The Reuben Moore Home in Campbell, Illinois, within the Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site.

Moore Home Historical Site, Farmington, Illinois—fully restored the way it would have been in 1861.

John Adams laid out this land in Pleasant Grove Township in 1852 hoping to build a town. Lots were available to anyone who could afford them. First named Farmington after Mrs.Adams’ Tennessee birthplace, this name was not officially recognized as there was already a Farmington in Fulton County. Campbell became the official name after Zeno Campbell moved the nearby post office into town shortly after its organization. The town has since been known by both names, Farmington and Campbell.

An artist conception of Farmington Illinois from an 1869 plat map.

1. Moore Home - Built in the 1850s by Reuben Moore, Owned by the Inyart family.
2. W.H. Halbrook - One of the original houses dating to the 1860s.
3. Presbyterian Church - The location of the second building, built in 1866.
4. J.J. Adams - An original house dating to the 1850s or 1860s and owned by the town founder.
5. Dr. G. Halbrook - Probably where this doctor lived and practiced.
6. Store - May have been run by Halbrook and Reed.
7. Seminary - Built in 1853, used as a school and church, then later as a store.
8. Store - Probably owned by Leander Burlingame.
9. Matilda Moore lived in a log house here by 1869.
10. Dr. Melson Freeman - Original house owned by the Freemans from 1863 until they moved to Charleston in 1893.
11. Methodist Church - Location of Church built in 1860, current church dates to 1920s.

Farmington enjoyed its heyday in the 1870s when it had grown to about 100 residents. It boasted four stores, a carriage shop, blacksmith shop, steam flour mill, school, and two churches. The boom days, however, were short-lived. When the railroad passed up Farmington in favor of Jamesville a few miles to the south, local residents moved elsewhere. Today, only a few houses and a church remind passersby of the village.

One of the houses built in the town of Farmington in the 1850s was the house belonging to Reuben Moore. Moore was a well-to-do landowner involved in farming and land speculation. He and his first wife Mary emigrated to Coles County in 1839. In 1840, he traded 80 acres of land to Thomas Lincoln, which today is Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site. After his wife Mary died in 1855, Reuben married Matilda "Tildy" Anne Johnston Hall, Abraham Lincoln’s stepsister.

The Moore Home is a frame house constructed from rough-sawn 2x4 framing, lathe and plaster interior, and clapboard siding. Reuben Moore owned four city lots in Farmington. This included lot numbers 14, 15, 16, and 17, bordered on the east by Main Street, on the west by Washington, and by Jefferson on the north. Many people kept livestock in town so owning several lots was not uncommon. Space was also needed for a kitchen garden and a small orchard. Our concept of space within a town today is much different than that of the 1850s.

THE MOORE HOME CONNECTION TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN

The Moore Home prior to 1930s restoration.

On January 31, 1861, president-elect Abraham Lincoln visited the Moore Home and Coles County for the last time before his inauguration as president of the United States. Sarah Lincoln was staying with her daughter Matilda Johnston Hall Moore in Farmington while repairs were being made to the cabin at Goosenest Prairie. Lincoln visited his father’s grave at Shiloh Cemetery while the women of the town “brought their nicest cakes and pies, baked turkeys, and chickens” to the Moore Home. He found upon his return “tables set clear from one end of the house to another,” filled with food for a grand dinner. After dinner, Lincoln bid farewell to his stepmother. She embraced him and said, “My dear boy, I always thought there was something great in you.” He returned to Charleston that night in order to catch the train to Springfield the next day.

THE MARRIAGE OF REUBEN AND MATILDA

Reuben Moore married Matilda Johnston Hall on June 19, 1856. There were six children in the family, three from Reuben’s previous marriage and two from Matilda’s. A sixth child, named Giles, was born to Reuben and Matilda in 1856. The marriage of Reuben and Matilda was not a happy one, for when he died in July of 1859, he had all but disowned her. Matilda sued Moore’s estate for her “dower rights” and won title to the house and one-third of Moore’s estate. Miles Moore, Reuben’s oldest son, inherited most of the remainder of his father’s property.

THE SMOKEHOUSE SHED BEHIND THE HOUSE

The smokehouse was used to smoke meats after at-home butchering of a hog. It was common to use hickory wood to flavor the hams, bacon, and such.

