April 12, 2024 • 49 mins
On a beautiful April evening, Matt and I (Israel) took a walk down Mokena's Front Street, talking history. This is the audio only version so you have to imagine standing at the South East corner of Wolf Road and Front Street and walk along with us!
Matt is a wealth of information when it comes to Mokena and this was a lot of fun! We plan to do more of these throughout the summer. I think this was a fun conversation and we hope you enjoy it too!
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Photo & Artwork Credit: Jennifer Medema & Leslie V. Moore Jr.
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https://www.southsidepod.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Israel (00:00):
Welcome to Mokena's Front Porch, a Mokena history
podcast with Matt Galick and me,israel Smith.
In this episode, matt and I dosomething a little special.
I've been wanting to do thisfor a while.
Let's go downtown Mokena withMatt and walk around, kind of
get a walking tour of Mokena andselfishly, as we all know, matt
(00:22):
is a wealth of information whenit comes to Mokena and Mokena's
history.
So I thought this would be agood way to tie together a lot
of the stories that we've toldwith a visual and, in this case,
the audio story.
The full video is on YouTubeand you can watch that and see
as we go along Front Street, butyou can listen here and enjoy
(00:44):
as well For perspective.
We start at the corner of WolfRoad and Front Street.
The little plaza is there wherethe snowman is in the winter,
so we stand there, we start ourconversation and we move our way
down Front Street towardsMokena Street, which is where
Midland State Bank is, as wellas the other train crossing.
(01:06):
We don't really go in-depthinto a lot of things, but Matt
points out where the firstbusiness in Mokena was, where
the Mokena Riot took place,which is one of our stories we
talk about.
We talk about a number ofbuildings that were there and
what's there now, and it reallybrings to life the story of
Mokena and the stories thatwe've shared up to this point.
(01:26):
So I hope that you enjoy thiswalk down Front Street as much
as I enjoyed having it with Matt.
As I said, matt is a wealth ofinformation and we've also had
some great comments from peoplealready on our YouTube video,
adding in tidbits of historyfrom their knowledge as well.
Mokena has a great and richhistory and we're excited to
share it in all of our podcasts,but I think that this really
(01:51):
ties together so many of ourstories.
If you're enjoying these,please share it with others.
That's the way this isspreading.
I'm excited the way it'sgrowing and we want to grow it
more, especially this year.
So if you're enjoying these,please just take a second to
share it on Facebook or to sendit in a message to somebody, or
share one of these episodes onyour social media or in an email
(02:13):
, or just tell a friend about it.
We'd really appreciate it.
It means a lot and it justshows us that you're
appreciating this podcast andwhat we're putting out.
So I really hope you enjoypodcast and what we're putting
out.
So I really hope you enjoy ourwalk down Front Street with me
and Matt Galick.
All right, matt, so we'rewalking up to the corner of
First of Front and Wolf, yeah,and so, as we're thought it'd be
(02:38):
a good idea tonight to do likea little walk down Front Street,
talk about some of thebuildings yeah, definitely.
What we like about Mokena yeah,absolutely, and what we're
seeing.
So, when you think about FrontStreet and Wolf Road, one of the
stories that I think about iswhen we were talking about
Deputy Fisher oh, yeah, and theystopped people carrying liquor
(03:01):
through, right.
That's right During the heightof Prohibition.
Yeah, so give a little recap onthat story.
Matt (03:09):
Yeah, sure.
So Deputy Fisher was at homewith his family.
He lived behind his store onFront Street, which was further
east.
Down Front Street Building,long gone, stood where Dina's
Barbershop would later be, forthose of us in the know and he
got a call, an unexpected call,from an unknown person.
(03:30):
He didn't know who this personwas.
That tipped him off that ashipment of illegal liquor, as
it were, was going to be comingthrough town and that he might
want to get it in his status asa part-time Will County
Sheriff's deputy.
So this, the more I think aboutthis, the more I think this was
probably some rival bootleggerthat was looking to get rid of
(03:54):
the competition.
But he went and grabbed avillage constable, John Frisch,
who was a railroad worker by day, and they came up and this
unknown person that had calledDeputy Fisher said to be
expecting this truck from thewest, so passing through town
(04:14):
out of the west, so coming downthis road was here at the time.
Israel (04:19):
Yeah, it was here yeah, so they would be coming this way
from like the New Lenox kind ofarea, that kind of direction.
Yeah, yeah, so they would becoming this way from like the
New Lenox kind of area, thatkind of direction.
Yeah, absolutely.
Matt (04:26):
And the two men just sort of set up here in the middle of
the intersection, as, of course,the traffic wasn't nearly what
it is today.
So they were able to do thisand they decided to get the
driver to stop, that theygrabbed the green flag from the
(04:51):
Rock Island flagman, whose shackwas right here In the days
before.
Speak of electric.
Israel (04:58):
Good timing.
Matt (04:59):
Days before electric warning gates there were two men
, one posted here and one postedat the Mokena Street crossing,
whose jobs it was to make surepeople stayed away from the
tracks when trains were coming.
But these men carried greenflags, at least at that time
they did.
So Deputy Fisher and ConstableFrisch borrowed the flag of the
(05:23):
flagman and after having beenhere for a few minutes, they saw
this shipment coming out ofthis direction.
So one of them flagged thedriver down and the driver fell
for it and they stopped righthere.
This driver and his accomplicestopped right here in the
(05:44):
intersection and constableFrisch was just sort of talking
to them, seeing who they were,what was going on.
And deputy Fisher kind ofstepped off to the side and
peeked behind the covering itwas like a cloth or a tarp that
covered the back of this truckjust to kind of see what was
(06:06):
back there, and he saw what weredescribed as sacks full of
bottles.
So he knew sure enough this wasthem.
Just as he noticed this,constable Frisch might have it
sounds like he might have gottenthe guys to get out of the
truck Because he noticed, asthis was going on, that one of
the men went to grab a gun andpull it on uh, mr frisch, oh wow
(06:30):
.
So deputy fisher intervened,managed to subdue this guy and
get the gun away from him, andthen he basically uh, saved
constable frisch's life that day.
Aside from uh, the two of themtook the men into custody.
I was determined, I think ifI'm remembering this case
properly, I think it wasdetermined that the men came
(06:51):
from Gary, indiana, wow, wowyeah, really interesting, and
you know this is a really busycorner for us now.
Israel (07:00):
Yeah, absolutely, but at one point we talked about the
newspaper and the editor of thepaper.
Matt (07:08):
Yeah, the Semlors, the Semlors, yeah.
Israel (07:12):
And Mr Semlorn his importance of getting this as a
throughway.
Oh right, right.
Matt (07:15):
Yeah, yeah.
Israel (07:18):
But before that happened , what was this intersection
like?
Matt (07:22):
Not the greatest condition as far as roads go.
Wolf Road.
Before Mr Semler and hisfriends really got going with
this in the 1920s, Wolf Road wasvery, very rugged, very, very
primitive, strictly dirt.
In any kind of weather rain oror snow it just turned into a
(07:46):
muddy mess.
That was it could be prettyhard to traverse at times.
From time to time uh, the uhtownship was able to get it
graveled okay, but that neverreally lasted yeah too terribly
long.
Israel (08:02):
So so and and when was it that it finally did go
through and was paved?
Matt (08:10):
After the Wolf Road was concreted kind of like in
segments, by the time everythingwas said and done, because it's
kind of a long story.
By the time it got to theLincoln Highway south of town
there was a dispute with aproperty owner out there.
I think it was probably theearly 30s by the time Wolf Road
(08:34):
was fully hardened throughMokena or what today we would
consider Mokena yeah.
Israel (08:41):
Well, neat.
Well, let's kind of walk down alittle bit and where Speedway
is now, that's been a gasstation for a long time.
Matt (08:49):
right, it's been a gas station for a pretty long time.
It was before it was Speedway.
It was Houck's and Houck thatactually had been a Mokena
family at one point.
I don't believe they were.
I think when mr hauck built thegas station before this one.
I think they might have comefrom new lennox at that point,
(09:11):
but their, their roots were herebefore haucks.
It was a conoco station, okay,and then before the conoco
station, which was built in I'mpretty sure, 50s, early 50s
maybe, uh, there was a very,very old house oh, really,
corner, that's probably so.
There were like a house next tothe flower shop kind of thing,
(09:31):
and that was all that was on thecorner there yeah, yeah,
basically where, uh, where thegas station is now, there was a
house, a somewhat small housebut normal for the 19th century,
a house that sat right there.
And then way, way, way, wayback during the Civil War, there
was another house that stoodnext to it.
(09:53):
It's kind of a mystery as towhatever happened to that house,
if it was moved or if it burntdown or whatever happened.
And then there was yet a thirdhouse.
The driveway of it still exists.
And then there was yet a thirdhouse the driveway of it still
exists Just past where thedumpsters are for the gas
station.
There was another house therethat must have come down in oh,
(10:14):
I'm racking my brain, I thinkmaybe like very, very early
2000s, oh, wow.
And it was an old house.
It wasn't as old as the houseright on the corner.
That one had belonged to theBauch family for decades Later,
the Frick family, and probablyin all likelihood predated the
(10:35):
Civil War.
But this house that stood untilrelatively recently was built
by the Helmuth family rightaround around, probably around
world war one or so.
Israel (10:48):
Oh, wow, yeah, thereabouts uh, and I don't want
to keep coming back too far,but so if we look where molkina
video is yeah, and this isanother corner that has had a
number of businesses and andthat in town right was this
where the there was a welder ora steelworker shop yeah, there
was a?
Matt (11:08):
uh, right where the parking lot for Mokena video is
was a little building thathoused the blacksmith shop for a
very long time.
That was mr helen house'sblacksmith shop, bill helen
house.
Okay, uh, trying to think whenaround he opened.
Once again, I want to say itwas roughly around world war one
(11:29):
in that time frame, becausethat building that was there was
not built by him.
It had been built by, uh, someof the dairy farmers a few years
before that.
Uh, when they were having afalling out with bowman Dairy,
they ran what was called askimming station out of this
building.
Israel (11:50):
Wow, what's a, you know?
Oh, a skimming off for the milk.
