Mokena's Front Porch
This is THE Mokena podcast, with a focus on history and community! A Chicago Suburb of 20,000+, Mokena started as a farming community that grew up after the Rock Island Train line was built through the middle of what would become downtown Mokena in 1852. Follow our website at MokenasFrontPorch.com or on social media!
Matt is a lifelong Mokenian and local historian with 2 books about Mokena as well as a Mokena history blog, Matt's Old Mokena. Many of our episodes are based on the Matt's work collecting the history of our Village.
Israel grew up learning history and real life stories from his WWII grandfathers. His family moved to Mokena in 2016 and live in one of Mokena's Downtown homes that was built in 1916. Getting to know Matt along with Mokena and it's history, Israel worked to make the podcast a reality, through technical challenges and being a first time podcaster. He is a BIG fan of Mokena!
Mokena's Front Porch
A Walk Down Front Street, Talking History, With Matt & Israel; Wolf to Mokena St., Pt.1
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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Find Matt's Blog here: Matt's Old Mokena
Photo & Artwork Credit: Jennifer Medema & Leslie V. Moore Jr.
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Podcast@MokenasFrontPorch.com
Welcome to Mokena's Front Porch, a Mokena history podcast with Matt Galick and me, israel Smith. In this episode, matt and I do something a little special. I've been wanting to do this for a while. Let's go downtown Mokena with Matt and walk around, kind of get a walking tour of Mokena and selfishly, as we all know, matt is a wealth of information when it comes to Mokena and Mokena's history. So I thought this would be a good way to tie together a lot of the stories that we've told with a visual and, in this case, the audio story. The full video is on YouTube and you can watch that and see as we go along Front Street, but you can listen here and enjoy as well For perspective. We start at the corner of Wolf Road and Front Street. The little plaza is there where the snowman is in the winter, so we stand there, we start our conversation and we move our way down Front Street towards Mokena Street, which is where Midland State Bank is, as well as the other train crossing. We don't really go in-depth into a lot of things, but Matt points out where the first business in Mokena was, where the Mokena Riot took place, which is one of our stories we talk about. We talk about a number of buildings that were there and what's there now, and it really brings to life the story of Mokena and the stories that we've shared up to this point. So I hope that you enjoy this walk down Front Street as much as I enjoyed having it with Matt. As I said, matt is a wealth of information and we've also had some great comments from people already on our YouTube video, adding in tidbits of history from their knowledge as well.
Israel:Mokena has a great and rich history and we're excited to share it in all of our podcasts, but I think that this really ties together so many of our stories. If you're enjoying these, please share it with others. That's the way this is spreading. I'm excited the way it's growing 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 send it in a message to somebody, or share one of these episodes on your social media or in an email, or just tell a friend about it.
Israel:We'd really appreciate it. It means a lot and it just shows us that you're appreciating this podcast and what we're putting out. So I really hope you enjoy podcast and what we're putting out. So I really hope you enjoy our walk down Front Street with me and Matt Galick. All right, matt, so we're walking up to the corner of First of Front and Wolf, yeah, and so, as we're thought it'd be a good idea tonight to do like a little walk down Front Street, talk about some of the buildings yeah, definitely. What we like about Mokena yeah, absolutely, and what we're seeing. So, when you think about Front Street and Wolf Road, one of the stories that I think about is when we were talking about Deputy Fisher oh, yeah, and they stopped people carrying liquor through, right.
Israel:That's right During the height of Prohibition. Yeah, so give a little recap on that story.
Matt:Yeah, sure. So Deputy Fisher was at home with his family. He lived behind his store on Front Street, which was further east. Down Front Street Building, long gone, stood where Dina's Barbershop would later be, for those of us in the know and he got a call, an unexpected call, from an unknown person. He didn't know who this person was. That tipped him off that a shipment of illegal liquor, as it were, was going to be coming through town and that he might want to get it in his status as a part-time Will County Sheriff's deputy. So this, the more I think about this, the more I think this was probably some rival bootlegger that was looking to get rid of the competition. But he went and grabbed a village constable, John Frisch, who was a railroad worker by day, and they came up and this unknown person that had called Deputy Fisher said to be expecting this truck from the west, so passing through town out of the west, so coming down this road was here at the time.