The Smokehouse behind the Moore house.

THE RESTORATION

Inside views of the Moore Home show it as a very colorful and beautiful little house. It is quite a contrast to the 1845 log homes on and near Thomas Lincoln's Farm Site.

In an era when log homes with fireplaces dotted the countryside, the Moore Home represented a more urban style of home. It has plaster walls, clapboard siding, wood-burning stoves, and balloon frame construction. 

The hearth and mantle of the living room are very warm and inviting. Note the stencil designs, not wallpaper, on the walls.

A rope mattress bed with a quilt.

The home consists of four rooms and a loft furnished to show the living conditions of a middle-class family after the Civil War. The State of Illinois acquired the Moore Home in 1929. The Civilian Conservation Corps renovated the home in the 1930s. At that time, the original brick foundation piers were replaced with a concrete foundation and the frame was built with a sag to make the house look “old." 

The Kitchen Stove.

The dining area of the kitchen.

The carpet is made up of woven rug squares. The furniture is like what would be used in the house in 1861.

Beginning in 1996, the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency restored the house to its original appearance, complete with a brick foundation, no sagging floor, correctly-sized windows, stenciled walls, and painted exterior.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The History of the Egyptian Theatre in DeKalb, Illinois.

The Egyptian Theatre has roots back to the age of the pharaohs. This historic structure owes this connection to the discovery of the tomb of King Tut in 1922. That discovery set off a nationwide interest in everything Egyptian. The Egyptian influence reached DeKalb County in 1928 when the DeKalb Theatre Company was trying to settle on a design for a combination motion picture house and vaudeville theatre. Needing a larger facility than its theatre at the corner of First Street and Lincoln Highway, the firm talked with Chicago theatre architect Elmer F. Behrens. Contracts for the new theatre were awarded in 1928, but construction, other than a foundation excavation, did not start until Spring of 1929. Dale Leifheit was president of the DeKalb Theatre Company and served as the building’s first manager when it opened on Dec. 10, 1929. It is believed that the initial construction cost roughly $250,000. The theatre served a population of approximately 8,545 in the city of DeKalb and 32,644 in DeKalb County.

By the 1930s, the theatre was one of over 100 theatres across the country to decorate itself in an Egyptian style. Of all the Egyptian theatres, the DeKalb theatre is one of only 5 remaining and is the only Egyptian Theatre east of the Rocky Mountains. In the original design, additional buildings were supposed to be attached to the existing building, including a hotel on the north side, but they were never built due to the stock market crash in late 1929.

The stock market crash in October 1929 changed some building plans but failed to dampen the opening celebration. The unique broken-tile main lobby floor was a compromise with a dollar shortage; it was originally supposed to be marble.

The theatre opened on December 10, 1929. The first film on the Egyptian’s giant screen was “The Hottentot,” an “all-talking” film about horse racing; general admission was 50 cents for adults and 25 cents for children. The live vaudeville acts generally were reserved for weekends between movie showings. Ownership of the Egyptian changed hands over the years, but for a majority of its commercial life, the building was owned and operated by the Thomas Valos family, who ran a chain of Midwest motion-picture houses.

In the forties and fifties, the Egyptian Theatre concentrated mostly on movies, with an occasional live event. On October 25, 1959, Senator John F. Kennedy made an appearance to a packed house at the Egyptian. A short three months later he would announce his candidacy for president. Throughout the sixties, the Egyptian was a movie house, although some exceptions still did occur.

In the early 70s, the aging theatre continued to show movies and sometimes hosted concerts by popular up-and-coming rock bands such as Journey and Heart. By the mid-seventies, the Egyptian was a ghost of its previous splendor. The plaster walls and interior motifs were crumbling away, the seats were in disrepair, the plumbing rarely worked, the boiler was no longer functioning, and there were holes in the ceiling letting in both rainwater and wild animals. In 1977, the Egyptian Theatre was closed and the property given over to the city of DeKalb.

With the theatre on the verge of being condemned in 1978, a group of citizens banded together to restore and save the Egyptian. The Egyptian was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. In 1982, Preservation of the Egyptian Theatre, Inc. (PET) qualified for a $2.3 million grant from the state of Illinois. This money allowed the restoration of the theatre to begin. Renovations were started in 1982 and finished by the fall of 1983.

