of his money into oil wells in Smackover, Arkansas, and Mineral Wells, Texas, hoping to make it big during the boom times for the industry, when millionaires were being made overnight.

Doc and Jess enjoyed the good life, visiting the Kentucky Derby and the Indianapolis 500 several times, and enjoying the night life in Kansas City, Chicago and the like between jobs, eating in the finest restaurants and staying in the nicest hotels, thereby avoiding suspicion. Willis persuaded Joe to invest with him in various oil wells, all of which failed to produce. Born into poverty, the brothers did not save much. Joe joked, "Why didn't you invest that money in something that makes it grow? Why, I said, who wants a better job what we already got? That's what we thought then. I need any money, go out and rob another bank." Interstate crime was difficult to police in those years. Anonymous and fast moving, the Newton Gang received very little attention from law enforcement, despite the large number of robberies they'd committed. However, that would change when they robbed their sixth train, a postal train on June 12, 1924.

The gang had teamed up with two Chicago gangsters, two racketeers, and a corrupt postal inspector named William J. Fahy and, using inside information to rob a postal train originating in Chicago, headed north and west and carrying large amounts of currency from the Federal Reserve commissioned for banks along the route. Boarding the train secretly in Chicago, Willis and Jess climbed into the engine and stopped the train at a remote crossing in Rondout, Illinois. The robbery netted them more than $3 million in one take. It was the largest train robbery in history. However, during the robbery, the engineer had overshot the crossing in his nervousness, and had to back the train up, causing some of the robbers to move out of position. In the confusion, Wylie "Doc" Newton was wounded five times with a .45 caliber pistol fired by Brent Glasscock, who mistook him for an armed postal worker in the dark. The gang took the money, loaded Doc into a vehicle, and left the scene. While loading into the vehicle, a bystander supposedly heard one of the robbers say the name "Willie", which was later testified to at trial. Doc and Joe were arrested first, in a Chicago tenement after police were tipped about an underworld doctor's visit to aid the wounded man. Willis was arrested when he returned to the room the next day but very nearly bribed his way out, offering $20,000 cash to the arresting officers, who wanted to take it but were double-crossed by a supervisor after the money changed hands.

With Doc, Willis, and Joe Newton captured, Glasscock hid the bulk of the money and Jess Newton evaded capture and headed south to Texas with $35,000. Eventually all those involved with the robbery were arrested, and papers reported that all but $100,000 was recovered. Facing stiff sentences, the gang members agreed to testify against Fahey and the racketeers, and the prosecution played up the affair as a success for the law, having made an example of the crooked postal inspector and his mob connections. The exact amount stolen and recovered was impossible to determine, as some insurance claims were not filed, and various deals were cut behind closed doors. Glasscock very likely kept a low to mid six-figure sum of loose diamonds, untraceable bonds, etc., having eluded the law for the longest period.

Having pled guilty, and supplied key testimony in convicting others (Glasscock took the witness stand in place of Willis, partially as repayment for his accidental shooting of Doc) the gang received relatively light sentences due to no one being injured but their own gang member, and the majority of the money having been returned. Chicago newspapers portrayed the "Newton Boys" as colorful cowboys due to the fact that Jess was brought to Chicago wearing rodeo clothes, having been tricked across the border into Del Rio, Texas, on a barroom bet involving a bronc ride at an Independence Day rodeo. The arresting officer was Texas Ranger Harrison Hamer, a brother of Frank Hamer.

The admitted missing sum of $100,000 was never recovered. Jess Newton had buried some of it northwest of San Antonio, but being drunk when he did so, he could never remember exactly where. Jess and Joe, lacking criminal records, received the lightest sentences, and these two brothers returned to Uvalde, Texas, where they led respectable lives, for the most part. Willis and Doc spent years in Leavenworth, and on release Willis returned to Tulsa where he ran a series of gas stations and nightclubs and seems to have maintained criminal connections. He rarely spoke about these years in much detail, but he was involved in local "nightclub wars" and was the victim of an assassination attempt at one point, being shot through his bathroom window while shaving. He survived and prominent episodes of nightclub arson were reported in the same time period.