Matt (11:54):
Yeah, yeah I only have kind of a foggy idea as to what
that is, but to my understanding, yeah, it's where cream would
be taken off of milk and stufflike that and made into more
products.
Sure, okay, they weren't inthere too terribly long, and
then Mr Hellenhaus took over.
Israel (12:11):
So what about the Patterson Corner here now?
Matt (12:16):
Yeah, just like just about everywhere on Front Street,
there's been multiple thingshere over the years, a lot of
these, the different buildingsthat we'll come across, some of
them are like the third andfourth buildings that stood at
this site, so where the let'sjust call it the whole Patterson
(12:36):
building is now where DrPatterson's dentist office is
nowadays.
That was another gas station,that was mr writers Sinclair
station back in the 50s, 60s,I'm not, honestly, I'm not too
sure.
Was this?
Israel (12:55):
oh, I'm sorry.
Was this built at right,directly after the?
What kind of station was it?
Did you say this was a Sinclair?
Matt (13:01):
a Sinclair okay, actually the building where dr
Patterson's is was the buildingfrom the gas station.
Oh, it was yeah, they okay, youwould never guess that.
But this part over where Mrs DrPatterson's office is and where
the wealth management place is,that was an addition later on.
Israel (13:16):
All right, but you can kind of see it.
I could see that coming in theside door right.
Is that where you would uh onthose doors that are there?
Matt (13:23):
yeah, exactly the gas pumps were here, uh, closer to
the corner, um, I want to say,uh, the house that was there
before the gas station.
They were talking about havingit demoed in the early 50s, so
it must have the gas stationmust have sprung up not too long
(13:44):
after that, uh, but exactly howlong they were in business I'm
not sure, but I know they atleast went into the 60s.
Oh wow.
But there's a lot of history onthis corner, because on this
first corner, or on this cornerright here, yeah, uh, stood one
of the very first buildings inMokena, not the first, but one
(14:13):
of like, probably in the firstthree or five, maybe thereabouts
.
That was the inn of a Germanman by the name of Karl Gall,
and he built in 1853, basicallyright after the Rock Island came
through, and the workers on therailroad were some of his first
customers.
Wow, one of the very firstbusinesses in Mokena.
That building burnt down in the1870s and then, not too
(14:37):
terribly long after that musthave been around 1884 or 1885, a
man by the name of John zahnbuilt his house here and it
stayed in his family for a very,very long time.
And what was ultimately gottenrid of when the gas station was
built?
that's a really predominant spotfor for a house, yeah yeah,
(15:02):
yeah, but yeah, there it was,and it was right up against the
road too.
Yeah, wow, people have told methat when they would walk by on
the sidewalk you were almostright up against the windows and
you could kind of like lookinto the house and see.
Israel (15:13):
Like some of the old houses down the street.
Yeah, exactly.
So next we kind of come up towhat used to be the post office.
This is the.
Nasos resale for rescuesproperty here.
Absolutely so.
This was the post office untilwhen.
Matt (15:30):
Opened in 1960 is when the building was built, and then it
was the post office until itmust have been around 1982 or so
when they moved into thecurrent building further down
wall.
Okay.
Israel (15:42):
And then it's been a couple of businesses since that
time right.
Matt (15:44):
Yeah, yeah, building further down wolf, okay, and
then it's been a couplebusinesses since that time,
right, yeah, yeah, it was, um,oh, man, there, if I remember
correctly, there was, very, verybriefly, a pool hall there, uh,
in the 80s that kind ofattracted some nefarious
characters, from what I've heard.
Okay, I also remember in mychildhood, just a little while
(16:06):
after that, there was one rightover here where Mrs Dr
Patterson's practice is now.
Oh, okay, but then it became FDPrinting, so a print shop, and
they were in business for a verylong time, a very long time,
probably from the 80s, um, wellup into, I'm trying to even
(16:28):
remember when they they shutdown, well into the 2000s.
Israel (16:33):
Oh, wow, yeah, yeah yeah , well, it's good to see.
I mean, I don't know if youever go in there.
It's a nice little resale shopnow it's, it's pretty cool.
Yeah, definitely, and so forthis side, um, I was just
reading something recently aboutwhen they did the renovations
on front street, but this hasn'talways been commuter parking
(16:53):
here.
No, what, what has been on thisside of the of the tracks over
time?
Matt (17:00):
it appears that Mokena's very first ever Rock Island
Depot was built right here,right around this part here.
Yeah, basically right acrossfrom where the blacksmith shop
was, which is where the resalefor rescues is now.
It was built in 1852, rightwhen the Rock Island was built
(17:22):
through and then it burnt downaround 1887 or 1888.
And then when they rebuilt,they built further to the east,
sort of where that kind ofsitting area is closer to the
corner, but it was still on thisside of the tracks at that time
.
Yeah, the depot was always onthe north side of the tracks
(17:45):
from the start.
So 1852 until 1950, basicallywhen they built the first one on
the south side of the tracks.
There's been, let's see,there's been at least four
railroad depots in Mokena thatwe know of.
But yeah, when after the depothere burnt down, this was just
(18:07):
kind of like open space there,it was kind of like railroad
yards.
I mean, the Rock Island alwaysowned this.
Okay, this property waspurchased by the village.
I believe this might maybe itmight not be correct without
having my stuff in front of me,but I think this was purchased
(18:29):
during um Richard Quinn'sadministration.
Okay, uh, so that would havebeen early 80s, was it Mayor
Teske, though a little beforehim, late 70s and in that time
frame in any case.
And then they converted it, hadit paved and converted it into
a commuter parking.
People still parked here beforethen, but they kind of made it
(18:50):
a little better.
Israel (18:51):
Yeah, okay, in that time frame, once the village bought
it so when we first moved here,the building over here was the
chase bank.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but uh.
But what has that building beenover the years?
Matt (19:05):
This building was built in the I'm pretty sure in the 70s,
probably early 70s, because Ihave a picture of the building
from the, or you could see thebuilding in the background of a
picture from the Bicentennial.
So it was here then.
Was it a bank?
At that time it was a bank.
It was Lincoln Way, savings andLoan, okay.
(19:26):
And then there was another bankhere in my childhood in the 90s
Name is on the tip of my tongue.
I can't remember exactly whichbank it was, but then Chase Bank
was here for a while too.
Then recently it was made overinto the chiropractic place and
(19:47):
has, in the first time in itshistory, not been a bank.
But this piece of land righthere where the chiropractic
place is now also has a lot ofhistory, because this was the
site of the very ever firstbuilding in Mokena.
Israel (20:04):
Okay, tell us about that .
Matt (20:06):
So this building was built .
Right, the Rock Island wasn'teven finished yet when this
building was built, so it waslike end of.
One early historian said it wasthe winter of 1851 going into
52.
It was a little, a very smallbuilding that appears to have
been made of stone, that wasbuilt by a gentleman by the name
(20:28):
of general store.
It was the first business inMokena and, uh, he had a
(20:51):
business partner by the name ofsmith, maybe a relative, uh,
don't even know what his firstname was, it was never recorded,
uh.
And then, eventually, azaiusmcgoveney, who would later, um,
over 20 years later, almost 30years later, become Mokena's
first mayor, bought out Smithand then him and Warren Knapp,
(21:12):
who was his brother-in-law, werebusiness partners here.
However, the business did notlast very long.
They were out of businesswithin a couple years, if that
even, and they had to sell offthe property, everything that
was in the store, everything offthe property, everything that
was in the store, everything.
And the building itself doesn'tseem to have been around too
(21:33):
terribly long, because there wasa building here that appears to
be one that burnt in the greatfire of 1865, in which three or
four properties got wiped out onone day due to a fire, and I
(21:53):
say looks like it was here,because in the newspaper
accounts of the fire they talkabout that.
One of the men who lostproperty was Jacob Bauch, and we
know for a fact that he ownedthis lot at the time, so the
building was probably there.
Israel (22:11):
Wow, interesting.
Okay, well, good to know.
So this is the site of Mokena'sfirst business, and did you say
the first building?
Matt (22:20):
you think, yeah, first building, yeah, before the
railroad was even finished,absolutely yeah.
Israel (22:25):
And then, of course, the iconic, formerly Tribes,
formerly Dave's Auto.
Future, we don't know what.
Matt (22:34):
Yeah, yeah.
Israel (22:37):
Obviously a really old historic building here, right?
Matt (22:39):
Yeah, yeah, this building was, as far as buildings on
Front Street go, it's not tooterribly old, but it was built
basically right after World WarII ended and it was originally a
Kaiser Fraser dealership, soanother car dealer.
Israel (22:56):
What was that?
I don't think I've heard ofthat car before.
Matt (22:59):
It was just a car, a defunct make of cars, an
American car, yeah, oh, okay.
Yeah, I'm not too expertly inthat make of car, unfortunately,
but they were there at leastinto the 50s and down the line.
Walter Yunker bought thisproperty and he was the
(23:23):
Frankfurt Township HighwayCommissioner and also an
excavator.
He had his excavating businesshere in the front part of the
building.
Israel (23:32):
And he built this building, or he bought, he owned
, he just owned it.
Matt (23:36):
He owned it.
He did not build it.
He was around when it was builtbut and he sold it to Dave
Bergman.
I'm pretty sure that's how itwent.
Yeah, that Walter Junker andhis family sold it to the
Bergmans.
And, interestingly, back in the70s the police station almost
(23:56):
moved into this building becauseMr Junker's office was already
here and he was highwaycommissioner, but I think it was
shot down at referendum so thatnever happened.
Israel (24:07):
Wow, that's an interesting thought uh, so that
never happened.
But, wow, that's, yeah, that'san interesting thought.
Yeah, let's uh walk across thestreet for this one, because,
yeah, I mean we, you know, havesaid plenty about about this
building next door yeah, but Ithought considering the
condition.
Uh, you kind of need to talkabout it up close a little bit.
Yeah, absolutely so.
(24:27):
Uh, you know, again, we'vetalked numerous times, we had
the YouTube video on this placeand what Gino's doing.
But how old is this property?
Matt (24:38):
So this, there's almost like three different stories
with this property.
The portion that sits right onthe or fronts on Front Street
right here here is pretty oldDates from around 1870 or
thereabouts.