Israel:Yeah, it was here yeah, so they would be coming this way from like the New Lenox kind of area, that kind of direction. Yeah, yeah, so they would be coming this way from like the New Lenox kind of area, that kind of direction. Yeah, absolutely.
Matt: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 this and they decided to get the driver to stop, that they grabbed the green flag from the Rock Island flagman, whose shack was right here In the days before. Speak of electric.
Israel:Good timing.
Matt:Days before electric warning gates there were two men, one posted here and one posted at the Mokena Street crossing, whose jobs it was to make sure people stayed away from the tracks when trains were coming. But these men carried green flags, at least at that time they did. So Deputy Fisher and Constable Frisch borrowed the flag of the flagman and after having been here for a few minutes, they saw this shipment coming out of this direction. So one of them flagged the driver down and the driver fell for it and they stopped right here. This driver and his accomplice stopped right here in the intersection and constable Frisch was just sort of talking to them, seeing who they were, what was going on. And deputy Fisher kind of stepped off to the side and peeked behind the covering it was like a cloth or a tarp that covered the back of this truck just to kind of see what was back there, and he saw what were described as sacks full of bottles. So he knew sure enough this was them.
Matt:Just as he noticed this, constable Frisch might have it sounds like he might have gotten the guys to get out of the truck Because he noticed, as this was going on, that one of the men went to grab a gun and pull it on uh, mr frisch, oh wow. So deputy fisher intervened, managed to subdue this guy and get the gun away from him, and then he basically uh, saved constable frisch's life that day. Aside from uh, the two of them took the men into custody. I was determined, I think if I'm remembering this case properly, I think it was determined that the men came from Gary, indiana, wow, wow yeah, really interesting, and you know this is a really busy corner for us now.
Israel:Yeah, absolutely, but at one point we talked about the newspaper and the editor of the paper.
Matt:Yeah, the Semlors, the Semlors, yeah.
Israel:And Mr Semlorn his importance of getting this as a throughway. Oh right, right.
Matt:Yeah, yeah.
Israel:But before that happened, what was this intersection like?
Matt:Not the greatest condition as far as roads go. Wolf Road. Before Mr Semler and his friends really got going with this in the 1920s, Wolf Road was very, very rugged, very, very primitive, strictly dirt. In any kind of weather rain or or snow it just turned into a muddy mess. That was it could be pretty hard to traverse at times. From time to time uh, the uh township was able to get it graveled okay, but that never really lasted yeah too terribly long.
Israel:So so and and when was it that it finally did go through and was paved?
Matt:After the Wolf Road was concreted kind of like in segments, by the time everything was said and done, because it's kind of a long story. By the time it got to the Lincoln Highway south of town there was a dispute with a property owner out there. I think it was probably the early 30s by the time Wolf Road was fully hardened through Mokena or what today we would consider Mokena yeah.
Israel:Well, neat. Well, let's kind of walk down a little bit and where Speedway is now, that's been a gas station for a long time.
Matt:right, it's been a gas station for a pretty long time. It was before it was Speedway. It was Houck's and Houck that actually had been a Mokena family at one point. I don't believe they were. I think when mr hauck built the gas station before this one. I think they might have come from new lennox at that point, but their, their roots were here before haucks. It was a conoco station, okay, and then before the conoco station, which was built in I'm pretty sure, 50s, early 50s maybe, uh, there was a very, very old house oh, really, corner, that's probably so.
Matt:There were like a house next to the flower shop kind of thing, and that was all that was on the corner there yeah, yeah, basically where, uh, where the gas station is now, there was a house, a somewhat small house but normal for the 19th century, a house that sat right there. And then way, way, way, way back during the Civil War, there was another house that stood next to it. It's kind of a mystery as to whatever happened to that house, if it was moved or if it burnt down or whatever happened. And then there was yet a third house. The driveway of it still exists. And then there was yet a third house the driveway of it still exists Just past where the dumpsters are for the gas station.
Matt:There was another house there that must have come down in oh, I'm racking my brain, I think maybe like very, very early 2000s, oh, wow. And it was an old house. It wasn't as old as the house right on the corner. That one had belonged to the Bauch family for decades Later, the Frick family, and probably in all likelihood predated the Civil War. But this house that stood until relatively recently was built by the Helmuth family right around around, probably around world war one or so.
