Of Pekin’s remaining historic downtown storefronts, perhaps Hamm’s Furniture’s high-peaked façade at 347-351 Court St. is the most attractive and striking. The Hamm’s Building is about 150 years old, if not older, and Hamm’s Furniture, a second-generation family business owned by Russ Hamm that has occupied this beautiful structure for about 35 years, is a well-known fixture of Pekin’s old town.
The first business known to have existed at the present site of Hamm’s Furniture was Schilling & Bohn, a firm owned by Conrad Schilling (1821-1895) and Andrew Bohn (1821-1891) that sold furniture, beds, mattresses, and . . . coffins. Schilling and his partner Bohn were also undertakers, and when they weren’t selling furniture, they were selling plots at Oak Grove Cemetery on Pekin’s north side (the oldest part of today’s Lakeside Cemetery). The 1871 Sellers & Bates City Directory of Pekin says Schilling & Bohn’s furniture store was on Court Street across from the courthouse, four doors west of Fourth Street. That would place it at the site of the Hamm’s Building – and in fact could well be that Schilling & Bohn’s building is the very same structure as the Hamm’s Building. On the other hand, Schilling & Bohn and their building may rather have been on the site of or in the building at 353-355 Court St.
The Schilling & Bohn store does not reappear in Pekin directories after 1871. In the next directory published in 1876, we find several businesses and individuals occupying space in the Roos Block. One of those businesses was the dry goods store of Peter Steinmetz Sr. (1839-1908), whose wife Fredericka (1842-1906) was related to the building’s owner Henry Roos. At one time, the Steinmetz family, who were related by marriage to the Herget family, was one of the most prominent families in Pekin, and they even had a special funeral chapel – the Steinmetz Chapel – built at Lakeside Cemetery. (A bas relief of the Last Supper is now on the site where the Steinmetz Chapel formerly stood.) Peter and Fredericka and most of their children are entombed in Lakeside Mausoleum, while the rest are buried in the Steinmetz burial plot at Lakeside.
From the 1870s on, Peter Steinmetz’s dry goods store was located in a building at 349-351 Court St. (formerly numbered 417-419 Court St.). If it wasn’t the same structure as the Schilling & Bohn store, then it was probably a structure that Henry Roos had built. In any case, the structure in which Steinmetz’s store was located in the 1870s is the same one today known as the Hamm’s Building. The 1885 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin shows Steinmetz’s store at “417-419” Court St.
In the 1887 Pekin city directory, we find the Steinmetz operation under the name of P. Steinmetz & Son, owned by Peter and his son George A. (1864-1915), with George’s younger brother Henry (1868-1930) working as a clerk in the store. The same directory shows Jacob Saal (1860-1895), grocer, at 415 Court St. – that is the address currently known as 347 Court St., and is today included in the Hamm’s Building.
By the time of the 1893 directory, the dry goods store is listed as P. Steinmetz & Sons, with Peter’s sons George and Henry in partnership with their father. Jacob Saal, grocer, again appears in the building adjoining the Steinmetz Building on the west. By this time, Saal’s grocery store had been renumbered as 347 Court, while the Steinmetz store had been renumbered 349-351 Court.
With Saal’s death in 1895, his grocery store was not listed in the 1895 city directory, which instead shows Erastus Rhodes (1829-1901), insurance agent and justice of the peace, at 347 Court St. Meanwhile, P. Steinmetz & Sons was still going strong at 349-351 Court St. The 1898 directory’s entries for 347 and 349-351 Court are almost identical to the 1895 directory, except in 1898 Erastus Rhodes shared the building at 347 Court with The Chicago Record’s local newspaper office. The Chicago Record does not reappear at that address in later directories, though. Notably, the Pekin Public Library was located on the second floor of the Steinmetz Building from 1899 to 1903, when Pekin’s Carnegie Library opened at 301 S. Fourth St.
The 1904 Pekin city directory shows that 347 Court St. then had six different occupants: on the first floor was Zion Tabernacle, A. N. Black, real estate agent, and Orville A. Smith, attorney, and on the second floor was Julius G. Epkens & Co. insurance agency, John C. Hamilton & Co. general collecting agency and city real estate, and W. Fletcher Copes, insurance agent. But even more remarkable, the 1904 directory shows P. Steinmetz & Sons with the address of 347-349-351 Court St, occupying the same buildings that are today the Hamm’s Building – and the Steinmetz dry goods store continued to occupy 347-349-351 Court until the early 1920s. P. Steinmetz & Sons in 1904 was still operated by Peter and his sons George and Henry. In addition, Peter Steinmetz and his son-in-law J. Frederick “Fred” Kaylor (1870-1940) had a jewelry store at 343 Court St.
Peter Steinmetz last appears in city directories in 1908, the year of his death. The directory that year says he and his sons George and Henry were still the co-owners of their business at 347-349-351 Court, while the second floor of 347 Court was also occupied by A. N. Black, real estate agent, and Orville A. Smith, attorney. After 1908, Peter’s son George A. Steinmetz succeeded him as owner of P. Steinmetz & Sons Co., the sole occupant of 347-349-351 Court St.
Following George’s death in 1915, by the early 1920s major occupant changes had come to the buildings at 347-349-351 Court St. The 1922 Pekin city directory shows that the Steinmetz family had sold their dry goods operation to three merchants named William Jacob Lohnes (1867-1951), William P. Merkel (1885-1928), and Otto Conrad Renfer (1871-1935), co-proprietors of the Lohnes, Merkel & Renfer dry goods store at 349-351 Court St. William J. Lohnes should not be confused with William Andrew Lohnes, who operated Central Book & Toy at 345 Court St. with his son Eugene F. Lohnes. William J. Lohnes’ brother-in-law was Philip M. Hoffman, owner of Pekin Hardware Co. at 337-339 Court St.