This portion of the buildingthat kind of sticks off to the
(25:01):
west here is much more recentand was built right around must
have been around 1955 orthereabouts by George Wanamaker,
who ran a grocery store here atthe time.
And then the northern half ofthis building, which we can see
through the window here, is theoldest of all of them and could
(25:22):
easily date from the 1850s or60s.
What a cool restoration.
Israel (25:27):
This is.
Matt (25:29):
Yeah, it is.
Israel (25:29):
And you can see now they've taken the old siding off
.
Um, I mean, yeah, big changessince we walked through it.
You know, a couple months agooh, definitely, yeah, no,
there's been a lot and we saidthe paulie's was the last
restaurant, yes, but A's was thepizza right.
Matt (25:52):
Yeah A's, yeah A's Pizza.
They opened up they had to havebeen in the 80s and then were
in business for a pretty longtime, at least into the early,
early, early 2000s, and thenPaul E's took over.
Israel (26:10):
Yeah no, we're excited for the dock to open up here.
Yeah, absolutely Get some moreprogress reports on this?
Yeah, definitely.
Matt (26:16):
That'll be pretty cool.
Israel (26:19):
And another recent episode of ours is, of course,
the Curtain Call episode, wherewe got to sit down and we were
just talking about some of theirrecent productions that we got
to go, uh, go see.
So, yeah, absolutely, this isthe old pharmacy.
Matt (26:36):
Yeah, as well, right, yeah , definitely one thing that was,
uh, I have to, I have to saythis um, I think I may have
mentioned it in another podcast,but uh, this was uh this is me
sagging up to a story, but backin the like the 90s, and I'm
sure even for a long time,because Kerber's Pharmacy was
(26:56):
here.
It started open here in 66.
This was a popular place wherekids would come and buy candy,
because they had an awesomecandy selection here.
But when I would come here withmy friends, we would always
leave our bikes out front here,because there was a bike rack
out here and myself and otherkids always used to try to climb
(27:17):
this because you can see the,the rock kind of sticks out like
this.
So you know, I can't do it nowbecause I'm too big, but you
could kind of try to climb up it.
Israel (27:29):
Oh, it's perfect for a young kid to do yeah yeah that's
cool.
And you said the stone it was.
Do you remember the california?
Matt (27:36):
something or other.
Israel (27:37):
California I don't remember, oh, you impressed me
the first time you said yeah,yeah, yeah and uh, yeah, curtain
call if you haven't been downto a show here.
This place is awesome, yeah,and the Bloom Art Studio next
door Good to have some optionsdowntown.
Yeah, definitely so.
(27:58):
Opposite side of the streethere, same kind of thing, right,
like always been, has it kindof been open?
Matt (28:06):
Has there ever been businesses on this side of the
street?
As far as anyone can ever tell,there's never been any
businesses or any kind ofsubstantial buildings on this
south side of Front Street, atleast on this part of Front
Street.
Israel (28:19):
How about on the south side?
I know there was something atthe corner, right, yeah, but was
there buildings or anythingbuilt up on that side of the
tracks?
Matt (28:29):
not that I've ever been able to discern.
I think the reason for that isjust for the fact that this
whole area along the tracks onthis part of front street and
this part of mcgoveney streetover here, was owned by the rock
island railroad.
Okay, so, um, they probablyweren't interested in having
anything built on it or sellingany of it to anybody.
Israel (28:52):
And during the time when there was the depot right here,
you would have had other tracksand stuff coming off right.
Would it have taken up moreroom?
Matt (29:02):
There weren't a huge amount of other tracks, but
there were different.
There weren't, um, or therewere a couple of I'm not sure
what the railroad terminology is, but side tracks or whatever
you want to call them.
Uh, that were here.
There was one that existed wellinto the 90s on the south side
(29:24):
of the tracks that ran reallyclose to where Etcetera is now.
It crossed over Mokena Streetand then went over onto the
other side of the depot.
I think you can still see someof the rails over by Next to
Etcetera, right Right next toEtcetera.
Israel (29:40):
yeah, that actually crossed the road at that point.
Matt (29:43):
Yep, yeah, yeah.
So I think there might havebeen one or two of those.
You can tell from photos goingway, way back on this area north
(30:05):
of the tracks.
So talk about this one.
This is not the prettiestbuilding in Mokena.
1862, a year into the war,something substantial already
stood on this lot, and it was.
It was probably this building.
(30:27):
This building was for many, manyyears in the 19th century a
saloon, and then that was ran bya man by the name of William
Jacob, who was a Germanimmigrant, like many of our
forefathers were, and after hepassed away in the early 1900s
the building passed into theownership of his daughter who
kind of kept it as a.
(30:47):
It was referred to as a hall.
Back then people would call itBeckstein's Hall because she was
, her name was FilipinaBeckstein, so different events
and things would be hosted here.
But an ice cream store ran byAugust and was it was his wife,
helen.
Helen Flager opened here in theWorld War I days and then, not
(31:13):
too terribly long after theyopened, they moved into selling
groceries.
So they had a store here thatlasted for a pretty long time.
Let's see, I'm trying to think.
Uh, the, let's see, I'm tryingto think the flagors had, if I'm
not mistaken, had passed awayby 1950, and uh, it was at that
(31:36):
point that the?
Um, the store had been out ofbusiness.
But uh, it kept afloat for allthose years, despite the fact
that it was.
It was smaller than wanamakersand it was smaller than sipples
down where, uh, gino pichola'soffice is now.
But flagers sold meat and um,the others didn't, at least not
(32:01):
not yet.
Wanamakers did later.
But, um, that was one of thethings that that kept them going
for as long as they did and andwe talked about the story about
the Mokena riot where peoplegot off the train and basically
destroyed a building.
And was that not did?
Israel (32:19):
you say this is the site .
Matt (32:20):
It was very.
It was, as far as I've beenable to discern through property
records, been able to discernthrough property records this,
that riot, they, these, whateveryou want to call them from
Chicago came and ransacked thevillage, but the main part of
the riot took place in thisimmediate area somewhere.
(32:44):
It could have been here.
There also was another buildingthat was just next door to this
one.
In that era it could have beenthere, hi Hi.
We don't know exactly where,but it was definitely in this
(33:06):
vicinity, within a door or two.
Israel (33:09):
Okay, yeah, that's really interesting Because, as
you said, the depot would havebeen a lot closer right At that
time.
Was the depot further there orwas it up?
Matt (33:19):
It would have been over just a little over there, yeah
okay, in that direction.
Israel (33:24):
So an easy place.
You can easily see the peoplegetting off the train there and
coming right across yeah, andcausing havoc?
Matt (33:31):
yeah, exactly so.
Yeah, that would have beenright in here, in this immediate
area somewhere.
Israel (33:39):
Yeah, absolutely yeah, neat, you know it's uh unique
with its uh dripping mortar onthe brick and always my whole
lifetime it's been that way.
Matt (33:49):
I remember noticing that when I was little and thinking
it was just the weirdest thing.
Israel (33:52):
And how about the color?
Was the color been that as longas you remember too?
Yes, this building has.
Matt (33:59):
So I turned 38 this year and this building has looked
exactly the same my entire life.
Yeah, it's one of the fewthings on Front Street that
hasn't changed.
Israel (34:09):
Not necessarily for the better.
Yeah, wow, it's one of the fewthings on Front Street that
hasn't changed Not necessarilyfor the better, but yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
And this and this property nowthe home of Lincoln Way Realty,
uh MBLO, as well as the chamber,yeah.
Absolutely, melissa always doesa good job with the front
window here.
Matt (34:24):
Yeah, definitely, it's always pretty cool.
I always like seeing what shehas.
Israel (34:28):
And so talk a little bit about the history of this site,
but maybe first how about thisbuilding?
Like how long has this propertybeen here?
Matt (34:36):
So that's an interesting question.
So this building was actuallybuilt in phases.
The oldest part of thisbuilding is the first story, the
ground story, and it openedthat must have been about 1960
or so by the Tuttle family.
Mr Tuttle would not yet at thistime, but later go on to be
(34:57):
mayor of Mokena and he hadbought this property, demoed the
old building that was herebefore this one and built this
as his.
He was like was like in a, uh,if I'm not mistaken, he was an
electrician, so he opened likehis shop and like electrical
supply shop here.
Um, his family is still around.
So if I'm wrong on any of thesedetails, they can definitely uh
(35:19):
correct me on the page or, uh,or wherever.
But what's really cool aboutthis building is that this, this
whole building, was once thesite of a business called Mokena
Sales which was ran by theTuttle family.
Uh, and it was basically likeMokena's department store in the
uh, 60s, 70s, 80s, still around.
(35:40):
Um, well, into my lifetime, uh,there was so many things you
could buy here did Mokena Saleshave?
both floors.
Israel (35:48):
Was the second floor built.
Matt (35:49):
Yes, once they got really successful they added on the
second floor and I remember inthis part of the building where
the chamber is now was kind oflike a hardware store Sold that
kind of thing hardware.
The western side of thebuilding where the accountant is
now, you can kind of compare itto like a Hallmark store Sold
(36:12):
greeting cards and kind of likeodds and ends like that.
I remember when I was a kid,going in here at Christmas time,
they always had a reallyimpressive selection of
different Christmas ornamentsand upstairs and this wasn't
always this way, this was onlywithin my lifetime.
(36:33):
But upstairs was kind of like acraft kind of store.
You could get differentcrafting supplies.
At one point they had a reallycool toy selection up there.
But back in the day like 60s,70s, you could buy appliances
here, tvs here.
You name it, tuttle's or MokenaSales sold it.
(36:54):
So the Tuttle family was a bigpart of the business life in
Mokena for a very long time andvery prominent citizens.
Israel (37:02):
And when we came here it was Annie's Cusina who had the
whole place.
Matt (37:09):
Yeah, that's right.
Israel (37:10):
And then Anthony took it over for a little while and
they had a great upstairsrestaurant.
Matt (37:14):
That's right, you know at the bar up there.
Israel (37:16):
Yeah yeah, and then you know now how we see it today.
Yeah absolutely Very cool.
And what?
How about before?
This?
Give us a little glimpse ofwhat was here before this
building.
