Melvin Price Locks and Dam & National Great Rivers Museum, Alton, Illinois.

The National Great Rivers Museum is located adjacent to the Melvin Price Locks and Dam on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River in Alton, Illinois.

MELVIN PRICE LOCKS AND DAM

Melvin Price Locks and Dam is a dam and two locks at river mile 200.78 on the Upper Mississippi River, about 17 miles north of Saint Louis, Missouri. The collocated National Great Rivers Museum, at 1 Lock and Dam Way in East Alton, Illinois, explains the structure and its engineering.

Melvin Price Locks and Dam replaced Lock and Dam 26, which opened in 1938, and was demolished in 1990. Almost from the beginning, Lock and Dam 26 was plagued with structural deficiencies. 

The Lock and Dam 26, 1938-1990

Scour holes developed below the dam. This was of particular concern because some of the holes were deeper than the wooden pilings supporting the dam. The scouring of the riverbed led to the disintegration of the concrete and a loss of foundation material, which eventually resulted in excessive deflections and settlement of the lock walls and dam piers.

The construction of the Melvin Price Locks and Dam constituted the first replacement of an original installation of the 9-Foot Channel Project. The new structure is located two miles downstream of the razed Lock and Dam 26, but the significance of the new installation is not limited to its colossal size. Throughout its design and construction, the Corps engaged in an extensive program of computer-assisted design, testing, and evaluation to create a structure that represents the state of the art in river navigation control works.

The Melvin Price Locks and Dam helps to control the flow of the Mississippi and is the means by which barges are able to navigate the river.

The main lock is 1,200 feet long and 110 feet wide; the auxiliary lock is 600 feet long and 110 feet wide. The main lock has a vertical lift gate and a miter gate while the auxiliary lock has two miter gates. The dam is 1,160 feet long with 9 tainter gates, each 110 feet wide by 42 feet high.

It is named after Illinois Congressman (Charles) Melvin Price (1905-1988) who served as:

• Member of the St. Clair County, Illinois Board of Supervisors (1929–1931) at 24 years of age.
• Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 22nd district (1945-1949).
• Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 25th district (1949-1953).
• — Chairman of the Ethics Committee (1967–76).
• Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 24th district (1953-1973).
• Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 23rd district (19731983).
• — Chairman of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy (1973–74).
• — Chairman of the House Committee on Armed Services (1975-1985).
• Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 21st district (1983-1988) totaling 59 years of service.

Congressman Price is probably most famous for his role in enacting the Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act. He died in 1988 of pancreatic cancer. Price is the namesake of the Melvin Price Locks and Dam, in East Alton on the Upper Mississippi River, and the Melvin Price Federal Building and United States Courthouse in East St. Louis.

NATIONAL GREAT RIVERS MUSEUM

National Great Rivers Museum, Alton, Illinois. The large gift shop is in the background.

The National Great Rivers Museum, opened in October of 2003, is one of eleven planned regional visitor centers operated by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. Located adjacent to the Melvin Price Locks and Dam, this 12,000-square-foot facility is the result of a collaboration between the Corps and the nonprofit Meeting of the Great Rivers Foundation and tells the story of the Mississippi River. The Museum features state-of-the-art interactive displays and exhibits that help visitors understand the many aspects of the Mississippi River and how it affects our lives.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Monroe City One-room Schoolhouse, Valmeyer, Illinois.

The one-room Monroe City Schoolhouse that stood for nearly 100 years in Monroe City, Illinois, was moved to a new location in the new Valmeyer, Illinois (on the bluffs). 

The Monroe City School was built in 1918 and closed in 1955.

Monroe City School Postcard.

Property owner Melvin Allscheid donated the 1,200-square-foot schoolhouse to the Valmeyer Community Heritage Society. They moved the structure 10 miles from KK Road just east of Bluff Road to a new concrete foundation on a village-owned property at 321 South Cedar Bluff Drive and Empson Drive, just across the street from the current Valmeyer school campus, in April of 2011.

Today the one-room schoolhouse is home to the Valmeyer Community Heritage Society.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

George Kreischer's General Store, Valmeyer, Illinois.

George Kreischer operated the store in partnership with Albert H. Pieper from 1924 until 1927 when Kreischer bought out Pieper's share of the store. 