Israel: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 is another corner that has had a number of businesses and and that in town right was this where the there was a welder or a steelworker shop yeah, there was a?
Matt:uh, right where the parking lot for Mokena video is was a little building that housed the blacksmith shop for a very long time. That was mr helen house's blacksmith shop, bill helen house. Okay, uh, trying to think when around he opened. Once again, I want to say it was roughly around world war one in that time frame, because that building that was there was not built by him. It had been built by, uh, some of the dairy farmers a few years before that. Uh, when they were having a falling out with bowman Dairy, they ran what was called a skimming station out of this building.
Israel:Wow, what's a, you know? Oh, a skimming off for the milk.
Matt: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 stuff like that and made into more products. Sure, okay, they weren't in there too terribly long, and then Mr Hellenhaus took over.
Israel:So what about the Patterson Corner here now?
Matt:Yeah, just like just about everywhere on Front Street, there's been multiple things here over the years, a lot of these, the different buildings that we'll come across, some of them are like the third and fourth buildings that stood at this site, so where the let's just call it the whole Patterson building is now where Dr Patterson'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: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:a Sinclair okay, actually the building where dr Patterson's is was the building from the gas station. Oh, it was yeah, they okay, you would never guess that. But this part over where Mrs Dr Patterson's office is and where the wealth management place is, that was an addition later on.
Israel:All right, but you can kind of see it. I could see that coming in the side door right. Is that where you would uh on those doors that are there?
Matt: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 having it demoed in the early 50s, so it must have the gas station must have sprung up not too long after that, uh, but exactly how long they were in business I'm not sure, but I know they at least went into the 60s. Oh wow.
Matt:But there's a lot of history on this corner, because on this first corner, or on this corner right here, yeah, uh, stood one of the very first buildings in Mokena, not the first, but one of like, probably in the first three or five, maybe thereabouts. That was the inn of a German man by the name of Karl Gall, and he built in 1853, basically right after the Rock Island came through, and the workers on the railroad were some of his first customers. Wow, one of the very first businesses in Mokena. That building burnt down in the 1870s and then, not too terribly long after that must have been around 1884 or 1885, a man by the name of John zahn built his house here and it stayed in his family for a very, very long time. And what was ultimately gotten rid of when the gas station was built?
Matt:that's a really predominant spot for for a house, yeah yeah, yeah, but yeah, there it was, and it was right up against the road too. Yeah, wow, people have told me that when they would walk by on the sidewalk you were almost right up against the windows and you could kind of like look into the house and see.
Israel:Like some of the old houses down the street. Yeah, exactly. So next we kind of come up to what used to be the post office. This is the. Nasos resale for rescues property here. Absolutely so. This was the post office until when.
Matt:Opened in 1960 is when the building was built, and then it was the post office until it must have been around 1982 or so when they moved into the current building further down wall. Okay.
Israel:And then it's been a couple of businesses since that time right.
Matt:Yeah, yeah, building further down wolf, okay, and then it's been a couple businesses since that time, right, yeah, yeah, it was, um, oh, man, there, if I remember correctly, there was, very, very briefly, a pool hall there, uh, in the 80s that kind of attracted some nefarious characters, from what I've heard. Okay, I also remember in my childhood, just a little while after that, there was one right over here where Mrs Dr Patterson's practice is now. Oh, okay, but then it became FD Printing, so a print shop, and they were in business for a very long time, a very long time, probably from the 80s, um, well up into, I'm trying to even remember when they they shut down, well into the 2000s.
Israel:Oh, wow, yeah, yeah yeah, well, it's good to see. I mean, I don't know if you ever go in there. It's a nice little resale shop now it's, it's pretty cool. Yeah, definitely, and so for this side, um, I was just reading something recently about when they did the renovations on front street, but this hasn't always been commuter parking here. No, what, what has been on this side of the of the tracks over time?
