Dandy Inn Irish Pub & Restaurant, O'Fallon, Illinois. (1850-2017)

Dandy Inn, built initially as Becherer's Tavern in 1850, has been a general store, a tavern, a dance hall, and always as it still is today, a popular gathering place. It has been said that Abraham Lincoln was one of the early visitors.

Beginning as a one-room log cabin located on U.S. 50 (the Vincennes Trail), the tavern offered travelers food, water, and supplies. The well, located in the front, fed a horse trough and provided a water supply for the business. Initially, the building was primarily a one-story structure. The business grew, and additions encompassed the original one-room tavern.

Near the turn of the century, Henry Becherer's son, Adam, took over the tavern. During that time, a building was constructed on the highway's edge and used as a dance hall.

The early 1900s boasted an expanding clientele when coal mining became a big business in the area. The miners enjoyed congregating at the tavern when work was finished. The prospering mines created a rail industry to carry the ore to distribution points. The railroad workers, needing a place to quench their thirst and get a sandwich, frequented Becherer's tavern.

Workers, deciding that the area would be an excellent place to build a house and raise a family, created a community with life interwoven at Becherer's Tavern. Visitors kept increasing. The railway had a streetcar that carried people from Lebanon, Illinois, to East St. Louis, and the Crossroads Station was on Old Collinsville Road. More and more people were traveling by automobiles, and Becherer's had one of the first gas pumps in the area.

Dances were held in the pasture – admission 10¢. Some guys would jump over the fence to avoid paying the cover charge. This was bootleg time – so root beer was the main fare. But remember, anything was available at Becherer's. If you wanted bootleg whiskey, you simply told Adam. The place had a somewhat protected status. Near the end of prohibition in 1932, when Roosevelt indicated a repeal of prohibition if elected, Adam began building a new building to accommodate the future beer drinkers. The farmers liked coming to Becherer's.

The present two-story tavern structure was built in 1933 and opened on New Year's Day, 1934, and beer was legal. It was a magnificent building with few like it outside the cities. It provided the owner's family a store, tavern, and living quarters, and the business prospered. 

Adam Jr., Orville and Kate Roach, and Adam's children began running the place when their father entered the service in 1941.

By 1960, the clientele had changed again. It wasn't a community center anymore, and the dances long since had ceased. The towns had grown, and people were more interested in O'Fallon or Fairview Heights social gatherings. By then, Becherer's was a neighborhood tavern and store.

It was an excellent spot for the residents of the surrounding subdivisions to stop on their way home from work or to visit for a late-evening beer. Those were the folks most affected when they decided to close. Until they decided to retire on New Year's Eve 1976, the place had changed little. The beer was cold, and the sandwiches were made fresh at the grocery counter in the next room. The customers, a blend of newcomers and crusty old-timers, made a visit an exciting experience. The neighbors waited four months before the Daniels bought the corner and opened their place.

On April Fool's Day, 1977, Dave and Phyllis Daniels officially opened the Dandy Inn. Two of their children, Mark and Ann, were put to work and are still connected to the place today. Phyllis is now retired but loves to come in for lunch with friends. Mark is in from early morning to late night most days of the week, usually fixing something or chatting with customers. Ann has since retired from the restaurant business. She stays busy raising her kids and running The Scrapbook Factory down the street. 

Every year on St. Patrick's Day, Ann is pulled from retirement to help at the Dandy Inn during one of the busiest times of the year. Dandy Inn Irish Pub boiled their own beef briskets, making the best corned beef in Southern Illinois.

Continuing the family business, Mark's son, Casey, works in the kitchen after school. Most people think he also has the restaurant business in his blood, but who knows what the future will bring. After over three decades in business, the Dandy Inn has seen many changes but still has something for everyone; a great gathering place for families, a well-worn bar for an after-work beer, and always delicious, home-style family recipes.

My personal favorite restaurant in St. Clair County for fresh hand-breaded cod or perch (both on the menu) and a mound of freshly cut fries. The outdoor covered seating was comfortable too.

Dandy Inn permanently closed its doors on Sunday, January 15, 2017.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Mineola Hotel, 91 North Cora Avenue, Fox Lake, Lake County, Illinois.

Thomas Parker purchased a tract of land along Fox Lake on behalf of the Union League Club of Chicago. The club intended to develop the property as a recreational retreat for its members and built a small clubhouse on the site. 

The Chain O'Lakes had a booming resort industry due mainly to increased access to the area in 1882 when the Wisconsin Central (later Soo Line) Railroad opened.

Postcard depicting the original Mineola clubhouse, as constructed in 1884, before renovation in 1901–1903 by Edson and Emma.

The Mineola was built in 1884 (or 1889) by the Mineola Club of Chicago (some have credited it to members of the Chicago Board of Trade).