Kreischer then operated the store for 42 years (1969). The store's motto was; "Kreischer's - A Good Place to Trade." 

This was the type of general store, or "mercantile" as they were called at that time, where you would purchase your goods from large barrels and containers. In those days there was no self-service, a store employee, or the owner, would get you the items you wanted to buy and bring them to the counter.

Check out their telephone number.

Flour and sugar came in large cloth sacks, pickles came in barrels, full bunches of bananas would hang from the ceiling, and customers would pull off what they wanted. In the early years, many locals would barter. Perhaps they would bring fresh eggs from their chickens to trade for flour, sugar, or other items.

Ruth and Weldon Kohnz stand behind the counter at the R & W Market, just after purchasing it from George Kreischer. The Kohnz's operated the store from 1969 to 1970, then it was purchased by Clayton and Jeanette Schneider. 

For a time the Schneider's operated two markets - their original store - the "Lee Melliere" store they had purchased in 1966, and this store at the corner of Lake and Main in Valmeyer.

The village of Valmeyer weathered Mississippi floods in 1903,1943,1973, and 1993. The last flood caused the town to vacate its location from the American Bottom at the base of the bluffs to the top of the bluffs.

I sent a message to the Village of Valmeyer, Illinois about Kreischer's Store. Response: That property went through the [1993] flood buyout and was demolished.

Old Valmeyer in the 1993 flood.

Bluffs in the background with a house in the old abandoned Valmeyer area.

In old Valmeyer, there is a 5-million-square-foot underground city in the bluffs complete with streets, fire hydrants, and lighting. It all started in the late 1800s. Watch this amazing 3½ minute video.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The Meyer Brewing Company, Bloomington, Illinois. (1862 to 1922)

Established during the Civil War, the hometown brewery sold kegs and later bottles of beer until Prohibition in 1920. First known as Meyer & Wochner, the brewery was located on the south end of Bloomington, on the grounds of what's today Highland Park Golf Course.

The brewery, like most of its 19th-century counterparts, was owned and operated by German immigrants. The first owners, Anton (or Antone with an "e") Meyer and Francis X. Wochner, were born in the Baden region of Germany. Meyer became a well-traveled brewery foreman in the United States, and Wochner settled on a farm near Springfield. Around 1862, the two moved to Bloomington and purchased a small brewery.

Meyer married Sophia M. Wochner, sister of his business partner, making the ties between the two families both financial and familial.

According to an October 1883 description of the brewery, the complex included the main building, two ice houses, two malt houses, stables, cooper shops (for the assembly and repair of barrels), a well house, and an office. The main building held a 100-barrel capacity copper kettle where the barley mash and hops were "cooked." The beer was then cooled and stored in casks in the brewery's vaults.

Meyer & Wochner primarily served the local market, though the beer was sold in other areas of the state, and perhaps even elsewhere in the Midwest. The brewery was known for its "American Eagle" brand beer, and by 1910, it was advertising "Blue Label" and "Extra Select" lagers.

Periodic waves of temperance fervor swept across the United States throughout much of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Not surprisingly, savvy brewers responded by extolling the supposed health benefits of beer, especially in comparison to whiskey and other hard spirits. "A Cool, Invigorating and Healthful Beverage," proclaimed a Meyer & Wochner advertisement from 1895.

Also, brewers began selling bottled beer for home consumption in order to promote their products as respectable and family-friendly. "Drink it at Luncheon and Dinner - Keep it at Home," read a 1910 newspaper ad. "We Make a Specialty of Supplying Family Trade."

Meyer unexpectedly died in 1883 at the age of 50. When Francis Wochner passed away in 1899, Meyer's eldest son, Henry, assumed control of the brewery. Several years later, the business reorganized as Meyer Brewing Co.

With the emergence of an active local temperance movement in the 1910s, the Bloomington brewery faced an increasingly precarious future. The end, though, apparently came with the passage of the 18th Amendment, which banned the manufacture and sale of "intoxicating liquors."

In the spring of 1922, the city of Bloomington purchased the idle brewery and extensive grounds. The city renamed the area Highland Park, and then built a nine-hole golf course (later expanded to 18 holes) on the site.