Matt:it appears that Mokena's very first ever Rock Island Depot was built right here, right around this part here. Yeah, basically right across from where the blacksmith shop was, which is where the resale for rescues is now. It was built in 1852, right when the Rock Island was built through and then it burnt down around 1887 or 1888. And then when they rebuilt, they built further to the east, sort of where that kind of sitting area is closer to the corner, but it was still on this side of the tracks at that time.
Matt:Yeah, the depot was always on the north side of the tracks from the start. So 1852 until 1950, basically when 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 that we know of. But yeah, when after the depot here burnt down, this was just kind of like open space there, it was kind of like railroad yards. I mean, the Rock Island always owned this. Okay, this property was purchased by the village. I believe this might maybe it might not be correct without having my stuff in front of me, but I think this was purchased during um Richard Quinn's administration. Okay, uh, so that would have been early 80s, was it Mayor Teske, though a little before him, late 70s and in that time frame in any case. And then they converted it, had it paved and converted it into a commuter parking. People still parked here before then, but they kind of made it a little better.
Israel: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 been over the years?
Matt:This building was built in the I'm pretty sure in the 70s, probably early 70s, because I have a picture of the building from the, or you could see the building 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 and Loan, okay. And then there was another bank here in my childhood in the 90s Name is on the tip of my tongue. I can't remember exactly which bank it was, but then Chase Bank was here for a while too. Then recently it was made over into the chiropractic place and has, in the first time in its history, not been a bank. But this piece of land right here where the chiropractic place is now also has a lot of history, because this was the site of the very ever first building in Mokena.
Israel:Okay, tell us about that.
Matt:So this building was built. Right, the Rock Island wasn't even finished yet when this building was built, so it was like end of. One early historian said it was the winter of 1851 going into 52. It was a little, a very small building that appears to have been made of stone, that was built by a gentleman by the name of general store. It was the first business in Mokena and, uh, he had a business partner by the name of smith, maybe a relative, uh, don't even know what his first name was, it was never recorded, uh.
Matt:And then, eventually, azaius mcgoveney, who would later, um, over 20 years later, almost 30 years later, become Mokena's first mayor, bought out Smith and then him and Warren Knapp, who was his brother-in-law, were business partners here. However, the business did not last very long. They were out of business within a couple years, if that even, and they had to sell off the property, everything that was in the store, everything off the property, everything that was in the store, everything. And the building itself doesn't seem to have been around too terribly long, because there was a building here that appears to be one that burnt in the great fire of 1865, in which three or four properties got wiped out on one day due to a fire, and I say looks like it was here, because in the newspaper accounts of the fire they talk about that. One of the men who lost property was Jacob Bauch, and we know for a fact that he owned this lot at the time, so the building was probably there.
Israel:Wow, interesting. Okay, well, good to know. So this is the site of Mokena's first business, and did you say the first building?
Matt:you think, yeah, first building, yeah, before the railroad was even finished, absolutely yeah.
Israel:And then, of course, the iconic, formerly Tribes, formerly Dave's Auto. Future, we don't know what.
Matt:Yeah, yeah.
Israel:Obviously a really old historic building here, right?
Matt:Yeah, yeah, this building was, as far as buildings on Front Street go, it's not too terribly old, but it was built basically right after World War II ended and it was originally a Kaiser Fraser dealership, so another car dealer.
Israel:What was that? I don't think I've heard of that car before.
Matt:It was just a car, a defunct make of cars, an American car, yeah, oh, okay. Yeah, I'm not too expertly in that make of car, unfortunately, but they were there at least into the 50s and down the line. Walter Yunker bought this property and he was the Frankfurt Township Highway Commissioner and also an excavator. He had his excavating business here in the front part of the building.
Israel:And he built this building, or he bought, he owned, he just owned it.
Matt:He owned it. He did not build it. He was around when it was built but and he sold it to Dave Bergman. I'm pretty sure that's how it went. Yeah, that Walter Junker and his family sold it to the Bergmans. And, interestingly, back in the 70s the police station almost moved into this building because Mr Junker's office was already here and he was highway commissioner, but I think it was shot down at referendum so that never happened.