Matt (37:29):
Yeah, so before this building, the one that the
Tuttle family bought and thenlater did away with to build
this building.
It's a pretty old 19th centurybuilding that, for once again,
years and years and years, wasowned by a man by the name of
Henry Stellwagen, who acquiredthe property right around the
turn of the 20th century, around1897, 98.
(37:52):
And his trade was somethingthat's totally extinct nowadays.
He was a liveryman, meaningthat he rented horses from this.
He had a big barn at thenorthern side of the property
where he would rent horses andcarriages to traveling salesmen,
people coming through town,stuff like that, and he also
(38:20):
sold harnesses and saddles andstuff like that.
Israel (38:21):
Any idea how big I mean, that must've been a pretty good
size building too.
Do you similar footprint tothis?
That's a good question.
Matt (38:27):
So his Mr Stillwagon's property that came right up here
to Front Street was we can tellfrom photos was not quite as
big as this building.
In fact it was.
It looks like it was quite abit smaller, but I've never seen
any photos of his barn, but itsounds like it had to be of some
(38:48):
kind of substantial size inorder to accommodate a bunch of
horses.
And then later on, once carsstarted to become more prevalent
, people could pay him to storetheir cars here, so he went from
cars to horses.
Israel (39:02):
Yeah, Okay.
And then right here, thisillustrious parking lot here.
And then right here, thislustrous parking lot here.
Yeah, yeah, you said, this iswhere the old Mokina Bank was
right.
Matt (39:13):
Yeah, yeah, the original Mokena State Bank stood.
It's kind of hard to pinpointits exact footprint because
where this huge parking lot isbasically had been three
different buildings at one point, but the old bank stood kind of
right in here, right like thisarea, kind of right here, and it
(39:36):
was built in 1909.
When the bank opened, was theirfirst and only location, until
the building was ultimately torndown in 1973 to make way for
this, their new building as itwas at the time, and Mokena
State Bank was here until thatmust have been around 2010 or
(40:01):
thereabouts, and when they gotbought out by, I believe, it was
the state bank of illinois whowas here.
Israel (40:06):
So nowadays this building has been a few
different banks, but Mokinastate bank was here the longest
and, like I think we've saidbefore, but that old bank was
such a beautiful building withthe pillars and it's interesting
to see in the pictures, becausethe pictures don't really
justify the distance right.
(40:27):
Because you had that bankbuilding here and then
everything to the corner was thegeneral store right.
Matt (40:34):
Yeah, that was a pretty big building that also held
quite a lot of things over theyears.
Back in the 19th century it wasknown as the Stoll property
Because Conrad and FranciscoStoll, their family, ran a
pretty successful general storehere that sold, once again, all
(40:55):
kinds of stuff.
That sold once again to allkinds of stuff.
And uh later on in the uh earlypart of the 20th century for a
few decades there was uh davekolber's hardware store was in
that building and we still havepeople around who will remember
when gus brown had his uh icecream slash candy shop here and
(41:16):
the building was kind of um, ifI could try to describe sort of
like l-shaped.
It had part of it right hereand then the stem of the l, if
you want to say, went kind oflike this going back along
moquina street and it go rightup along the sidewalk too,
because the the front of thebuilding was again right up on
the sidewalk right yeah, yeah,the that back part of the
(41:39):
building was right up on thesidewalk, right up on the street
, and during gus brown's tenureis, uh, he had a pool hall back
there.
Uh was a very manly kind ofplace.
Not a lot of uh women went inthere uh, but it was a place
where guys would hang out andplay pool and uh curious kids
would kind of stick their headsin the door to kind of see what
(42:00):
was going on in there.
Israel (42:02):
I love the pictures of this old, the old building here
yeah.
You know, the, the look of that, I don't know what they call it
, but almost how you know zap,you know, has the front, you
know flat part and the and theroof going, uh, and all these
they had the, a number of themhad, like the balconies over the
(42:23):
top and you'd you know just areally neat, look and old.
You know, homey kind of feel toit.
Matt (42:32):
Oh, absolutely yeah, it was a.
In my opinion, it was abeautiful historic building that
stood here.
It was done away with back inthe 60s, if I'm not mistaken, it
was for the bank to build aparking lot, even before this
building was built.
When the bank was still here,that original building expanded
a lot in the 50s.
I think they acquired this tobuild a parking lot, if I'm not
(42:57):
mistaken, but the building waseasily 100 years old and it was
here until they tore it down forthe parking lot.
Israel (43:04):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's too bad, it is, yeah, beautiful
view of saint john's down thereyeah, definitely.
Matt (43:10):
And then we did the episode about this building.
Israel (43:13):
Well, the next couple buildings there we've got
episodes on.
Yeah definitely, but a pre orjust post-Civil War building
right.
Matt (43:22):
Yep, this guy in the corner here was built in 1868.
So just a few years after theCivil War ended.
Israel (43:29):
And it's been a what was it?
A pharmacy for a long time andpost office, oh, all kinds of
things.
Matt (43:37):
Yeah, this was one of the many places the Mokena post
office has been.
Uh, right around the turn ofthe 20th century, uh, the post
office was, uh was here I forgetwho, under whose postmastership
that was, but uh, yeah, 1890s,very early 1900s, post office
was here.
It's been a pharmacy, then aconfectionary, so like candy,
(44:00):
ice cream, that sort of thingand it was converted over into
apartments.
Uh, right around, uh, rightaround the end of world war ii
yeah really a neat building.
Israel (44:10):
Unfortunately, somebody is taking a little time and done
some updates and fixed up alittle.
Matt (44:15):
Oh, absolutely.
Israel (44:16):
But I mean wild to think that that building has been
sitting here.
You know, I think our episodewas titled, you know, witness to
History.
Yeah, but I mean that has beenhere a long time.
I've seen a lot change and alot go on in this town, yeah it
definitely has, I mean you know,obviously Al's has two and
there's a few that are reallygreat.
But it's such a quiet.
(44:38):
You know you don't have the,you know it's just a quieter
building.
It was neat when we did thearticle, a couple people posted
about having to live there orone of their grandparents, so
that was neat to see too.
Oh, absolutely, yeah, we'llmake our way back this way a
little bit.
Yeah, definitely, but how aboutthis building behind us?
(44:58):
You want to talk a little bitabout that one?
Matt (45:00):
Yeah, so this building behind us was very I don't want
to use the word aggressivelyvery extensively remodeled
around 2002.
However, underneath all thisthat's there now is the original
building that was built rightaround the end of the 40s.
(45:20):
And that building it lookedcompletely different.
It was completely out of brickand the roof was completely flat
.
It didn't kind of have thispeak to it.
That's there now.
But that building wasoriginally Cavett's Pharmacy.
When it opened, and not tooterribly long after they opened,
the Bollman family took overand they ran their pharmacy here
(45:45):
, which was a pretty successfulbusiness for a pretty long time.
I think Mr Bollman passed awayaround the.
It must have been around theend of the 50s or thereabouts,
and in fact he still has familyaround too Not around here,
unfortunately, but they're stillout there.
And then it was anotherpharmacy, briefly.
And then lots of bars afterthat.
(46:07):
Oh, okay, lots of yeah.
Israel (46:09):
I've heard some questionable stories about the
bars that were in that place.
They're all true, believe me.
They are.
Yeah, All right, We'll savethat for another podcast.
Matt (46:17):
Yeah yeah, all right, we'll save that for another
podcast.
Israel (46:19):
Yeah, definitely, well, great, you know, I wanted to do
this because it's good to see.
You know, we drive by downtownevery day and you don't really
think about it a lot of times,or you know, appreciate or know
what we're driving past and thesights and that that we see.
But you know, the other thingis uh, I, I thought it was
(46:40):
interesting.
You know people, we have areally good history here, you
know.
But when we look at ourdowntown, we don't have a
thriving downtown like a lot oftowns do so, there's right maybe
a less of an appreciation forthat, or yeah, but let's get's,
get your.
Why Mokena Matt, like what's sogreat about.
Matt (47:03):
Mokena, just the fact that it's always been a home for me.
I've known so many great peopleover the years who have lived
here with me or have grown upwith me, and everywhere I look
there's a story, some memoryfrom growing up or from.
(47:23):
It could even just be a coupleof years ago, and then also,
when I started doing the deepdive into the history, there's
even more stories.
It's like, for example, onceagain with Gino's building,
where the dock is about to go,or, as I call it, still the
Wanamaker building.
That's its historic name.
Every time I drive by I have mymemories of hanging out there
(47:47):
with my friends when we were inhigh school and even younger do.
I have that and look backfondly upon those times.
But I also look back on the 150plus years of history that have
happened there and all thosestories that, even though I
didn't experience, I've becomeprivy to you're living in that
(48:10):
history, you've experienced, youknow the spirit of that time.
Israel (48:15):
No, that's great.
Matt (48:16):
I love it yeah, no, it is, and it's cool to think about
too.
Israel (48:20):
I mean, I think about that, you know, as we'll get to
enjoy it again.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know allthose, all those memories, as
well as that, that history.
Matt (48:30):
Oh, absolutely yeah.
But it's cool that the Inoticed the windows on the east
side of Geno's.
We'll call it Geno's.
The original windows areexposed again because for a long
time the siding covered them up.
Oh really yeah, that's prettycool.
Israel (48:47):
Well, matt, this was a nice little walk down, get a
little refresher on some thingsand get a little brief history
of downtown.
Matt (48:55):
Yeah, exactly.
So thank you for the walkingtour.
Israel (48:56):
Oh, absolutely, thanks for having me Beautiful early
spring day.
Yeah, and great to be outwalking around.
Matt (49:06):
Yeah, it is.
Israel (49:06):
Excited for summer to be coming and all the events and
that goes with it.
Matt (49:10):
Yeah, definitely Thanks for taking a walk with me, matt,
no problem, yeah, thanks forhaving me.
I was glad to do it.
Israel (49:18):
I, no problem.
Yeah, thanks for having us.
Glad to do it.
I hope you enjoyed our walkdown Front Street.
Make sure you check out ourYouTube page for the full
YouTube video of our walk downFront Street.
You can find that by going onYouTube and searching for
Mokena's Front Porch.
You'll see all our videos onthere.
You can look for more walkingtours like this through the
summer.
