Wed, 07/13/2011 - 10:00am | Pat Phillips
DANVILLE — A lot of comments could be heard when Tom Day brought one of his many "Old City of Danville" presentations to the monthly gathering of veterans and their families at the Vermilion County War Museum on Tuesday.
As Day projected a combination of old postcards and photographs on a large screen, he used a laser pointer to draw attention to where certain buildings used to be or how they looked. Several people couldn't help but share their memories aloud, and comments flowed easily from the crowd.
Day and his wife collect anything and everything with ties to Danville.
"When we get a new postcard or photo, we try to date it by looking for older existing, missing and newer construction buildings," Day said. "We get lucky when dates are printed on the card or great clues from postmarks."
Day proudly showed off a photo with former U.S. House Speaker Joseph "Uncle Joe" Cannon in an open car with other Danville dignitaries in front of the federal courthouse, followed by another picture from the same location taken in 1912 during the dedication of the Minuteman sculpture, a year after the 1911 building's completion.
"I discovered the Minuteman was designed by Henry Bacon and sculpted by Daniel Chester French, the same two men involved with the creation of the Abraham Lincoln sculpture in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.," Day said.
A photo of the Fecker Brewery, which formed the nucleus for Lauhoff Grain Co., now Bunge Milling, shows a very different and distinctive building.
"I remember that," a voice called out. "We used to go over there and drink beer. Our kids sat and played on the floor. That was in the days before baby sitters."
A image of the Fischer Theater before its next-door neighbor, the Palace Theatre, was demolished flashed on the screen evoking the comment, "We couldn't afford the Fischer; we went to the Colonial," which was followed by others recalling the Tivoli and Rivoli theaters.
The Grand Hotel once stood at the corner of Main and Washington streets near the site of the Wabash Railroad Depot. Now, empty lots tell no tale of what went before.
It was a surprise to most that what is the Danville Township building was once a morgue, and a parking lot at North and Walnut streets and the site of Turk Furniture were once home to now demolished seats of Danville government.
The Airdome Theatre sat where the Danville Mass Transit offices are at the corner of Jackson and North streets. The theater's ceiling consisted of roof trusses creating an open-air theater. Later, it was enclosed and renamed the Terrace Theater.
"I have around seven presentations, but some are just on disc, and I just play them," Day said. "The others, I explain more about. It's fun to point out old places and hear stories from the audiences."
The Days have more than 1,000 Danville postcards and have been collecting Danville memorabilia since the early 1960s.
"Sometimes, we've had to buy a lot of 300 to 400 cards just to get a few we didn't have already, but that's how collecting works," Day explained.
Chuck Riggle, 89, has lived in Danville his entire life except for a stint during World War II with the U.S. Army artillery.
"We lived at 5 N. Logan Ave., just above Ellsworth Park," he said. "Ellsworth was our playground. Mom would stand at the top of the hill and yell for me and my brother. Sometimes we heard her, and sometimes we didn't."
Riggle remembers the magician Harry Blackstone playing the Palace Theater.
"He asked for a volunteer and gave me a rabbit wrapped in a newspaper and told me not to squeeze it too tight," Riggle said with a chuckle. "Then he said I squeezed too tight and unwrapped the paper, no rabbit, just a box of candy. I got to keep the candy, but don't know what happened to the rabbit."
Harry Johnson, the new Vermilion County War Museum board president, asked if the crowd would like to see more of Day's collection and received a resounding, "Yes."
Link:
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/living/2011-07-13/old-city-danville-presentation-stirs-memories.htmlGreat story! Sounds like it was a super nice presentation!