Israel:Wow, that's an interesting thought uh, so that never happened. But, wow, that's, yeah, that's an interesting thought. Yeah, let's uh walk across the street for this one, because, yeah, I mean we, you know, have said plenty about about this building next door yeah, but I thought considering the condition. Uh, you kind of need to talk about it up close a little bit. Yeah, absolutely so. Uh, you know, again, we've talked numerous times, we had the YouTube video on this place and what Gino's doing. But how old is this property?
Matt:So this, there's almost like three different stories with this property. The portion that sits right on the or fronts on Front Street right here here is pretty old Dates from around 1870 or thereabouts. This portion of the building that kind of sticks off to the west here is much more recent and was built right around must have been around 1955 or thereabouts by George Wanamaker, who ran a grocery store here at the time. And then the northern half of this building, which we can see through the window here, is the oldest of all of them and could easily date from the 1850s or 60s. What a cool restoration.
Israel:This is.
Matt:Yeah, it is.
Israel:And you can see now they've taken the old siding off. Um, I mean, yeah, big changes since we walked through it. You know, a couple months ago oh, definitely, yeah, no, there's been a lot and we said the paulie's was the last restaurant, yes, but A's was the pizza right.
Matt:Yeah A's, yeah A's Pizza. They opened up they had to have been in the 80s and then were in business for a pretty long time, at least into the early, early, early 2000s, and then Paul E's took over.
Israel:Yeah no, we're excited for the dock to open up here. Yeah, absolutely Get some more progress reports on this? Yeah, definitely.
Matt:That'll be pretty cool.
Israel:And another recent episode of ours is, of course, the Curtain Call episode, where we got to sit down and we were just talking about some of their recent productions that we got to go, uh, go see. So, yeah, absolutely, this is the old pharmacy.
Matt:Yeah, as well, right, yeah, definitely one thing that was, uh, I have to, I have to say this 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 back in the like the 90s, and I'm sure even for a long time, because Kerber's Pharmacy was here. It started open here in 66. This was a popular place where kids would come and buy candy, because they had an awesome candy selection here. But when I would come here with my friends, we would always leave our bikes out front here, because there was a bike rack out here and myself and other kids always used to try to climb this because you can see the, the rock kind of sticks out like this. So you know, I can't do it now because I'm too big, but you could kind of try to climb up it.
Israel: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:something or other.
Israel: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 down to a show here. This place is awesome, yeah, and the Bloom Art Studio next door Good to have some options downtown. Yeah, definitely so. Opposite side of the street here, same kind of thing, right, like always been, has it kind of been open?
Matt: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 of substantial buildings on this south side of Front Street, at least on this part of Front Street.
Israel:How about on the south side? I know there was something at the corner, right, yeah, but was there buildings or anything built up on that side of the tracks?
Matt:not that I've ever been able to discern. I think the reason for that is just for the fact that this whole area along the tracks on this part of front street and this part of mcgoveney street over here, was owned by the rock island railroad. Okay, so, um, they probably weren't interested in having anything built on it or selling any of it to anybody.
Israel:And during the time when there was the depot right here, you would have had other tracks and stuff coming off right. Would it have taken up more room?
Matt:There weren't a huge amount of other tracks, but there were different. There weren't, um, or there were 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 well into the 90s on the south side of the tracks that ran really close to where Etcetera is now. It crossed over Mokena Street and then went over onto the other side of the depot. I think you can still see some of the rails over by Next to Etcetera, right Right next to Etcetera.
Israel:yeah, that actually crossed the road at that point.
Matt:Yep, yeah, yeah. So I think there might have been one or two of those. You can tell from photos going way, way back on this area north of the tracks. So talk about this one. This is not the prettiest building in Mokena. 1862, a year into the war, something substantial already stood on this lot, and it was. It was probably this building.
Matt:This building was for many, many years in the 19th century a saloon, and then that was ran by a man by the name of William Jacob, who was a German immigrant, like many of our forefathers were, and after he passed away in the early 1900s the building passed into the ownership of his daughter who kind of kept it as a. It was referred to as a hall. Back then people would call it Beckstein's Hall because she was, her name was Filipina Beckstein, so different events and things would be hosted here. But an ice cream store ran by August and was it was his wife, helen. Helen Flager opened here in the World War I days and then, not too terribly long after they opened, they moved into selling groceries. So they had a store here that lasted for a pretty long time.