There were other Bloomington breweries, such as Louis Stein's, bought out by Meyer & Wochner in the 1870s. It was Stein who constructed the "cave" in what's now called Forrest Park in order to keep his beer cool. Many longtime residents will remember clandestinely exploring the brick-lined tunnel before city workers sealed off the entrance.

Thankfully, the old brewery has not completely disappeared from the landscape. Local architect Edgar Lundeen once recalled that salvaged bricks from a Meyer & Wochner building were used in the construction of Ewing Manor, which was completed in 1929. At Highland Park, two brewery buildings still stand. The large maintenance building and the smaller pro shop are reminders of Bloomington's long-gone age of German brewers. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Ambler Texaco Gas Station, on Route 66 in Dwight, Illinois.

Ambler Texaco Gas Station, also known as Vernon’s Texaco Station and Becker’s Marathon Gas Station, is located along historic Route 66 in the Village of Dwight. The station gets its name from longtime manager Basil “Tubby” Ambler, who operated the station from 1938 to 1966. 

The original 1933 building Jack Shore built consisted of an office with wood clapboard siding, an arched roof with asphalt shingles, and residential windows adorned with shutters and flower boxes. A sheltering canopy supported by two tapered columns was extending out from the office over three Texaco gas pumps.  Mr. Shore also constructed an ice house located on the property. 

The station’s design, with its cottage look, may strike the contemporary traveler as quaint--or perhaps even odd. Why, after all, shouldn’t a gas station look like a gas station? But this domestic style, common along Route 66, had a distinct purpose and stems from a time in the early 20th century when gas stations were just beginning to seriously intrude upon the suburban landscape of America. The oil companies wisely opted to tread lightly on this new, non-commercial territory. Gas stations were consciously styled to be homey and inviting to customers, as well as inconspicuous in their new residential, suburban surroundings.

In the early 1940s, following a national trend that saw gas stations evolve into full-service garages, Mr. Ambler added a service bay of simple concrete block to the north side of the original building. Although he left the station in 1966, the station continued servicing motorists until nearly the turn of the 21st century, making it one of the oldest continually operated service stations along the Mother Road.

Over the years, the station naturally underwent a number of changes. Windows were removed and added, fresh paint applied, and new roofing laid down. The tall, elegant red pumps of the 1930s gave way to the squat dispensers of the 1960s; and Marathon Oil eventually superseded the Texaco Fire Chief brand. 

The station operated as a gas station for 66 years until 1999 and was an auto repair shop until 2002, when the owner Phillip Becker generously donated the station to the Village of Dwight. With the help of a $10,400 matching grant from the National Park Service’s Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program, the Village of Dwight painstakingly restored the station to its former glory, taking the main office and canopy area back to the 1930s and the service bay area back to its 1940s appearance. 

Today, the station serves as a visitor’s center for the Village of Dwight. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2001 and received a Cost-Share Grant from the National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program in 2002.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. — BOD, Route 66 Association of Illinois, 2013-2015

Janda's Drive-In, 8030 Ogden Avenue and Barrypoint Road, Lyons, Illinois.

A linen postcard from the 1940s showing the Janda Drive-in near the Hoffman Tower along the Desplaines River.

Janda's Drive-In was popular for their Bar-B-Q and  ice cream creations. Patrons enjoyed their open-air picnic Pavillion. 

Today, the 8030 Ogden Avenue address in Lyons is the Riverwalk Condominiums.

The intersection of Harlem and Ogden Avenues in 1934.

The intersection of Harlem and Ogden Avenues in 1934. 

Sinclair Grease Palace would be in Riverside Illinois and Philadelphia Cones is in Lyons. The photographer would be standing in Berwyn by the White Castle.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

An Extensive History of Jerseyville, Illinois.

In 1827, James Faulkner, a Pennsylvania native, and his family built a small-framed structure named the "Little Red House" in the area now Jerseyville. The Little Red House served as the first stagecoach stop, first tavern, first school, and first bank in the immediate area. 

The Hickory Grove settlement was near a timbered point on the Macoupin prairie, Greene County, twelve miles south of Carrollton and on the road to Alton, Illinois. Situated upon a broad, rolling prairie, rich in everything that tends to make a country desirable, it certainly merits the highest encomiums (praises someone or something highly) that can be lavished upon it. The townsite is such that drainage is easily obtained – by no means a small desideratum (something that is needed or wanted) – and is well protected by timber from the cold winds which usually sweep across the face of our prairies. About four miles to the west, there was an abundance of timber, chiefly oak, also oaks to the north and northeast.