Also, be sure to check outMatt's blog, which is Matt's Old
Mokena.
You can find that andeverything related to our
(49:41):
podcast at our website, which ismokenasfrontporch.
com.
So thanks for listening andwe'll see you next time on
Mokena's Front Porch.
Welcome to Mokena's Front Porch, a Mokena history
podcast with Matt Galick and me,israel Smith.
In this episode, matt and I dosomething a little special.
I've been wanting to do thisfor a while.
Let's go downtown Mokena withMatt and walk around, kind of
get a walking tour of Mokena andselfishly, as we all know, matt
(00:22):
is a wealth of information whenit comes to Mokena and Mokena's
history.
So I thought this would be agood way to tie together a lot
of the stories that we've toldwith a visual and, in this case,
the audio story.
The full video is on YouTubeand you can watch that and see
as we go along Front Street, butyou can listen here and enjoy
(00:44):
as well For perspective.
We start at the corner of WolfRoad and Front Street.
The little plaza is there wherethe snowman is in the winter,
so we stand there, we start ourconversation and we move our way
down Front Street towardsMokena Street, which is where
Midland State Bank is, as wellas the other train crossing.
(01:06):
We don't really go in-depthinto a lot of things, but Matt
points out where the firstbusiness in Mokena was, where
the Mokena Riot took place,which is one of our stories we
talk about.
We talk about a number ofbuildings that were there and
what's there now, and it reallybrings to life the story of
Mokena and the stories thatwe've shared up to this point.
(01:26):
So I hope that you enjoy thiswalk down Front Street as much
as I enjoyed having it with Matt.
As I said, matt is a wealth ofinformation and we've also had
some great comments from peoplealready on our YouTube video,
adding in tidbits of historyfrom their knowledge as well.
Mokena has a great and richhistory and we're excited to
share it in all of our podcasts,but I think that this really
(01:51):
ties together so many of ourstories.
If you're enjoying these,please share it with others.
That's the way this isspreading.
I'm excited the way it'sgrowing and we want to grow it
more, especially this year.
So if you're enjoying these,please just take a second to
share it on Facebook or to sendit in a message to somebody, or
share one of these episodes onyour social media or in an email
(02:13):
, or just tell a friend about it.
We'd really appreciate it.
It means a lot and it justshows us that you're
appreciating this podcast andwhat we're putting out.
So I really hope you enjoypodcast and what we're putting
out.
So I really hope you enjoy ourwalk down Front Street with me
and Matt Galick.
All right, matt, so we'rewalking up to the corner of
First of Front and Wolf, yeah,and so, as we're thought it'd be
(02:38):
a good idea tonight to do likea little walk down Front Street,
talk about some of thebuildings yeah, definitely.
What we like about Mokena yeah,absolutely, and what we're
seeing.
So, when you think about FrontStreet and Wolf Road, one of the
stories that I think about iswhen we were talking about
Deputy Fisher oh, yeah, and theystopped people carrying liquor
(03:01):
through, right.
That's right During the heightof Prohibition.
Yeah, so give a little recap onthat story.
Matt (03:09):
Yeah, sure.
So Deputy Fisher was at homewith his family.
He lived behind his store onFront Street, which was further
east.
Down Front Street Building,long gone, stood where Dina's
Barbershop would later be, forthose of us in the know and he
got a call, an unexpected call,from an unknown person.
(03:30):
He didn't know who this personwas.
That tipped him off that ashipment of illegal liquor, as
it were, was going to be comingthrough town and that he might
want to get it in his status asa part-time Will County
Sheriff's deputy.
So this, the more I think aboutthis, the more I think this was
probably some rival bootleggerthat was looking to get rid of
(03:54):
the competition.
But he went and grabbed avillage constable, John Frisch,
who was a railroad worker by day, and they came up and this
unknown person that had calledDeputy Fisher said to be
expecting this truck from thewest, so passing through town
(04:14):
out of the west, so coming downthis road was here at the time.
Israel (04:19):
Yeah, it was here yeah, so they would be coming this way
from like the New Lenox kind ofarea, that kind of direction.
Yeah, yeah, so they would becoming this way from like the
New Lenox kind of area, thatkind of direction.
Yeah, absolutely.
Matt (04:26):
And the two men just sort of set up here in the middle of
the intersection, as, of course,the traffic wasn't nearly what
it is today.
So they were able to do thisand they decided to get the
driver to stop, that theygrabbed the green flag from the
(04:51):
Rock Island flagman, whose shackwas right here In the days
before.
Speak of electric.
Israel (04:58):
Good timing.
Matt (04:59):
Days before electric warning gates there were two men
, one posted here and one postedat the Mokena Street crossing,
whose jobs it was to make surepeople stayed away from the
tracks when trains were coming.
But these men carried greenflags, at least at that time
they did.
So Deputy Fisher and ConstableFrisch borrowed the flag of the
(05:23):
flagman and after having beenhere for a few minutes, they saw
this shipment coming out ofthis direction.
So one of them flagged thedriver down and the driver fell
for it and they stopped righthere.
This driver and his accomplicestopped right here in the
(05:44):
intersection and constableFrisch was just sort of talking
to them, seeing who they were,what was going on.
And deputy Fisher kind ofstepped off to the side and
peeked behind the covering itwas like a cloth or a tarp that
covered the back of this truckjust to kind of see what was
(06:06):
back there, and he saw what weredescribed as sacks full of
bottles.
So he knew sure enough this wasthem.
Just as he noticed this,constable Frisch might have it
sounds like he might have gottenthe guys to get out of the
truck Because he noticed, asthis was going on, that one of
the men went to grab a gun andpull it on uh, mr frisch, oh wow
(06:30):
.
So deputy fisher intervened,managed to subdue this guy and
get the gun away from him, andthen he basically uh, saved
constable frisch's life that day.
Aside from uh, the two of themtook the men into custody.
I was determined, I think ifI'm remembering this case
properly, I think it wasdetermined that the men came
(06:51):
from Gary, indiana, wow, wowyeah, really interesting, and
you know this is a really busycorner for us now.
Israel (07:00):
Yeah, absolutely, but at one point we talked about the
newspaper and the editor of thepaper.
Matt (07:08):
Yeah, the Semlors, the Semlors, yeah.
Israel (07:12):
And Mr Semlorn his importance of getting this as a
throughway.
Oh right, right.
Matt (07:15):
Yeah, yeah.
Israel (07:18):
But before that happened , what was this intersection
like?
Matt (07:22):
Not the greatest condition as far as roads go.
Wolf Road.
Before Mr Semler and hisfriends really got going with
this in the 1920s, Wolf Road wasvery, very rugged, very, very
primitive, strictly dirt.
In any kind of weather rain oror snow it just turned into a
(07:46):
muddy mess.
That was it could be prettyhard to traverse at times.
From time to time uh, the uhtownship was able to get it
graveled okay, but that neverreally lasted yeah too terribly
long.
Israel (08:02):
So so and and when was it that it finally did go
through and was paved?
Matt (08:10):
After the Wolf Road was concreted kind of like in
segments, by the time everythingwas said and done, because it's
kind of a long story.
By the time it got to theLincoln Highway south of town
there was a dispute with aproperty owner out there.
I think it was probably theearly 30s by the time Wolf Road
(08:34):
was fully hardened throughMokena or what today we would
consider Mokena yeah.
Israel (08:41):
Well, neat.
Well, let's kind of walk down alittle bit and where Speedway
is now, that's been a gasstation for a long time.
Matt (08:49):
right, it's been a gas station for a pretty long time.
It was before it was Speedway.
It was Houck's and Houck thatactually had been a Mokena
family at one point.
I don't believe they were.
I think when mr hauck built thegas station before this one.
I think they might have comefrom new lennox at that point,
(09:11):
but their, their roots were herebefore haucks.
It was a conoco station, okay,and then before the conoco
station, which was built in I'mpretty sure, 50s, early 50s
maybe, uh, there was a very,very old house oh, really,
corner, that's probably so.
There were like a house next tothe flower shop kind of thing,
(09:31):
and that was all that was on thecorner there yeah, yeah,
basically where, uh, where thegas station is now, there was a
house, a somewhat small housebut normal for the 19th century,
a house that sat right there.
And then way, way, way, wayback during the Civil War, there
was another house that stoodnext to it.
(09:53):
It's kind of a mystery as towhatever happened to that house,
if it was moved or if it burntdown or whatever happened.
And then there was yet a thirdhouse.
The driveway of it still exists.
And then there was yet a thirdhouse the driveway of it still
exists Just past where thedumpsters are for the gas
station.
There was another house therethat must have come down in oh,
(10:14):
I'm racking my brain, I thinkmaybe like very, very early
2000s, oh, wow.
And it was an old house.
It wasn't as old as the houseright on the corner.
That one had belonged to theBauch family for decades Later,
the Frick family, and probablyin all likelihood predated the
(10:35):
Civil War.
But this house that stood untilrelatively recently was built
by the Helmuth family rightaround around, probably around
world war one or so.
Israel (10:48):
Oh, wow, yeah, thereabouts uh, and I don't want
to keep coming back too far,but so if we look where molkina
video is yeah, and this isanother corner that has had a
number of businesses and andthat in town right was this
where the there was a welder ora steelworker shop yeah, there
was a?
Matt (11:08):
uh, right where the parking lot for Mokena video is
was a little building thathoused the blacksmith shop for a
very long time.
That was mr helen house'sblacksmith shop, bill helen
house.
Okay, uh, trying to think whenaround he opened.
Once again, I want to say itwas roughly around world war one
(11:29):
in that time frame, becausethat building that was there was
not built by him.
It had been built by, uh, someof the dairy farmers a few years
before that.
Uh, when they were having afalling out with bowman Dairy,
they ran what was called askimming station out of this
building.
Israel (11:50):
Wow, what's a, you know?
Oh, a skimming off for the milk.
Matt (11:54):
Yeah, yeah I only have kind of a foggy idea as to what
that is, but to my understanding, yeah, it's where cream would
be taken off of milk and stufflike that and made into more
products.
Sure, okay, they weren't inthere too terribly long, and
then Mr Hellenhaus took over.
Israel (12:11):
So what about the Patterson Corner here now?