Matt:Let's see, I'm trying to think. Uh, the, let's see, I'm trying to think the flagors had, if I'm not mistaken, had passed away by 1950, and uh, it was at that point that the? Um, the store had been out of business. But uh, it kept afloat for all those years, despite the fact that it was. It was smaller than wanamakers and it was smaller than sipples down where, uh, gino pichola's office is now. But flagers sold meat and um, the others didn't, at least not not yet. Wanamakers did later. But, um, that was one of the things that that kept them going for as long as they did and and we talked about the story about the Mokena riot where people got off the train and basically destroyed a building.
Matt:And was that not did?
Israel:you say this is the site.
Matt:It was very. It was, as far as I've been able to discern through property records, been able to discern through property records this, that riot, they, these, whatever you want to call them from Chicago came and ransacked the village, but the main part of the riot took place in this immediate area somewhere. It could have been here. There also was another building that was just next door to this one. In that era it could have been there, hi Hi. We don't know exactly where, but it was definitely in this vicinity, within a door or two.
Israel:Okay, yeah, that's really interesting Because, as you said, the depot would have been a lot closer right At that time. Was the depot further there or was it up?
Matt:It would have been over just a little over there, yeah okay, in that direction.
Israel:So an easy place. You can easily see the people getting off the train there and coming right across yeah, and causing havoc?
Matt:yeah, exactly so. Yeah, that would have been right in here, in this immediate area somewhere.
Israel:Yeah, absolutely yeah, neat, you know it's uh unique with its uh dripping mortar on the brick and always my whole lifetime it's been that way.
Matt:I remember noticing that when I was little and thinking it was just the weirdest thing.
Israel:And how about the color? Was the color been that as long as you remember too? Yes, this building has.
Matt:So I turned 38 this year and this building has looked exactly the same my entire life. Yeah, it's one of the few things on Front Street that hasn't changed.
Israel:Not necessarily for the better. Yeah, wow, it's one of the few things on Front Street that hasn't changed Not necessarily for the better, but yeah, yeah. Yeah. And this and this property now the home of Lincoln Way Realty, uh MBLO, as well as the chamber, yeah. Absolutely, melissa always does a good job with the front window here.
Matt:Yeah, definitely, it's always pretty cool. I always like seeing what she has.
Israel:And so talk a little bit about the history of this site, but maybe first how about this building? Like how long has this property been here?
Matt:So that's an interesting question. So this building was actually built in phases. The oldest part of this building is the first story, the ground story, and it opened that must have been about 1960 or so by the Tuttle family. Mr Tuttle would not yet at this time, but later go on to be mayor of Mokena and he had bought this property, demoed the old building that was here before 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 like his shop and like electrical supply shop here. Um, his family is still around.
Matt:So if I'm wrong on any of these details, they can definitely uh correct me on the page or, uh, or wherever. But what's really cool about this building is that this, this whole building, was once the site of a business called Mokena Sales which was ran by the Tuttle family. Uh, and it was basically like Mokena's department store in the uh, 60s, 70s, 80s, still around. Um, well, into my lifetime, uh, there was so many things you could buy here did Mokena Sales have?
Matt:both floors.
Israel:Was the second floor built.
Matt:Yes, once they got really successful they added on the second floor and I remember in this part of the building where the chamber is now was kind of like a hardware store Sold that kind of thing hardware. The western side of the building where the accountant is now, you can kind of compare it to like a Hallmark store Sold greeting cards and kind of like odds and ends like that. I remember when I was a kid, going in here at Christmas time, they always had a really impressive selection of different Christmas ornaments and upstairs and this wasn't always this way, this was only within my lifetime. But upstairs was kind of like a craft kind of store. You could get different crafting supplies. At one point they had a really cool 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 Mokena Sales sold it. So the Tuttle family was a big part of the business life in Mokena for a very long time and very prominent citizens.
Israel:And when we came here it was Annie's Cusina who had the whole place.
Matt:Yeah, that's right.
Israel:And then Anthony took it over for a little while and they had a great upstairs restaurant.
Matt:That's right, you know at the bar up there.
Israel: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 of what was here before this building.