By 1834, the small settlement that grew up around Faulkner's house in Hickory Grove was surveyed and platted by two immigrants from New Jersey, John Lott and Edward M. Daly. 

Lott and Daly's involvement marked the beginning of a proportionally large number of merchants, businessmen, and settlers from New Jersey. That same year, a meeting was called at the Little Red House to vote for a town name, so a post office could be established. The name of Jerseyville was chosen to honor the native state of many of its inhabitants.

In 1839, Jersey County was formed out of Greene County, and Jerseyville was named its county seat. After the Civil War (1861-1865) ended and the Alton & Chicago Railroad construction was completed, Jerseyville saw a period of commercial, industrial and urban growth.

Downtown Jerseyville, Ill. 1910

East Side State Street, Looking North, Jerseyville, Ill.

The Streets are broad and pleasant for the most part. Upon either side of the street are magnificent shade trees, which, during the summer season, gave the city almost the appearance of another Arcadia, Illinois. Many of the residences' yards are filled with choice and beautiful flowers, which added to the verdure (the fresh green color of vegetation) of the trees and shrubs, form a tout ensemble extremely gratifying to the eyes of the beholder.

The Jersey Theater

Jacoby Bros., Jerseyville, Ill., Circa 1910.

The business portion of town, and, in fact, the entire town proper, is situated one half a mile from the railway – just far enough away to be freed from the smoke and noise of passing trains and yet near enough to meet all the requirements of businesses. Instead of being clustered around the courthouse, the business houses are chiefly upon two streets, one running north and south, the other east and west. This arrangement allows more extended space for the growth of business interests than when clustered upon the four sides of a square. Already the spirit of improvement is manifesting itself in various ways and, in a few short years, will make a most radical change in this respect.

Villinger Building, Jerseyville, Ill., Circa 1900s.

Jerseyville Business Directory, Jersey County Democrat, February 1, 1865.

