The buildings in Pekin’s historic downtown range in age from about a century and half or more to less than 50 years. One of downtown’s structures that is about in the middle of that age range is the former Lampitt Building at 217 Court St., which is about 125 years old. The 217 Court St. building is currently vacant, but in recent years has benefited from extensive restoration and revitalization by developer Todd Thompson’s 353 Court LLC.
A review of Pekin’s early city directories and 19th century Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps shows that the lot on which 217 Court St. now stands was empty from 1885 until the about 1900. An 1877 aerial view map of Pekin shows a structure on the site, but it is unknown who or what was in that structure, which in any case was gone by 1885.
The lot at 215 Court St. was still vacant at the time of the 1898 Sanborn Map of Pekin, but by the time of 1903 Sanborn map the 215 Court St. building had made its debut. The Tazewell County Assessor’s website says the structure was built in 1900, which is no doubt correct. The 1904 Pekin city directory shows that the very first businesses at 215 Court St. were Lampitt & Co. and Lampitt Bros. The structure was built specifically to house the businesses of the Lampitt family, who were masons, brick-makers, and general contractors. Prior to locating at 215 Court, the Lampitt firm had been founded in 1888 by a Pekin native named Edwin Forrest “Ed” Lampitt (1865-1950), son of an English immigrant to Pekin name Edwin Daniel Lampitt, who served as a First Sergeant and Lieutenant in the 85th Illinois Volunteers, Co. F.
The proprietors of Lampitt & Co. in 1904 were Ed Lampitt and Eugene L. Conklin (1870-1965), while Lampitt Bros. was run by Ed Lampitt and his brother Herbert A. Lampitt (1868-1941). The name of Eugene L. Conklin is well remembered in Pekin, for he was the owner for several decades of the Conklin Lumber Co. For his part, Lampitt made his permanent mark on Pekin’s history by brick-making (including road-paving bricks that were used for Pekin’s streets), and by building many of Pekin’s houses and notable structures. For example, the original part of Pekin Community High School’s old West Campus was built by Lampitt & Lampitt Contractors in 1916, and two years later they built Pekin Public Hospital.
Other structures built by Lampitt, according to the 1949 Pekin Centenary, page 54, include the former German-American National Bank (today called The Tazewell Building), the Bristow Motor Company (today the Corner Curio), the Carpenters Union Hall, the Farmer’s Automobile Insurance Association building, the Pekin Finance Co. building, the Pekin Loan & Homestead Association building, the Pekin Water Works office, the old downtown J. C. Penney Co. building, St. Paul’s Evangelical Church’s parish house, Vogel’s packing plant, and the 1922 Schipper & Block building. Lampitt also built four of District 108 nine public school buildings that were in use in 1949.
Most of Pekin’s prominent Lampitt buildings are gone now – the most recent one to be lost being the historic Schipper & Block building, which was just torn down by the Tazewell County Board to make way for a planned new county courthouse – but a few are still standing.
E. L. Conklin did not remain as Ed F. Lampitt’s partner for very long. By the time of the 1908 city directory, the Lampitt family’s operation had been consolidated as just Lampitt & Lampitt, operated by Ed Lampitt and his son Edwin Arthur Lampitt (1886-1964). By 1922, the firm had become Ed F. Lampitt & Sons, which included the senior Lampitt and his two sons Edwin A. and Benjamin Elmer (1895-1975). The senior Lampitt retired in 1925 after about 38 years in the contracting business.
For a few years in the mid-1920s, the upstairs of the Lampitt’s building at 217 Court was the office of John E. Zimmer (1879-1951), architect, who is listed there in the 1924 and 1926 Pekin city directories. But in the 1928 directory we find that General Progressive Mercantile Service, with Daniel L. Latham (1864-1937) as manager of collection, is listed as the occupant of 217 Court’s upstairs space. By 1930, however, 217 Court’s upstairs was vacant.
City directories continue to list Ed F. Lampitt & Sons General Contractors as the sole occupant of 217 Court St. until the 1958 Pekin city directory. For most of those years, Ed Lampitt himself resided at 217 1/2 Court St., being listed at that address from the 1939 directory until his death on 9 May 1950 following a stroke.
In the 1959 directory, we find that the firm’s name had changed to Lampitt & Associates structural engineers. Lampitt & Associates continued to operate from 217 Court St. until the time of the 1964 Pekin city directory, which shows both 217 and 217 1/2 Court as vacant. That year, Benjamin E. Lampitt is shown as secretary-treasurer of Lampitt & Associates, while his brother Edwin A. Lampitt is listed as vice president of the Pekin Loan & Homestead Association. Two years later, the 1966 directory shows a phantom entry of “Lampitt Ed F & Sons” at 217 Court St., but the building was in fact still vacant. Benjamin E. Lampitt was retired by then, while Edwin A. Lampitt was deceased.
217 Court St. is listed as the offices of the Edwin A. Lampitt Estate in the city directories from 1970 to 1974. Then from 1975 to 1977, there was a rapid succession of businesses in the former Lampitt Building. In 1975, we find an antiques store had moved into 217 Court – The Treasure Haunt, owned and operated by Nora B. Carter. The following year we find Etta Antiques, owned by Etta Dalcher. Then in 1977 we find Ruth’s Used Furniture, owned by Ruth Crull – but her store also closed after about a year, because the 1978 directory again shows the building as vacant.
After remaining vacant for a few years, 217 Court St. is listed in the 1981 city directory as additional space for Mack and Louise Dison’s L & M Sale House, which was located at 225 Court St. By 1983, L & M was also using 219 and 219 1/2 Court St. as additional space along with 217 Court. The 1984 directory again shows 217 Court as part of L & M Sale House’s additional space.
Then 1985 Pekin city directory shows the debut of Adolph “Ade” Antonini’s Little Ade’s Bicycles, which was originally located at 217 Court St. Little Ade’s didn’t stay there long, though, because the following year they had moved to 319 Court St., leaving 217 Court vacant again.
Zion Baptist Church, 1320 S. Fifth St., used 217 Court St. as additional storage space from 1987 to 1989, around the time that the structure was acquired by Milton G. Christy (who also owned 215 Court St.). However, the former Lampitt Building was again vacant at the time of the 1990 and 1991 city directories. From 1992 to 1997 the directories list 217 Court merely as “storage.” In the 1998 directory, All Occasion Video briefly operated from 217 Court, but after that year this address disappears from Pekin city directories. It does not reappear until the 2014 directory as the home of Thompson Bros. Inc., about the time that Todd Thompson’s 353 Court LLC set about restoring and revitalizing the historic structure, which he had acquired on 1 June 2011 from Byron D. Oesch.
In the 2016 directory, Jakes Place barbershop makes its debut at 217 Court St. and continued to operate there for the next few years, last appearing in the 2022 directory. The building is again vacant and 217 Court St. is not listed in the 2023 directory.