Matt:Yeah, so before this building, the one that the Tuttle family bought and then later did away with to build this building. It's a pretty old 19th century building that, for once again, years and years and years, was owned by a man by the name of Henry Stellwagen, who acquired the property right around the turn of the 20th century, around 1897, 98. And his trade was something that's totally extinct nowadays. He was a liveryman, meaning that he rented horses from this. He had a big barn at the northern side of the property where he would rent horses and carriages to traveling salesmen, people coming through town, stuff like that, and he also sold harnesses and saddles and stuff like that.
Israel:Any idea how big I mean, that must've been a pretty good size building too. Do you similar footprint to this? That's a good question.
Matt:So his Mr Stillwagon's property that came right up here to Front Street was we can tell from photos was not quite as big as this building. In fact it was. It looks like it was quite a bit smaller, but I've never seen any photos of his barn, but it sounds like it had to be of some kind of substantial size in order to accommodate a bunch of horses. And then later on, once cars started to become more prevalent, people could pay him to store their cars here, so he went from cars to horses.
Israel:Yeah, Okay. And then right here, this illustrious parking lot here. And then right here, this lustrous parking lot here. Yeah, yeah, you said, this is where the old Mokina Bank was right.
Matt:Yeah, yeah, the original Mokena State Bank stood. It's kind of hard to pinpoint its exact footprint because where this huge parking lot is basically had been three different buildings at one point, but the old bank stood kind of right in here, right like this area, kind of right here, and it was built in 1909. When the bank opened, was their first and only location, until the building was ultimately torn down in 1973 to make way for this, their new building as it was at the time, and Mokena State Bank was here until that must have been around 2010 or thereabouts, and when they got bought out by, I believe, it was the state bank of illinois who was here.
Israel:So nowadays this building has been a few different banks, but Mokina state bank was here the longest and, like I think we've said before, but that old bank was such a beautiful building with the pillars and it's interesting to see in the pictures, because the pictures don't really justify the distance right. Because you had that bank building here and then everything to the corner was the general store right.
Matt:Yeah, that was a pretty big building that also held quite a lot of things over the years.
Matt:Back in the 19th century it was known as the Stoll property Because Conrad and Francisco Stoll, their family, ran a pretty successful general store here that sold, once again, all kinds of stuff. That sold once again to all kinds of stuff. And uh later on in the uh early part of the 20th century for a few decades there was uh dave kolber's hardware store was in that building and we still have people around who will remember when gus brown had his uh ice cream slash candy shop here and the building was kind of um, if I could try to describe sort of like l-shaped. It had part of it right here and then the stem of the l, if you want to say, went kind of like this going back along moquina street and it go right up along the sidewalk too, because the the front of the building was again right up on the sidewalk right yeah, yeah, the that back part of the building was right up on the sidewalk, right up on the street, and during gus brown's tenure is, uh, he had a pool hall back there.
Matt:Uh was a very manly kind of place. Not a lot of uh women went in there uh, but it was a place where guys would hang out and play pool and uh curious kids would kind of stick their heads in the door to kind of see what was going on in there.
Israel: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 the roof going, uh, and all these they had the, a number of them had, like the balconies over the top and you'd you know just a really neat, look and old. You know, homey kind of feel to it.
Matt:Oh, absolutely yeah, it was a. In my opinion, it was a beautiful historic building that stood here. It was done away with back in the 60s, if I'm not mistaken, it was for the bank to build a parking 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 to build a parking lot, if I'm not mistaken, but the building was easily 100 years old and it was here until they tore it down for the parking lot.
Israel:Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's too bad, it is, yeah, beautiful view of saint john's down there yeah, definitely.
Matt:And then we did the episode about this building.
Israel:Well, the next couple buildings there we've got episodes on. Yeah definitely, but a pre or just post-Civil War building right.
Matt:Yep, this guy in the corner here was built in 1868. So just a few years after the Civil War ended.
Israel:And it's been a what was it? A pharmacy for a long time and post office, oh, all kinds of things.
Matt:Yeah, this was one of the many places the Mokena post office has been. Uh, right around the turn of the 20th century, uh, the post office was, uh was here I forget who, under whose postmastership that was, but uh, yeah, 1890s, very early 1900s, post office was here. It's been a pharmacy, then a confectionary, so like candy, ice cream, that sort of thing and it was converted over into apartments. Uh, right around, uh, right around the end of world war ii yeah really a neat building.