A. Hollenback, butcher. A. Jett and Son, grocery (saloon/tavern/pub). A. Jett, auctioneer. A. K. Van Horne, physician and surgeon. A. P. Ferguson, boot and shoe store. A. Recappe, harness and saddlery. Andrew Jackson, county clerk. Barnes, physician, and surgeon. Benjamin Wedding, government collector. Black & Wood, dealer in stoves, kitchen furniture, etc. Buffington & Bro., druggists, dealers in stationery, etc. C. H. Bowman, sheriff. C. M. Hamilton, groceries, produce, pork, etc. C. M. Knapp, merchant. C. R. Hardin, boot and shoe maker. Casey & Coe, physicians, and surgeons. Charles Shroeder, harness maker. Chas. Lipscomb, gunsmith. Cross & Swallow, bankers. Daniel McFain, dealer in groceries, produce, pork, etc. David T. Bonnell, banker and merchant. Derbys & Houston, dealers hardware, agricultural implements. E. C. Calm, merchant. F. Bertman, merchant. F. Osburn, wool carding machine. F. S. Hanghawout, editor "Jerseyville Register." Farley, physician, and surgeon. Fields, H D R K, freight agent. Flamm & Hund, restaurant. Ford & Bro., house and sign painters. George Bickelhaupt, baker and confectioner. George Burris, barber and hairdresser. George Eglehoff, carriage & wagon maker. George H. Hodgkens, Merchant's Union Express Co. agent. George H. Jackson, notary public and real estate agent. George I. Foster, county surveyor. George Parent, painter. George S. Miles, dentist. George W. Ware, druggist, stationery, bookstore, notions, etc. Goodrich, Nevius & Co., millers, and flour merchants. H. A. Whiting & Co., dealers in produce. H. Calkins, dentist H. N. Wyckoff & Co., merchants. Harvy Yeaman, dealer in furnishing goods. Henry A. Brandt, dealer in tobacco and cigars. Henry F. Bayer, barber and hairdresser. Henry Schefler(?), boot and shoemaker. Herdman & Bro., merchants. Hewitt & Drotsch, house and sign painters. J. C. Strong, photographer and artist. J. E. Sanford(?), butcher and dealer in pork(?). J. E. Van Pelt, grain dealer and commission merchant. J. Geo Swartz, livery stable. J. H. Ames, dealer in tinware and hardware. J. H. Buffington, postmaster. J. Halstead & Co., dealers in tobacco, cigars, and fancy notions. J. K. & J. N. Beardslee, stationers, dealers in notions, etc. J. L. White, physician and surgeon. J. O. Hamilton, physician, surgeon, dealer in drugs, stationery. J. P. Bell, carriage maker. J. S. Daniels, deputy sheriff, and town collector. Jacob Gammindinger, wagon maker. James McClure, blacksmith. James McGannon, blacksmith. James McKinney, deputy sheriff. James Nelson, boot and shoemaker. James O'Halloran, groceries, produce, pork, etc. Jefferson King, blacksmith. John C. Darby, dealer in groceries, produce, pork, etc. John C. Tack, dealer in ready-made clothing. John F. Smith, county assessor. John Flamm, a notary public. John Laufketter, tobacconist. John McFain, U.S. Express Co. agent. King & Pinero, attorneys at law. Krumpanitzky & Son, dealers in groceries, produce, pork, etc. L. H. Robbins, physician and surgeon. L. Johnson, coroner. L. Johnson, livery stable. L. Thurston, harness and saddlery. L. Williams, milkman. Larkin Bethell, R.R. baggage master. Lewis Grosjean, boot and shoemaker. Lewis Turner, miller and grain dealer. Luther Chaffee, telegraph operator. Lyon & DuHadway, physicians and surgeons. M. B. Miner, government assessor and attorney at law. M. E. Bagley, circuit clerk, master in chancery. M. S. Parker, "Jersey House" landlord. M. Walker, produce dealer. Mrs. Ford, a dressmaker. Mrs. Frost, boarding house. Mrs. Jennings, millinery. Mrs. McGill & Co., milliners. Mrs. S. Van Pelt, milliner. N. Grosjean, barber and hair dresser. Newton Cory, manufacturers of agricultural implements. O. A. Tiff, blacksmith. P. Conway, dealer in groceries, produce, pork, etc. P. H. Ryan, dealer in fancy notions, tobacco, and cigars. P. L. Hargiss, harness maker. P. S. Nevius, wagon maker. Pat Dunphrey, dealer in groceries, produce, pork, etc. Paul Lareashe, jeweler. Pierce & Wilson, restaurant. R. M. Knapp, attorney at law. R. M. McClure, blacksmith. R. P. Elliot & Co., dress furnishing house. S. M. Shayer (Shaver?), artist. S. M. Titus, auctioneer. S. W. Davis & O. M. Paris, grain. Shephard & Co., bankers. Steiner & Cockrell, grain merchants. Swan & Rockwell, dealers in furniture, house furnishing goods. T. J. Selby, editor "Jersey County Democrat." Thomas Ford, boarding house. Thomas J. Houston, auctioneer. Three Entries are Unreadable: a butcher, a grocer, and notions. Tomas May, blacksmith. V. Villinger, watchmaker and jeweler. Vandervort & Beardslee, merchants. W. H. Anderson, dealer in lumber near the depot. W. H. Fields, barber and hairdresser. W. W. Bollinger, watchmaker and jeweler. Waldron & Williams, marble works. Wallace Leigh, baker and confectioner. Warren & Pogue, attorneys at law. Wiley & Ten Eick, hardware, queens ware, house furnishing. William E. Pitt, news dealer, stationery, books, etc. William Hesser, physician and surgeon. William Pilger, harness maker. William Shroeder, merchant. Wm. Embly, architect and builder. Wm. Keith, cabinet maker and dealer in furniture. Wm. Shephard, merchant. Wm. Taylor Dapper, [no information given]

The first significant period of growth in the city occurred from 1880 to 1916, and from that time to the present, Jerseyville's development has been steady and substantial. Most commercial structures in the Downtown Historic District and Courthouse Square were built during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 

It was also during this time that the present Jersey County Courthouse was built. The two-story, 124-foot-tall Romanesque Revival building was completed in 1893 and is considered one of the most aesthetic courthouses in the area. Other nearby Victorian-style buildings in the city include Queen Anne, Edwardian, and Italianate architectural features, with several recently renovated buildings.