Matt (12:16):
Yeah, just like just about everywhere on Front Street,
there's been multiple thingshere over the years, a lot of
these, the different buildingsthat we'll come across, some of
them are like the third andfourth buildings that stood at
this site, so where the let'sjust call it the whole Patterson
(12:36):
building is now where DrPatterson's dentist office is
nowadays.
That was another gas station,that was mr writers Sinclair
station back in the 50s, 60s,I'm not, honestly, I'm not too
sure.
Was this?
Israel (12:55):
oh, I'm sorry.
Was this built at right,directly after the?
What kind of station was it?
Did you say this was a Sinclair?
Matt (13:01):
a Sinclair okay, actually the building where dr
Patterson's is was the buildingfrom the gas station.
Oh, it was yeah, they okay, youwould never guess that.
But this part over where Mrs DrPatterson's office is and where
the wealth management place is,that was an addition later on.
Israel (13:16):
All right, but you can kind of see it.
I could see that coming in theside door right.
Is that where you would uh onthose doors that are there?
Matt (13:23):
yeah, exactly the gas pumps were here, uh, closer to
the corner, um, I want to say,uh, the house that was there
before the gas station.
They were talking about havingit demoed in the early 50s, so
it must have the gas stationmust have sprung up not too long
(13:44):
after that, uh, but exactly howlong they were in business I'm
not sure, but I know they atleast went into the 60s.
Oh wow.
But there's a lot of history onthis corner, because on this
first corner, or on this cornerright here, yeah, uh, stood one
of the very first buildings inMokena, not the first, but one
(14:13):
of like, probably in the firstthree or five, maybe thereabouts
.
That was the inn of a Germanman by the name of Karl Gall,
and he built in 1853, basicallyright after the Rock Island came
through, and the workers on therailroad were some of his first
customers.
Wow, one of the very firstbusinesses in Mokena.
That building burnt down in the1870s and then, not too
(14:37):
terribly long after that musthave been around 1884 or 1885, a
man by the name of John zahnbuilt his house here and it
stayed in his family for a very,very long time.
And what was ultimately gottenrid of when the gas station was
built?
that's a really predominant spotfor for a house, yeah yeah,
(15:02):
yeah, but yeah, there it was,and it was right up against the
road too.
Yeah, wow, people have told methat when they would walk by on
the sidewalk you were almostright up against the windows and
you could kind of like lookinto the house and see.
Israel (15:13):
Like some of the old houses down the street.
Yeah, exactly.
So next we kind of come up towhat used to be the post office.
This is the.
Nasos resale for rescuesproperty here.
Absolutely so.
This was the post office untilwhen.
Matt (15:30):
Opened in 1960 is when the building was built, and then it
was the post office until itmust have been around 1982 or so
when they moved into thecurrent building further down
wall.
Okay.
Israel (15:42):
And then it's been a couple of businesses since that
time right.
Matt (15:44):
Yeah, yeah, building further down wolf, okay, and
then it's been a couplebusinesses since that time,
right, yeah, yeah, it was, um,oh, man, there, if I remember
correctly, there was, very, verybriefly, a pool hall there, uh,
in the 80s that kind ofattracted some nefarious
characters, from what I've heard.
Okay, I also remember in mychildhood, just a little while
(16:06):
after that, there was one rightover here where Mrs Dr
Patterson's practice is now.
Oh, okay, but then it became FDPrinting, so a print shop, and
they were in business for a verylong time, a very long time,
probably from the 80s, um, wellup into, I'm trying to even
(16:28):
remember when they they shutdown, well into the 2000s.
Israel (16:33):
Oh, wow, yeah, yeah yeah , well, it's good to see.
I mean, I don't know if youever go in there.
It's a nice little resale shopnow it's, it's pretty cool.
Yeah, definitely, and so forthis side, um, I was just
reading something recently aboutwhen they did the renovations
on front street, but this hasn'talways been commuter parking
(16:53):
here.
No, what, what has been on thisside of the of the tracks over
time?
Matt (17:00):
it appears that Mokena's very first ever Rock Island
Depot was built right here,right around this part here.
Yeah, basically right acrossfrom where the blacksmith shop
was, which is where the resalefor rescues is now.
It was built in 1852, rightwhen the Rock Island was built
(17:22):
through and then it burnt downaround 1887 or 1888.
And then when they rebuilt,they built further to the east,
sort of where that kind ofsitting area is closer to the
corner, but it was still on thisside of the tracks at that time
.
Yeah, the depot was always onthe north side of the tracks
(17:45):
from the start.
So 1852 until 1950, basicallywhen they built the first one on
the south side of the tracks.
There's been, let's see,there's been at least four
railroad depots in Mokena thatwe know of.
But yeah, when after the depothere burnt down, this was just
(18:07):
kind of like open space there,it was kind of like railroad
yards.
I mean, the Rock Island alwaysowned this.
Okay, this property waspurchased by the village.
I believe this might maybe itmight not be correct without
having my stuff in front of me,but I think this was purchased
(18:29):
during um Richard Quinn'sadministration.
Okay, uh, so that would havebeen early 80s, was it Mayor
Teske, though a little beforehim, late 70s and in that time
frame in any case.
And then they converted it, hadit paved and converted it into
a commuter parking.
People still parked here beforethen, but they kind of made it
(18:50):
a little better.
Israel (18:51):
Yeah, okay, in that time frame, once the village bought
it so when we first moved here,the building over here was the
chase bank.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but uh.
But what has that building beenover the years?
Matt (19:05):
This building was built in the I'm pretty sure in the 70s,
probably early 70s, because Ihave a picture of the building
from the, or you could see thebuilding in the background of a
picture from the Bicentennial.
So it was here then.
Was it a bank?
At that time it was a bank.
It was Lincoln Way, savings andLoan, okay.
(19:26):
And then there was another bankhere in my childhood in the 90s
Name is on the tip of my tongue.
I can't remember exactly whichbank it was, but then Chase Bank
was here for a while too.
Then recently it was made overinto the chiropractic place and
(19:47):
has, in the first time in itshistory, not been a bank.
But this piece of land righthere where the chiropractic
place is now also has a lot ofhistory, because this was the
site of the very ever firstbuilding in Mokena.
Israel (20:04):
Okay, tell us about that .
Matt (20:06):
So this building was built .
Right, the Rock Island wasn'teven finished yet when this
building was built, so it waslike end of.
One early historian said it wasthe winter of 1851 going into
52.
It was a little, a very smallbuilding that appears to have
been made of stone, that wasbuilt by a gentleman by the name
(20:28):
of general store.
It was the first business inMokena and, uh, he had a
(20:51):
business partner by the name ofsmith, maybe a relative, uh,
don't even know what his firstname was, it was never recorded,
uh.
And then, eventually, azaiusmcgoveney, who would later, um,
over 20 years later, almost 30years later, become Mokena's
first mayor, bought out Smithand then him and Warren Knapp,
(21:12):
who was his brother-in-law, werebusiness partners here.
However, the business did notlast very long.
They were out of businesswithin a couple years, if that
even, and they had to sell offthe property, everything that
was in the store, everything offthe property, everything that
was in the store, everything.
And the building itself doesn'tseem to have been around too
(21:33):
terribly long, because there wasa building here that appears to
be one that burnt in the greatfire of 1865, in which three or
four properties got wiped out onone day due to a fire, and I
(21:53):
say looks like it was here,because in the newspaper
accounts of the fire they talkabout that.
One of the men who lostproperty was Jacob Bauch, and we
know for a fact that he ownedthis lot at the time, so the
building was probably there.
Israel (22:11):
Wow, interesting.
Okay, well, good to know.
So this is the site of Mokena'sfirst business, and did you say
the first building?
Matt (22:20):
you think, yeah, first building, yeah, before the
railroad was even finished,absolutely yeah.
Israel (22:25):
And then, of course, the iconic, formerly Tribes,
formerly Dave's Auto.
Future, we don't know what.
Matt (22:34):
Yeah, yeah.
Israel (22:37):
Obviously a really old historic building here, right?
Matt (22:39):
Yeah, yeah, this building was, as far as buildings on
Front Street go, it's not tooterribly old, but it was built
basically right after World WarII ended and it was originally a
Kaiser Fraser dealership, soanother car dealer.
Israel (22:56):
What was that?
I don't think I've heard ofthat car before.
Matt (22:59):
It was just a car, a defunct make of cars, an
American car, yeah, oh, okay.
Yeah, I'm not too expertly inthat make of car, unfortunately,
but they were there at leastinto the 50s and down the line.
Walter Yunker bought thisproperty and he was the
(23:23):
Frankfurt Township HighwayCommissioner and also an
excavator.
He had his excavating businesshere in the front part of the
building.
Israel (23:32):
And he built this building, or he bought, he owned
, he just owned it.
Matt (23:36):
He owned it.
He did not build it.
He was around when it was builtbut and he sold it to Dave
Bergman.
I'm pretty sure that's how itwent.
Yeah, that Walter Junker andhis family sold it to the
Bergmans.
And, interestingly, back in the70s the police station almost
(23:56):
moved into this building becauseMr Junker's office was already
here and he was highwaycommissioner, but I think it was
shot down at referendum so thatnever happened.
Israel (24:07):
Wow, that's an interesting thought uh, so that
never happened.
But, wow, that's, yeah, that'san interesting thought.
Yeah, let's uh walk across thestreet for this one, because,
yeah, I mean we, you know, havesaid plenty about about this
building next door yeah, but Ithought considering the
condition.
Uh, you kind of need to talkabout it up close a little bit.
Yeah, absolutely so.
(24:27):
Uh, you know, again, we'vetalked numerous times, we had
the YouTube video on this placeand what Gino's doing.
But how old is this property?
Matt (24:38):
So this, there's almost like three different stories
with this property.
The portion that sits right onthe or fronts on Front Street
right here here is pretty oldDates from around 1870 or
thereabouts.
This portion of the buildingthat kind of sticks off to the
(25:01):
west here is much more recentand was built right around must
have been around 1955 orthereabouts by George Wanamaker,
who ran a grocery store here atthe time.
And then the northern half ofthis building, which we can see
through the window here, is theoldest of all of them and could
(25:22):
easily date from the 1850s or60s.