Israel:Unfortunately, somebody is taking a little time and done some updates and fixed up a little.
Matt:Oh, absolutely.
Israel:But I mean wild to think that that building has been sitting here. You know, I think our episode was titled, you know, witness to History. Yeah, but I mean that has been here a long time. I've seen a lot change and a lot 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 really great. But it's such a quiet. You know you don't have the, you know it's just a quieter building.
Israel:It was neat when we did the article, a couple people posted about having to live there or one of their grandparents, so that was neat to see too. Oh, absolutely, yeah, we'll make our way back this way a little bit. Yeah, definitely, but how about this building behind us? You want to talk a little bit about that one?
Matt:Yeah, so this building behind us was very I don't want to use the word aggressively very extensively remodeled around 2002. However, underneath all this that's there now is the original building that was built right around the end of the 40s. And that building it looked completely different. It was completely out of brick and the roof was completely flat. It didn't kind of have this peak to it. That's there now. But that building was originally Cavett's Pharmacy. When it opened, and not too terribly long after they opened, the Bollman family took over and they ran their pharmacy here, which was a pretty successful business for a pretty long time. I think Mr Bollman passed away around the. It must have been around the end of the 50s or thereabouts, and in fact he still has family around too Not around here, unfortunately, but they're still out there. And then it was another pharmacy, briefly. And then lots of bars after that. Oh, okay, lots of yeah.
Israel: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 save that for another podcast.
Matt:Yeah yeah, all right, we'll save that for another podcast.
Israel:Yeah, definitely, well, great, you know, I wanted to do this because it's good to see. You know, we drive by downtown every 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 the sights and that that we see. But you know, the other thing is uh, I, I thought it was interesting. You know people, we have a really good history here, you know. But when we look at our downtown, we don't have a thriving downtown like a lot of towns do so, there's right maybe a less of an appreciation for that, or yeah, but let's get's, get your.
Israel:Why Mokena Matt, like what's so great about.
Matt:Mokena, just the fact that it's always been a home for me. I've known so many great people over the years who have lived here with me or have grown up with me, and everywhere I look there's a story, some memory from growing up or from. It could even just be a couple of years ago, and then also, when I started doing the deep dive into the history, there's even more stories. It's like, for example, once again 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 my memories of hanging out there with my friends when we were in high school and even younger do. I have that and look back fondly upon those times. But I also look back on the 150 plus years of history that have happened there and all those stories that, even though I didn't experience, I've become privy to you're living in that history, you've experienced, you know the spirit of that time.
Israel:No, that's great.
Matt:I love it yeah, no, it is, and it's cool to think about too.
Israel:I mean, I think about that, you know, as we'll get to enjoy it again. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know all those, all those memories, as well as that, that history.
Matt:Oh, absolutely yeah. But it's cool that the I noticed the windows on the east side of Geno's. We'll call it Geno's. The original windows are exposed again because for a long time the siding covered them up. Oh really yeah, that's pretty cool.
Israel:Well, matt, this was a nice little walk down, get a little refresher on some things and get a little brief history of downtown.
Matt:Yeah, exactly. So thank you for the walking tour.
Israel:Oh, absolutely, thanks for having me Beautiful early spring day. Yeah, and great to be out walking around.
Matt:Yeah, it is.
Israel:Excited for summer to be coming and all the events and that goes with it.
Matt:Yeah, definitely Thanks for taking a walk with me, matt, no problem, yeah, thanks for having me. I was glad to do it.
Israel:I, no problem. Yeah, thanks for having us. Glad to do it. I hope you enjoyed our walk down Front Street. Make sure you check out our YouTube page for the full YouTube video of our walk down Front Street. You can find that by going on YouTube and searching for Mokena's Front Porch. You'll see all our videos on there. You can look for more walking tours like this through the summer. Also, be sure to check out Matt's blog, which is Matt's Old Mokena. You can find that and everything related to our podcast at our website, which is mokenasfrontporch. com. So thanks for listening and we'll see you next time on Mokena's Front Porch.