When the theatre opened again in 1983, it was host to dozens of events a year. The diversity of events was impressive, with multiple community groups and national groups calling the Egyptian Theatre “home”. The Egyptian season was filled with live events, weddings, receptions, community meetings, and movies. The theatre continues to be home to DeKalb County’s largest movie screen at 35 feet wide and 22 feet tall.

Today, the theatre is utilized by the community for a wide variety of events and also attracts national touring acts. From 2006 – 2012 over $1.5 million was invested in restoration, maintenance, and upgrades to the Egyptian Theatre. In the summer of 2011, the original seats from 1929, which were still in use in the theatre, were sold off to the community and replaced by brand new seats that look nearly identical to the originals. Through the continued support of the community, the Egyptian Theatre is able to not only keep the doors of the theatre open but continue to improve the theatre for all to use and enjoy.

P.E.T.’s vision for the Egyptian Theatre since the beginning has been a community-based one. The success of the Egyptian Theatre has continually been embraced by both the arts community and by the people of DeKalb County. The vision of P.E.T. has grown from just keeping the doors open to opening new doors.

Over the years the Egyptian Theatre has been the stage for performances by Lawrence Welk, BB King, Jay Leno, Ray Charles, Winton Marsalis, Corky Segal, Danny Glover, Ron White, Brian Regan, Lewis Black, REM, Journey, Heart, The Violent Femmes, The Psychedelic Furs, Gaelic Storm and many more.

The Architecture

The architect, Elmer F. Behrns, designed nearly a dozen other art deco theatres across northern Illinois, including the Arcada in Saint Charles. Behrns studied and loved Egyptology and put his knowledge to good use when designing The Egyptian Theatre. Instead of throwing together hieroglyphics, Behrns put together a much more cohesive design than other Egyptian-themed theatres. Mr. Behrns designed this theatre with one central theme, that of Ramses II, also known as Ramses the Great. Ramses was the third Egyptian pharaoh (reigned 1279 BC–1213 BC) of the nineteenth dynasty. He is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire. His successors and later Egyptians called him the “Great Ancestor.”

The Egyptian’s facade is covered with light sage terra cotta and features a 20-foot tall stained glass window bearing the ancient sacred scarab, holding up the sun god Ra while standing on the earth.

On each side of the stained glass window are two huge pharaohs guarding over the entrance of the theatre. The front of the theatre is shaped like the gate of a great temple. The current marquee is the fourth marquee to adorn the theatre and was commissioned in 1982 during the theatre's last large-scale renovation.

Stepping into the quiet small outer lobby is like stepping into the outer chamber of a tomb. With huge sandstone-like blocks for walls, the only adorned piece is the front of the ticket box office, dusky, sienna red with a golden sunburst above the window.

Passing through the glass doors into the main lobby, one finds the original mosaic multicolored tiled floor underfoot. The tiles used in the lobby area called faience tiles or tin-glazed pottery. This type of pottery was found in Egypt as early as 4000 BC. The specific tiles used on the lobby floor in the theatre were gathered from other businesses around DeKalb during construction. Every little piece is a piece of DeKalb's history.

The ceiling towers above the tile floor some 40 feet. Cream-colored plaster walls on either side are decorated with eight towering ecru-colored pillars adorned with cornices of golden lotus blossoms and palm leaves. This stately hall is quietly elegant and is the setting for many private parties and weddings.

Two-thirds the way up the walls between each pillar are huge golden plaster urns, six in all, adorned with lotus buds and palm leaves. Above each urn are outstretched golden falcon wings with the sun entwined with golden serpents. Below each urn is a frosted sconce that matches the frosted milky-colored commissioned chandelier that also bears the lotus blossom pattern. At the end of the main lobby is the original double staircase that cradles the chandelier, leading to the mezzanine and balcony.

Moving into the auditorium from the quiet and stately main lobby finds a royal Egyptian courtyard. Murals adorn the walls of Egyptian landmarks such as Abu Simbel, The Pyramids of Giza and the Temple of Ramses II. Overhead tiny star-like lights twinkle against the sky blue ceiling. Truly, this theatre is one of the more incredible examples of the Egyptian style.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.