The 100-room hotel boasted hot and cold running water, a beautiful natural setting, and boating, fishing and hunting opportunities starting at $2 per day. It is believed, but not confirmed, that the hotel's veranda was designed by Alphonse Howe & Charles Caskey, the architects of the famed Grand Hotel on Michigan's Mackinac Island. The hotel was built as a private clubhouse for Chicago's elite. By 1891 it had been sold to Edson C. Howard, who remodeled it into a public hotel to accommodate the growing number of tourists to the Fox Lake in the Chain O'Lakes area during its Gilded Age heyday. 

Edison Howard bought the hotel, opened it to the public, and built its southern half in 1903.

As early as the 1910s, Fox Lake was known for its drinking and gambling establishments. The Chicago Tribune reported it was "…worse than in the levee districts of the city." The situation in Fox Lake was partly due to Chicago's efforts to "clean up" its own vice districts, which caused those districts to re-settle in the suburbs. The newspaper article added, "Probably the most vicious resort is the Mineola Hotel, and all of the hotels are supplied with slot machines."

During Prohibition (1920-1933), the lakes region became a notorious hangout for Chicago mobsters. The Mineola was reportedly a hideaway for Al Capone and his gang, who could freely gamble and drink the nights away.

In 1943, the Mineola was purchased by the Jakstas Family, who has owned it ever since. The family has fended off demolition many times through the decades. One scare came in 1953 when a hotel guest set a fire on the third floor, which luckily was contained.

A decline in tourism in the early 1960s made it difficult to keep the business going, and by 1969, the Jakstas' were prepared to raze the hotel, going so far as to sell off the original furniture. Mrs. Emma Jakstas was quoted by the Chicago Tribune on February 23, 1969: "We regret tearing down the hotel, but it is a real tinder box... It would be too expensive to remodel this mammoth place."

Dining Room

Peter and Emma Jakstas's son, Peter, was convinced the family should keep the building. They closed the hotel portion to the public but kept the first-floor restaurant, bar, and second-floor banquet facility open until 2012, when the village closed it due to safety concerns.

The Mineola is 225 feet long, four stories high, and considered the largest wooden structure in Illinois. 

The National Park Service listed the hotel on the National Register of Historic Places on July 29, 1979. The Register is the nation's official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation and is administered by the National Park Service.

Though it's been the dream of the Jakstas family to fully restore the building, those efforts have been met with mixed success and much difficulty. After 68 years in the family's ownership, Pete Jakstas is considering retirement and the sale of the hotel, marina and surrounding 17 acres.

On Saturday, the day before closing, the Mineola held an 'Eat and Drink the Mineola Dry Party.' The Hotel closed indefinitely on Sunday, May 21, 2012.

Landmarks Illinois named the hotel one of Illinois's ten most endangered historic places in 2013.

As of May 2022, the Jakstas property was under contract for purchase by developers. The historic Mineola Hotel will be razed, and a new boutique hotel complex will be built "with aesthetic features from the original hotel" incorporated into the new building. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Illinois' Fourth (4th) Statehouse, Vandalia, Illinois.

The fourth Illinois statehouse in Vandalia served as the State capitol from 1836 until 1839 and is the oldest surviving capitol building in the state. The first (1818-1820) was at Kaskaskia, the state’s first capital. The second (1820-1823), third (1824-1836), and fourth (1836-1839) were all in Vandalia. The fifth (1839-1876) is in Springfield and is preserved as the Old State Capitol State Historic Site. The sixth is the current capital (1876-present) in Springfield.

As a historian, I was escorted into the roped-off and closed rooms to take pictures on October 9, 2013. The volunteer had a wealth of knowledge and joined my Facebook group after I finished the photoshoot. 

The Vandalia Statehouse is significant for its association with Abraham Lincoln, who served in the House of Representatives. In 1974 the Statehouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Statehouse is located in the center of a city block in downtown Vandalia, a two-story painted brick structure. Porticoes on the north and south sides of the “restored” building reproduce those added in the 1850s. 

The first floor contains a large entry hall and rooms representing the offices of the Auditor, Treasurer, and Secretary of State, as well as the Supreme Court chamber. The second floor comprises a central hall and recreated House and Senate chambers, each containing a visitor gallery reached by staircases. 

The visitors’ Gallery is off-limits due to the fire code stating there must be two exits; the Gallery has only one.

The square on which the building is located is handsomely landscaped, with many trees. A large statue, the “Madonna of the Trail,” donated by the Daughters of the American Revolution and dedicated in 1928, is located on the southwest corner. It commemorates Vandalia as the official terminus of the historic National Road.

Visitors are offered free guided tours through the building or can view the historically furnished rooms independently from the roped-off open doorways. Informational signs describing each room are located in the hall, but nobody is permitted into the rooms. A small exhibit in the first-floor hall outlines Abraham Lincoln’s connection with the Statehouse. 

An accessible restroom was built on the northwest corner of the Statehouse grounds. 

A Brief History of Illinois State Capitol Buildings from 1818 to the Present.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.