After the April 6, 1934 murder of Constable Cal Campbell by Clyde Barrow and Henry Methvin in Commerce, Oklahoma, Joe and Willis Newton allowed the Barrow Gang to hide out in a house they owned in Tulsa. The famous fan letter to Henry Ford purportedly from Clyde Barrow was mailed from Tulsa on April 10, 1933; it may have been written at the Newton house. Willis Newton's personal opinion of Bonnie and Clyde was quite low. He called them "silly kids" who only robbed filling stations and indiscriminately killed people.

In 1934, both Willis and Joe were sentenced to nearly ten-year sentences in Oklahoma for a bank robbery they did not commit, based on specious testimony. They served at least seven years each. Joe returned to Uvalde, having already renounced crime, in 1924. Willis returned to Tulsa and the night club life but in the early 1950s also moved back to Uvalde, where he managed to stay out of prison and the limelight for the most part. Doc Newton was again arrested for bank robbery in 1968, in Rowena, Texas, but due to his old age the charges were dropped. Willis Newton was implicated in another bank robbery in 1973, in the town of Brackettville, Texas, but there was insufficient evidence to arrest him.

THE NEWTON'S DEATH
Jess Newton died on March 4, 1960, having lived out the remainder of his life as a cowboy in Uvalde. A veteran of the Texas Brigade of World War One, he died in a VA hospital. He never was able to remember where the buried money was, and often complained about the country being taken off the gold standard since he apparently lost a great deal of money when stolen bonds were left unredeemed.

Roughly beaten in his last arrest, Doc entered the hospital and never fully recovered, although he lived until 1974, dying at the age of 83.

Willis lived to age 90, fierce and unrepentant to the end. He died of old age on August 22, 1979.

Well loved in the town of Uvalde, owner of a cafe and other small businesses, an avid horseman into his 80s, youngest brother Joe Newton died at age 88 on February 3, 1989.

This Historical Marker, placed on the north side of Rockland Rd (IL 176), told the tale of the Rondout train robbery, was erected by Libertyville-Mundelein Historical Society, the Lake County Museum, and Illinois State Historic Society, 1981.

In 1998 Twentieth Century Fox Studio released “The Newton Boys,” starring Matthew McConaughey. 

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The Gabriel Yon Balloon (Amusement) Park on Cottage Grove and 50th Street, Chicago, Illinois. (1892)

Gabriel Yon Balloon Company presents the "best select amusement place in Chicago." Offering daily captive ascensions (1,300 feet high) from 10am to 10pm, weather permitting with Captain Julhes Gourier,  Engineer Aeronaut. Grand concerts by a ladies orchestra every afternoon and evening. The only enterprise of this kind in America.

The internet shows an incorrect date for this poster as 1883. The correct poster date in 1892.

HISTORY
Scientists, meteorologists, and engineers who considered themselves at the forefront of the science of ballooning at the end of the 19th century were busy preparing exhibitions and lectures for their colleagues and for the general public who were soon to attend the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

At the same time, Jules Juvenet, president of the French company Gabriel Yon Ballooning, was planning a balloon spectacle, featured in the poster, which threatened to undermine advocates' best efforts at legitimizing the growing process of aeronautical science.

In June of 1892, the Chicago Daily Tribune proudly announced, a full year before opening to the World's Fair, that Chicagoans would have the opportunity to observe or to take a ride in hot-air balloons - one large enough to carry 15 passengers. In late August, citizens had the chance to purchase a 25¢ ticket to enter Chicago's Balloon Park and watch the maiden voyage of the balloon Columbus. However, all did not go well. Due to strong air currents, Juvenet postponed the launch several times. By the time the balloon made its awkward ascension to a mere 100 feet (the expectation was 1,200 feet or more) and descended in an equally jerky fashion, the crowd of about 600 had been baking in the sun for five hours.

At the second launch two days later, only 50 people showed up; five days after that, Captain Julhes and engineer Grurier (see inserts at the top and bottom of poster) quit the company. A few days later, Juvenet was arrested and charged with larceny (theft of personal property). 