What a cool restoration.
Israel (25:27):
This is.
Matt (25:29):
Yeah, it is.
Israel (25:29):
And you can see now they've taken the old siding off
.
Um, I mean, yeah, big changessince we walked through it.
You know, a couple months agooh, definitely, yeah, no,
there's been a lot and we saidthe paulie's was the last
restaurant, yes, but A's was thepizza right.
Matt (25:52):
Yeah A's, yeah A's Pizza.
They opened up they had to havebeen in the 80s and then were
in business for a pretty longtime, at least into the early,
early, early 2000s, and thenPaul E's took over.
Israel (26:10):
Yeah no, we're excited for the dock to open up here.
Yeah, absolutely Get some moreprogress reports on this?
Yeah, definitely.
Matt (26:16):
That'll be pretty cool.
Israel (26:19):
And another recent episode of ours is, of course,
the Curtain Call episode, wherewe got to sit down and we were
just talking about some of theirrecent productions that we got
to go, uh, go see.
So, yeah, absolutely, this isthe old pharmacy.
Matt (26:36):
Yeah, as well, right, yeah , definitely one thing that was,
uh, I have to, I have to saythis um, I think I may have
mentioned it in another podcast,but uh, this was uh this is me
sagging up to a story, but backin the like the 90s, and I'm
sure even for a long time,because Kerber's Pharmacy was
(26:56):
here.
It started open here in 66.
This was a popular place wherekids would come and buy candy,
because they had an awesomecandy selection here.
But when I would come here withmy friends, we would always
leave our bikes out front here,because there was a bike rack
out here and myself and otherkids always used to try to climb
(27:17):
this because you can see the,the rock kind of sticks out like
this.
So you know, I can't do it nowbecause I'm too big, but you
could kind of try to climb up it.
Israel (27:29):
Oh, it's perfect for a young kid to do yeah yeah that's
cool.
And you said the stone it was.
Do you remember the california?
Matt (27:36):
something or other.
Israel (27:37):
California I don't remember, oh, you impressed me
the first time you said yeah,yeah, yeah and uh, yeah, curtain
call if you haven't been downto a show here.
This place is awesome, yeah,and the Bloom Art Studio next
door Good to have some optionsdowntown.
Yeah, definitely so.
(27:58):
Opposite side of the streethere, same kind of thing, right,
like always been, has it kindof been open?
Matt (28:06):
Has there ever been businesses on this side of the
street?
As far as anyone can ever tell,there's never been any
businesses or any kind ofsubstantial buildings on this
south side of Front Street, atleast on this part of Front
Street.
Israel (28:19):
How about on the south side?
I know there was something atthe corner, right, yeah, but was
there buildings or anythingbuilt up on that side of the
tracks?
Matt (28:29):
not that I've ever been able to discern.
I think the reason for that isjust for the fact that this
whole area along the tracks onthis part of front street and
this part of mcgoveney streetover here, was owned by the rock
island railroad.
Okay, so, um, they probablyweren't interested in having
anything built on it or sellingany of it to anybody.
Israel (28:52):
And during the time when there was the depot right here,
you would have had other tracksand stuff coming off right.
Would it have taken up moreroom?
Matt (29:02):
There weren't a huge amount of other tracks, but
there were different.
There weren't, um, or therewere a couple of I'm not sure
what the railroad terminology is, but side tracks or whatever
you want to call them.
Uh, that were here.
There was one that existed wellinto the 90s on the south side
(29:24):
of the tracks that ran reallyclose to where Etcetera is now.
It crossed over Mokena Streetand then went over onto the
other side of the depot.
I think you can still see someof the rails over by Next to
Etcetera, right Right next toEtcetera.
Israel (29:40):
yeah, that actually crossed the road at that point.
Matt (29:43):
Yep, yeah, yeah.
So I think there might havebeen one or two of those.
You can tell from photos goingway, way back on this area north
(30:05):
of the tracks.
So talk about this one.
This is not the prettiestbuilding in Mokena.
1862, a year into the war,something substantial already
stood on this lot, and it was.
It was probably this building.
(30:27):
This building was for many, manyyears in the 19th century a
saloon, and then that was ran bya man by the name of William
Jacob, who was a Germanimmigrant, like many of our
forefathers were, and after hepassed away in the early 1900s
the building passed into theownership of his daughter who
kind of kept it as a.
(30:47):
It was referred to as a hall.
Back then people would call itBeckstein's Hall because she was
, her name was FilipinaBeckstein, so different events
and things would be hosted here.
But an ice cream store ran byAugust and was it was his wife,
helen.
Helen Flager opened here in theWorld War I days and then, not
(31:13):
too terribly long after theyopened, they moved into selling
groceries.
So they had a store here thatlasted for a pretty long time.
Let's see, I'm trying to think.
Uh, the, let's see, I'm tryingto think the flagors had, if I'm
not mistaken, had passed awayby 1950, and uh, it was at that
(31:36):
point that the?
Um, the store had been out ofbusiness.
But uh, it kept afloat for allthose years, despite the fact
that it was.
It was smaller than wanamakersand it was smaller than sipples
down where, uh, gino pichola'soffice is now.
But flagers sold meat and um,the others didn't, at least not
(32:01):
not yet.
Wanamakers did later.
But, um, that was one of thethings that that kept them going
for as long as they did and andwe talked about the story about
the Mokena riot where peoplegot off the train and basically
destroyed a building.
And was that not did?
Israel (32:19):
you say this is the site .
Matt (32:20):
It was very.
It was, as far as I've beenable to discern through property
records, been able to discernthrough property records this,
that riot, they, these, whateveryou want to call them from
Chicago came and ransacked thevillage, but the main part of
the riot took place in thisimmediate area somewhere.
(32:44):
It could have been here.
There also was another buildingthat was just next door to this
one.
In that era it could have beenthere, hi Hi.
We don't know exactly where,but it was definitely in this
(33:06):
vicinity, within a door or two.
Israel (33:09):
Okay, yeah, that's really interesting Because, as
you said, the depot would havebeen a lot closer right At that
time.
Was the depot further there orwas it up?
Matt (33:19):
It would have been over just a little over there, yeah
okay, in that direction.
Israel (33:24):
So an easy place.
You can easily see the peoplegetting off the train there and
coming right across yeah, andcausing havoc?
Matt (33:31):
yeah, exactly so.
Yeah, that would have beenright in here, in this immediate
area somewhere.
Israel (33:39):
Yeah, absolutely yeah, neat, you know it's uh unique
with its uh dripping mortar onthe brick and always my whole
lifetime it's been that way.
Matt (33:49):
I remember noticing that when I was little and thinking
it was just the weirdest thing.
Israel (33:52):
And how about the color?
Was the color been that as longas you remember too?
Yes, this building has.
Matt (33:59):
So I turned 38 this year and this building has looked
exactly the same my entire life.
Yeah, it's one of the fewthings on Front Street that
hasn't changed.
Israel (34:09):
Not necessarily for the better.
Yeah, wow, it's one of the fewthings on Front Street that
hasn't changed Not necessarilyfor the better, but yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
And this and this property nowthe home of Lincoln Way Realty,
uh MBLO, as well as the chamber,yeah.
Absolutely, melissa always doesa good job with the front
window here.
Matt (34:24):
Yeah, definitely, it's always pretty cool.
I always like seeing what shehas.
Israel (34:28):
And so talk a little bit about the history of this site,
but maybe first how about thisbuilding?
Like how long has this propertybeen here?
Matt (34:36):
So that's an interesting question.
So this building was actuallybuilt in phases.
The oldest part of thisbuilding is the first story, the
ground story, and it openedthat must have been about 1960
or so by the Tuttle family.
Mr Tuttle would not yet at thistime, but later go on to be
(34:57):
mayor of Mokena and he hadbought this property, demoed the
old building that was herebefore this one and built this
as his.
He was like was like in a, uh,if I'm not mistaken, he was an
electrician, so he opened likehis shop and like electrical
supply shop here.
Um, his family is still around.
So if I'm wrong on any of thesedetails, they can definitely uh
(35:19):
correct me on the page or, uh,or wherever.
But what's really cool aboutthis building is that this, this
whole building, was once thesite of a business called Mokena
Sales which was ran by theTuttle family.
Uh, and it was basically likeMokena's department store in the
uh, 60s, 70s, 80s, still around.
(35:40):
Um, well, into my lifetime, uh,there was so many things you
could buy here did Mokena Saleshave?
both floors.
Israel (35:48):
Was the second floor built.
Matt (35:49):
Yes, once they got really successful they added on the
second floor and I remember inthis part of the building where
the chamber is now was kind oflike a hardware store Sold that
kind of thing hardware.
The western side of thebuilding where the accountant is
now, you can kind of compare itto like a Hallmark store Sold
(36:12):
greeting cards and kind of likeodds and ends like that.
I remember when I was a kid,going in here at Christmas time,
they always had a reallyimpressive selection of
different Christmas ornamentsand upstairs and this wasn't
always this way, this was onlywithin my lifetime.
(36:33):
But upstairs was kind of like acraft kind of store.
You could get differentcrafting supplies.
At one point they had a reallycool toy selection up there.
But back in the day like 60s,70s, you could buy appliances
here, tvs here.
You name it, tuttle's or MokenaSales sold it.
(36:54):
So the Tuttle family was a bigpart of the business life in
Mokena for a very long time andvery prominent citizens.
Israel (37:02):
And when we came here it was Annie's Cusina who had the
whole place.
Matt (37:09):
Yeah, that's right.
Israel (37:10):
And then Anthony took it over for a little while and
they had a great upstairsrestaurant.
Matt (37:14):
That's right, you know at the bar up there.
Israel (37:16):
Yeah yeah, and then you know now how we see it today.
Yeah absolutely Very cool.
And what?
How about before?
This?
Give us a little glimpse ofwhat was here before this
building.
Matt (37:29):
Yeah, so before this building, the one that the
Tuttle family bought and thenlater did away with to build
this building.
It's a pretty old 19th centurybuilding that, for once again,
years and years and years, wasowned by a man by the name of
Henry Stellwagen, who acquiredthe property right around the
turn of the 20th century, around1897, 98.