From 1912 to 1918, Jerseyville was the terminus of an interurban electric passenger railroad from Alton that was a project by the Alton, Jacksonville, and Peoria Railway for a line to Peoria.

Col. William H. Fulkerson Farmstead, Jerseyville, Ill.

In recent decades, Jerseyville has been a testing ground in agricultural biotechnology. Bayer (formerly Monsanto) owns and operates a facility located just south of the city. In 1987, was the site of the world's first biotechnology field trial – first with tomatoes and later that year with soybeans. The facility was also home to the first triple-stacked corn trial in 1998, which later became a part of one of Monsanto's top-selling products. The facility was further expanded in 2008 and now consists of sixteen greenhouses and almost 300 acres of land for field testing.

The Downtown Historic District is home to some antique stores, gift shops, clothing and shoe stores, a pharmacy, a public library, a post office, and several local restaurants and banks. Most of the growth that has occurred since the early 1990s has been in the southern and southwestern portions of the city, where new residential subdivisions and retail shopping centers have been built, and numerous land annexations have been made by the city.

The Cheney Mansion in 1900.

Cheney Mansion is located in Jerseyville, IL. Dating back to 1827, the Cheney mansion, a 12-room house, has plenty of history. The center part of the Mansion was the first structure built in Jerseyville and was called the "Little Red House," it was a stagecoach stop that ran through this part of the country. The basement had a false cistern (an underground reservoir for rainwater) where Slaves were hidden. It served as a "station" for the Underground Railroad.

In 1839, Dr. Edward D'Arcy converted the Little Red House into a private house. He later gave the place to his daughter, Prentiss Dana Cheney, and her husband. They were the first of three generations of Cheneys to live here. Over the years, the family expanded and improved the house, which became the Cheney Mansion.

In 1998 the Cheney Mansion and grounds were donated to the Jersey County Historical Society, and it became our permanent location. Since then, the Society has added a museum, genealogy lab, and other buildings donated to the Society consisting of a one-room country school and an old country church. We also have three log cabins replicating the three cabins that made up Hickory Grove.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The J.W. Sefton Manufacturing Company, Chicago. The Birthplace of Corrugated Cardboard. (1888-1930)

The J.W. Sefton Manufacturing Company made corrugated cardboard boxes of all shapes and sizes. They started small in Anderson, Indiana, location in 1888. Three years later, J.W. Sefton moved the company to Chicago, buying the Manilla Paper Company. Sefton also had a plant in Brooklyn, New York.

A Sefton worker in his warehouse truck. Circa 1912

In the 20th century, the J.W. Sefton Manufacturing Company’s Chicago offices were buzzing with the arrival of a potential new customer: a glassware manufacturer from Oklahoma. The glass was shaped like a globe, and it was popularly used for gas street lamps. 

Sefton was in a fledgling sector of making the newly invented corrugated board from yellow straw, referred to as strawboard. The company had started manufacturing wooden butter dishes. However, this changed when Jeffrey T. Ferres, an employee, patented a new principle to an existing ‘corrugator,’ known as a pressure-roll single facer. 

Unfortunately, the glass executives were not convinced a rigid and pleated strawboard box would be better than their current wood box filled with excelsior (shredded wood). 

Wood packing was the only option until then. It was expensive. Further, fragile items like glass globes often broke during transit. 

The novel idea of a corrugated box had the added benefit of reduced weight, but it was unproven in the days when everything had to travel by train. Despite Sefton’s sales team citing how glass products were already being shipped to as far off as California, the glass executives weren’t biting; they needed a better sales pitch. 

Therefore, Sefton’s design team got to work and designed a square carton with die-cut sunburst trays at both ends. The globe was now firmly suspended without touching the sides of the box. Now, for the demonstration. A dozen glass globes were packed in these newly designed cartons, taped shut, and brought to the top floor of Sefton’s Chicago building. Each box was booted down the stairs in a stairwell, floor after floor, until they arrived in the basement looking battered. When the cartons were opened, the glassmaker was surprised, as none of the globes were broken. This moment in time would be instrumental in bringing the corrugated carton out of the dark shadows of irrelevance and mistrust.