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Fun Fair (Amusement Park) in Skokie, Illinois. (1948-1968)

Judge Orders Skokie to OK 'Kiddie' Park, Chicago Tribune, Nov. 3, 1949.

Fun Fair Amusement Park was located on the southeast corner of Skokie Highway and Golf Road in Skokie, Illinois. From 1948 to 1968, Fun Fair was owned and operated by Dave Foley, Tom Foley, and John O'Brien.

Among its attractions was a fire engine, which was used to pick up birthday party guests at their homes and deliver them to the amusement park. 

There was a helicopter ride, boat ride, merry-go-round, a six-car Ferris wheel, a whip ride, the swinging gym, a truck ride on a track, hand crank peddle cars, tilt-a-whirl, a rocket ride, a car ride, a miniature train, and pony rides.

Fun Fair had a an arcade with pinball games and skee ball.

There were two roller coasters, the Little Dipper roller coaster and the Wild Mouse roller coaster. The Wild Mouse wasn't really fast, but it was a memorable ride with its tight, quick and flat turns. You always had the feeling the car was going to fall off the flimsy track.

A few people have claimed: A person falls out of a roller coaster or the roller coaster car fell off the track at Fun Fair in Skokie, Illinois. NO! It's an Urban Legend. There are no stories in Chicago newspapers or any proof online. Alan Landsberg says, "Someone fell out in the car ahead of me!" but he won't respond to any inquiries. That's how rumors start.

This is an ad for Bowman Dairy Company for customers to save 4 Bowman bottle caps or carton tops, which entitles you to a 4-ride ticket for 25¢, except Sundays and holidays at the following parks; Fun Fair in Skokie; Kiddytown 95th & Stony Island, Chicago; Fairyland in Lyons; Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago; Kiddytown, Harlem and Irving Park Road, Chicago; and Sauzer’s Kiddyland in Dyer, Indiana. —Chicago Tribune May 15, 1956.

VIDEO

Fun Times at Fun Fair in Skokie, Illinois

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The Lunchtime Theater - Chicago, the City to See. 1962

THE DIGITAL RESEARCH LIBRARY OF ILLINOIS HISTORY JOURNAL™ PRESENTS

THE LUNCHTIME THEATER.

Chicago, the City to See. 1962

[Runtime 0:12:30]

A "city symphony" film, produced to encourage Photographic Society of America members to attend their 1963 conference in Chicago. The film edits together beautiful and dynamic footage of Chicago and then combines this with a deadpan commentary that pokes fun at commercial travel films.

Kline Creek Farm, a Living History Farm and Museum in West Chicago, Illinois.

Take a step back in time. The Kline Creek Farm, in the Timber Ridge Forest Preserve, shows what life on a working farm in the 1890s was like.in DuPage County, Illinois.

Stroll through restored farmstead structures and meet the historically-costumed interpreters operating this living-history farm using the tools and techniques of the past. Activities and events at the farm re-create the seasonal rhythms that have governed farm life for centuries.

Kline Creek Farm presents 19th-century farm activities, such as baking, canning, planting, harvesting, sheep shearing, and ice cutting among other activities.

The farmhouse was the center of domestic activities and today contains original artifacts and reproductions that enhance its homelike atmosphere. Depending on the time of year, staff and volunteers plant heirloom fruits and vegetables in the kitchen garden, tend to the orchard, work in the wagon shed or cure sausages in the smokehouse.

Percheron workhorses help plant and harvest crops of corn, oats, and other small grains; and resident livestock, such as the farm’s Southdown sheep, Shorthorn and Angus cattle, and chickens, occupy the farm’s coop, barn, fold, and pastures.

Beekeeping is also a long-standing tradition at Kline Creek Farm. Since 1984 volunteer beekeepers have managed the farmstead’s apiary by caring for the bees, extracting and processing honey, and leading educational programs and tours that focus on the honeybee’s role as a primary pollinator for two-thirds of all U.S. crops.