(37:52):
And his trade was somethingthat's totally extinct nowadays.
He was a liveryman, meaningthat he rented horses from this.
He had a big barn at thenorthern side of the property
where he would rent horses andcarriages to traveling salesmen,
people coming through town,stuff like that, and he also
(38:20):
sold harnesses and saddles andstuff like that.
Israel (38:21):
Any idea how big I mean, that must've been a pretty good
size building too.
Do you similar footprint tothis?
That's a good question.
Matt (38:27):
So his Mr Stillwagon's property that came right up here
to Front Street was we can tellfrom photos was not quite as
big as this building.
In fact it was.
It looks like it was quite abit smaller, but I've never seen
any photos of his barn, but itsounds like it had to be of some
(38:48):
kind of substantial size inorder to accommodate a bunch of
horses.
And then later on, once carsstarted to become more prevalent
, people could pay him to storetheir cars here, so he went from
cars to horses.
Israel (39:02):
Yeah, Okay.
And then right here, thisillustrious parking lot here.
And then right here, thislustrous parking lot here.
Yeah, yeah, you said, this iswhere the old Mokina Bank was
right.
Matt (39:13):
Yeah, yeah, the original Mokena State Bank stood.
It's kind of hard to pinpointits exact footprint because
where this huge parking lot isbasically had been three
different buildings at one point, but the old bank stood kind of
right in here, right like thisarea, kind of right here, and it
(39:36):
was built in 1909.
When the bank opened, was theirfirst and only location, until
the building was ultimately torndown in 1973 to make way for
this, their new building as itwas at the time, and Mokena
State Bank was here until thatmust have been around 2010 or
(40:01):
thereabouts, and when they gotbought out by, I believe, it was
the state bank of illinois whowas here.
Israel (40:06):
So nowadays this building has been a few
different banks, but Mokinastate bank was here the longest
and, like I think we've saidbefore, but that old bank was
such a beautiful building withthe pillars and it's interesting
to see in the pictures, becausethe pictures don't really
justify the distance right.
(40:27):
Because you had that bankbuilding here and then
everything to the corner was thegeneral store right.
Matt (40:34):
Yeah, that was a pretty big building that also held
quite a lot of things over theyears.
Back in the 19th century it wasknown as the Stoll property
Because Conrad and FranciscoStoll, their family, ran a
pretty successful general storehere that sold, once again, all
(40:55):
kinds of stuff.
That sold once again to allkinds of stuff.
And uh later on in the uh earlypart of the 20th century for a
few decades there was uh davekolber's hardware store was in
that building and we still havepeople around who will remember
when gus brown had his uh icecream slash candy shop here and
(41:16):
the building was kind of um, ifI could try to describe sort of
like l-shaped.
It had part of it right hereand then the stem of the l, if
you want to say, went kind oflike this going back along
moquina street and it go rightup along the sidewalk too,
because the the front of thebuilding was again right up on
the sidewalk right yeah, yeah,the that back part of the
(41:39):
building was right up on thesidewalk, right up on the street
, and during gus brown's tenureis, uh, he had a pool hall back
there.
Uh was a very manly kind ofplace.
Not a lot of uh women went inthere uh, but it was a place
where guys would hang out andplay pool and uh curious kids
would kind of stick their headsin the door to kind of see what
(42:00):
was going on in there.
Israel (42:02):
I love the pictures of this old, the old building here
yeah.
You know, the, the look of that, I don't know what they call it
, but almost how you know zap,you know, has the front, you
know flat part and the and theroof going, uh, and all these
they had the, a number of themhad, like the balconies over the
(42:23):
top and you'd you know just areally neat, look and old.
You know, homey kind of feel toit.
Matt (42:32):
Oh, absolutely yeah, it was a.
In my opinion, it was abeautiful historic building that
stood here.
It was done away with back inthe 60s, if I'm not mistaken, it
was for the bank to build aparking lot, even before this
building was built.
When the bank was still here,that original building expanded
a lot in the 50s.
I think they acquired this tobuild a parking lot, if I'm not
(42:57):
mistaken, but the building waseasily 100 years old and it was
here until they tore it down forthe parking lot.
Israel (43:04):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's too bad, it is, yeah, beautiful
view of saint john's down thereyeah, definitely.
Matt (43:10):
And then we did the episode about this building.
Israel (43:13):
Well, the next couple buildings there we've got
episodes on.
Yeah definitely, but a pre orjust post-Civil War building
right.
Matt (43:22):
Yep, this guy in the corner here was built in 1868.
So just a few years after theCivil War ended.
Israel (43:29):
And it's been a what was it?
A pharmacy for a long time andpost office, oh, all kinds of
things.
Matt (43:37):
Yeah, this was one of the many places the Mokena post
office has been.
Uh, right around the turn ofthe 20th century, uh, the post
office was, uh was here I forgetwho, under whose postmastership
that was, but uh, yeah, 1890s,very early 1900s, post office
was here.
It's been a pharmacy, then aconfectionary, so like candy,
(44:00):
ice cream, that sort of thingand it was converted over into
apartments.
Uh, right around, uh, rightaround the end of world war ii
yeah really a neat building.
Israel (44:10):
Unfortunately, somebody is taking a little time and done
some updates and fixed up alittle.
Matt (44:15):
Oh, absolutely.
Israel (44:16):
But I mean wild to think that that building has been
sitting here.
You know, I think our episodewas titled, you know, witness to
History.
Yeah, but I mean that has beenhere a long time.
I've seen a lot change and alot go on in this town, yeah it
definitely has, I mean you know,obviously Al's has two and
there's a few that are reallygreat.
But it's such a quiet.
(44:38):
You know you don't have the,you know it's just a quieter
building.
It was neat when we did thearticle, a couple people posted
about having to live there orone of their grandparents, so
that was neat to see too.
Oh, absolutely, yeah, we'llmake our way back this way a
little bit.
Yeah, definitely, but how aboutthis building behind us?
(44:58):
You want to talk a little bitabout that one?
Matt (45:00):
Yeah, so this building behind us was very I don't want
to use the word aggressivelyvery extensively remodeled
around 2002.
However, underneath all thisthat's there now is the original
building that was built rightaround the end of the 40s.
(45:20):
And that building it lookedcompletely different.
It was completely out of brickand the roof was completely flat
.
It didn't kind of have thispeak to it.
That's there now.
But that building wasoriginally Cavett's Pharmacy.
When it opened, and not tooterribly long after they opened,
the Bollman family took overand they ran their pharmacy here
(45:45):
, which was a pretty successfulbusiness for a pretty long time.
I think Mr Bollman passed awayaround the.
It must have been around theend of the 50s or thereabouts,
and in fact he still has familyaround too Not around here,
unfortunately, but they're stillout there.
And then it was anotherpharmacy, briefly.
And then lots of bars afterthat.
(46:07):
Oh, okay, lots of yeah.
Israel (46:09):
I've heard some questionable stories about the
bars that were in that place.
They're all true, believe me.
They are.
Yeah, All right, We'll savethat for another podcast.
Matt (46:17):
Yeah yeah, all right, we'll save that for another
podcast.
Israel (46:19):
Yeah, definitely, well, great, you know, I wanted to do
this because it's good to see.
You know, we drive by downtownevery day and you don't really
think about it a lot of times,or you know, appreciate or know
what we're driving past and thesights and that that we see.
But you know, the other thingis uh, I, I thought it was
(46:40):
interesting.
You know people, we have areally good history here, you
know.
But when we look at ourdowntown, we don't have a
thriving downtown like a lot oftowns do so, there's right maybe
a less of an appreciation forthat, or yeah, but let's get's,
get your.
Why Mokena Matt, like what's sogreat about.
Matt (47:03):
Mokena, just the fact that it's always been a home for me.
I've known so many great peopleover the years who have lived
here with me or have grown upwith me, and everywhere I look
there's a story, some memoryfrom growing up or from.
(47:23):
It could even just be a coupleof years ago, and then also,
when I started doing the deepdive into the history, there's
even more stories.
It's like, for example, onceagain with Gino's building,
where the dock is about to go,or, as I call it, still the
Wanamaker building.
That's its historic name.
Every time I drive by I have mymemories of hanging out there
(47:47):
with my friends when we were inhigh school and even younger do.
I have that and look backfondly upon those times.
But I also look back on the 150plus years of history that have
happened there and all thosestories that, even though I
didn't experience, I've becomeprivy to you're living in that
(48:10):
history, you've experienced, youknow the spirit of that time.
Israel (48:15):
No, that's great.
Matt (48:16):
I love it yeah, no, it is, and it's cool to think about
too.
Israel (48:20):
I mean, I think about that, you know, as we'll get to
enjoy it again.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know allthose, all those memories, as
well as that, that history.
Matt (48:30):
Oh, absolutely yeah.
But it's cool that the Inoticed the windows on the east
side of Geno's.
We'll call it Geno's.
The original windows areexposed again because for a long
time the siding covered them up.
Oh really yeah, that's prettycool.
Israel (48:47):
Well, matt, this was a nice little walk down, get a
little refresher on some thingsand get a little brief history
of downtown.
Matt (48:55):
Yeah, exactly.
So thank you for the walkingtour.
Israel (48:56):
Oh, absolutely, thanks for having me Beautiful early
spring day.
Yeah, and great to be outwalking around.
Matt (49:06):
Yeah, it is.
Israel (49:06):
Excited for summer to be coming and all the events and
that goes with it.
Matt (49:10):
Yeah, definitely Thanks for taking a walk with me, matt,
no problem, yeah, thanks forhaving me.
I was glad to do it.
Israel (49:18):
I, no problem.
Yeah, thanks for having us.
Glad to do it.
I hope you enjoyed our walkdown Front Street.
Make sure you check out ourYouTube page for the full
YouTube video of our walk downFront Street.
You can find that by going onYouTube and searching for
Mokena's Front Porch.
You'll see all our videos onthere.
You can look for more walkingtours like this through the
summer.
Also, be sure to check outMatt's blog, which is Matt's Old
Mokena.
You can find that andeverything related to our
(49:41):
podcast at our website, which ismokenasfrontporch.
com.
So thanks for listening andwe'll see you next time on
Mokena's Front Porch.
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