The genesis of modern corrugated production began at J.W. Sefton’s factories in Chicago and Anderson Indiana. In 1930, Sefton was purchased by Container Corporation of America.

The Sefton Manufacturing Company, 1301-1341 West 35th Street, Chicago.

After expanding over the years, the company built a state-of-the-art facility on 5-acres at 1301-1341 West 35th Street in Chicago's Central Manufacturing District in 1916.

The Container Corp. of America was founded in 1926 by uniting several smaller-sized manufacturers of paper boxes and containers that included 14 plants around the country. The enterprise had its national headquarters in Chicago. 

By 1930, the Container Corp. of America purchased Sefton Manufacturing Co. and operated four plants around Chicago, including those formerly owned by the Chicago Mill & Lumber Co., and the Robert Gair Co.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Municipal Restaurant & Luncheonette, Southeast Corner of 63rd Street and Cicero Avenue, Chicago. June, 29, 1934

We are at the southeast corner of the airport property, the northwest corner of 63rd Street and Cicero Avenue. We are looking northwest.
The Municipal Restaurant & Luncheonette is on the Southeast Corner of the airport property. See Map.

Note the airplane on the south side (left) of the restaurant at the Chicago Municipal Airport.

Municipal Restaurant & Luncheonette, Southeast Corner of 63rd Street and Cicero Avenue, Chicago.

Originally named Chicago Air Park, Midway Airport was built on a 320-acre plot in 1923 with one cinder runway mainly for airmail flights. In 1926 the city leased the airport and named it Chicago Municipal Airport on December 12, 1927. By 1928, the airport had twelve hangars and four lighted runways for night operations.

A major early morning fire on June 25, 1930, destroyed two hangars and 27 aircraft, "12 of them tri-motor passenger planes." The loss was estimated at more than two million dollars. The hangars destroyed were of Universal Air Lines, Inc., and Grey Goose Airlines, the latter under lease to Stout Air Lines. The fire followed an explosion of undetermined cause in the Universal hangar.

In 1931 a new passenger terminal opened at 62nd Street. The following year the airport claimed to be the "World's Busiest," with over 100,846 passengers on 60,947 flights. More construction was funded in part by $1 million from the Works Progress Administration; the airport expanded to fill the square mile in 1938–41 after a court ordered the Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad to reroute tracks that had crossed the square along the northern edge of the older field. 

In the 1940s, the Trivic Airport Pines Restaurant was at 55th Street and Cicero Avenue, at the Northeast corner of Midway.

In July 1949, the airport was renamed Chicago Midway International Airport after the Battle of Midway. In 2002 Midway welcomed the return of international service after a 40-year absence with the opening of the new Federal Inspection Service facility in Concourse A.

Today, Midway has 5 runways and 43 gates in three concourses; Concourse A has 19 gates, Concourse B has 26 gates, and Concourse C has 3 gates.

Additional Reading:

Marshall Field & Company, Cloud Room Restaurant in the Chicago Municipal Airport (Midway).

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

History of the Hotel Galt, (Miami Hotel) Sterling, Illinois.

The Hotel Galt in Sterling, Illinois, was completed in 1890. It was also called the Miami Hotel because it housed the Miami cocktail lounge. The Miami Lounge was a popular mob hangout. The building burned down in December 1971.

The Hotel Galt in 1890.

The Hotel Galt in the 1940s.

Firefighter Arlyn Oetting recounted the day he got the alarm call:

The 1971 fire that destroyed the former Miami Hotel of Sterling was one of his most memorable fires. The hotel was across the street from the former Sears building downtown.

As the captain turned the corner, all he said was, “Get some help!” Oetting recalled.

“The fire was coming out the front doors of the hotel, as far out as the parking meters on the sidewalk,” he said. “When they got there, they laid a big hose line and started attacking that fire. My lieutenant and I dropped some hoses in front of the door and went down and hooked up to a hydrant there.”

Because the hotel had been remodeled numerous times, he said, the ceilings had been dropped. “The fire got into hidden spots and just ran rampant,” he said. “It went up and it started spreading.”

Oetting was stationed there most of the night and into the next day. Twenty-seven departments responded, he said. They fought the fire for more than 24 hours.

Amazingly, no one was injured.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.