Kline Creek Farm

Forest Perserve District of DuPage County

1N600 County Farm Road, West Chicago, Illinois.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Early 1800s Log House Was Uncovered in West Salem, Edwards County, Illinois, in July 2014.

Linda Giese has known for years her old house held a secret, but she had no idea she was holding onto a true treasure. Giese is the proud owner of an original early 1800s log house, right here in West Salem.

The old frame house on North West Street was Giese’s home for over 25 years, but about ten years ago she moved into a new modular. “Earthquake damage and termites had really taken their toll, and I just couldn’t afford to repair the foundation,” said Giese. Every day, Giese looked out her front door and saw the house she had raised her children in, but that all changed recently. Now she has a much different view.

With the old house beyond repair, demolition was scheduled and S&S Excavating was contracted to do the work. “When I told him there was a log cabin inside the old house, he didn’t think he could save it. But once he got started, he got excited and told me he thought he could do it after all,” said Giese.

She had high praise for the company as they managed to demolish the old frame house without damaging the 14’ x 18’ log cabin.

The log cabin served as the home’s dining room, and its discovery was made years ago during a small home improvement project. “I wanted a little window (pass-through) cut in the wall between the kitchen and the dining room. My husband had to use a chain saw to do it because he ran into logs. That’s when we realized part of the house was a log cabin.”

While the earliest date showing up in the property’s abstract is 1843, it’s difficult to determine the actual age of the cabin. Deeds and abstract work only deal with the actual property, not dwellings.

The first property owner listed is Philip Clodfelter. He officially laid claim to the land and was granted a land patent (another name for a first-title deed) by the United States of America in 1843. The last names of other property owners through the years are familiar to many: Herman, Matthes, Busefink, Campbell, Nix, Drysdale, Hayes, Fore, Aidt, and Greathouse.

Giese is hopeful someone will be able to provide a more accurate time period for the cabin based on how it was built.

Giese’s parents, Gustav and Lavina Hausler purchased the house in 1975 and sold it to Giese three years later. “They owned the No Name Restaurant on the Square, and it was just easier for them to live up there. I really wish my parents were here to see this. They had no idea about the cabin, and my mom loved living here.”

Giese said she plans to preserve the cabin, with the help of her grandson Tony Chapman. “Tony’s going to repair the roof and fill in the end. Some day I would like to put an old wood stove back in it, and furnish it the way it would have been.”

Giese said there has been a lot of interest in the cabin in the last few weeks with people driving by, taking pictures, and asking questions. She’s excited to be able to share her treasure with people. She added, “It was a good house to raise my kids in.”

Edwards County Times Advocate Newspaper

Edited by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The Claus Grocery Store at 11th and Spruce streets was a Springfield landmark for about 90 years.

This picture from the State Journal-Register photo archives shows the store in its full glory in 1945.

The horse-drawn carriage in the picture remained in use for another 29 years, as Claus continued using it to deliver groceries until 1974, then sold animal feed and farm products until closing in the mid-1990s.

The Claus Grocery Store was built in 1905 by Joe Claus.  It is a rectangular, one story, clapboard sided frame building with a gable roof. The store was attached to a two story frame house.  There also was a two story frame barn and another large frame shed behind the store and house.

The exterior appearance of the buildings has changed little since they were built. The interior of the store also looks much as it must have when it was used for a grocery store.

It still has an unfinished wood floor, a pressed metal ceiling tiles, an old wood counter, an old manual adding machine with a lever crank, and an old wooden cash register. The significance of the structure comes from the unchanged appearance of a building constructed over 110 years ago.

Architecturally, the Claus Grocery Store typifies the modest one story neighborhood grocery stores that were located in many of Springfield’s older residential neighborhoods. The store’s wood floor, pressed metal ceiling tiles, and large plate glass show windows with glass transoms are typical of the detailing found in neighborhood grocery buildings of that era.

Joe Claus discusses his family neighborhood grocery store in Springfield: goods and merchandise sold, customers, credit system, and distributors. Interviewed in 1976 in his Joe Claus Memoir, found in my Digital Research Library of Illinois History®

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.