As for 347 Court St., that address in the 1922 directory is called the Steinmetz Building, which was the home of the P. Steinmetz & Sons Co. Clothing Store, with George Steinmetz’s son-in-law Walter Theodore “W. T.” Conover (1890-1962) as treasurer and manager of the business. In addition to the Steinmetz clothing store, the 1922 city directory says the Steinmetz Building was also occupied by M. R. Huffman’s piano studio, Albert Van Horne’s dentist office, G. L. Junker’s insurance, G. A. Himmel’s real estate agency, A. N. Black’s real estate agency, C. L. Brereton’s tailor shop, Orville A. Smith’s attorney’s office, G. A. Lucas’s insurance, and Dr. W. E. Lanan’s dentist office.
The Steinmetz clothing store, managed by W. T. Conover, remained at 347 Court St. until the late 1920s, along with at least 10 other offices on the first and second floors. As for 349-352 Court St., Renfer soon dropped out as one of the business partners – the city directories in 1924 and 1926 show just Lohnes and Merkel as co-owners of the dry goods store there, and then in the 1928 directory Lohnes is listed as the sole owner due to Merkel’s death that year.
The 1928 directory was the last to list P. Steinmetz & Son’s clothing store and the Lohnes & Merkel dry goods store. In the 1930 directory, The Steinmetz Building at 347 Court St. was occupied by Bowman Bros. Shoe Store, managed by Albert R. Smith, along with 16 other offices on the first and second floors., while 349-351 Court St. was now the home of McLellan Stores Co.’s department store, formerly a well-known and prominent fixture of Pekin’s then-bustling business district. McLellan’s manager in 1930 was Gustave C. Ullmann.
McLellan’s Department Store remained at 349-351 Court St. until the early 1970s, last appearing in Pekin city directories in 1974, Pekin’s Sesquicentennial year. For about three or four years, from 1959 to 1962, the city directories list this business with the name “McCrory-McLellan Store,” but the directories revert to just “McLellan Store” in 1964. Over the years, McLellan’s saw a succession of 12 store managers. After Ullmann, the city directories list the store managers as Roy P. Wiesen (1932), then Homer J. West (1934), then James B. McCoy (1937, 1939), then Peter Freeland (1941, 1943), then Glenn A. Haygreen (1946).
Starting with the 1948 directory, we find Robert Swendsen as McLellan’s manager – Swendsen had the longest tenure of McLellan’s managers, last appearing in city directories in that capacity in 1965. The 1966 directory then lists William B. Detrich as McLellan’s manager. Detrich was succeeded by Rob Schaefer (1968), then Glenn Dials (1969-1971), and then Rick Ashe (1972). McLellan’s last manager was Jerry P. Ray (1973, 1974).
Meanwhile in the Steinmetz Building at 347 Court St., we again find Bowman Bros. Shoe Store in the 1932 city directory, with Walter Hurlhey as manager. Also in the Steinmetz Building that year was Russell Reed McClintick (1896-1954), jeweler, along with 17 other offices, including the insurance agency of John Armand Steinmetz (1898-1961), son and successor of George A. Steinmetz. McClintick’s jewelry store remaining at 347 Court St. until the 1939 directory. As for Bowman Bros., the 1934 city directory shows that it had been replaced by a women’s clothing store called The Style Shop, co-owned by Karl A. Kreeb and George J. Krei. Like McClintick’s jewelry store, The Style Shop only lasted until the 1939 directory. The 1941 Pekin city directory shows that The Style Shop and McClintick had relocated to 343 Court St.
The Steinmetz Building continued to host a varying number of insurance agencies, attorneys, and others for the next several decades. One of those offices was always that of John A. Steinmetz himself, who is last listed at 347 Court St. in the 1961 Pekin city directory, the year of his death. His building continued to bear the name “Steinmetz Building” until the 1981 directory, but the building went empty by the time of the 1973 city directory, followed soon after by McLellan’s closing at 349-351 Court St. The directories list the Steinmetz Building “vacant” from 1974 to 1978, and 349-351 Court St. as “vacant” from 1975 to 1980.
In 1979, the Steinmetz Building’s sole occupant was Pekin Players Inc., quickly succeeded in the 1980 directory by Wilma Thomas’ Capitol Used Furniture (which was also located at 320 S. Capitol St. that year). The 1981 directory lists not only Capitol Used Furniture at 347 Court, but also Doris Windle’s Teller Training Center, while the former McLellan’s building was used by Capitol Used Furniture as additional space. However, both 347 and 349-351 Court were again listed as vacant in the 1982 directory.
In the 1983 city directory, we find Gil’s T.V. Furniture & Appliances sales and service at 347 Court St., while 349-351 Court is not even listed that year. Gil’s business was ephemeral, though – the 1984 directory lists all the store fronts from 347 to 353 Court as vacant, and 347 Court St. continues to be listed as vacant until 1988. That year, at 347 Court St. we find Sue Z’s cocktail lounge, owned and operated by R. James Evans, president, and Susan E. Evans, secretary-treasurer, with 349-351 Court used by Sue Z’s as additional space. But again, that business did not last long, and the 1989 city directory again listed all the store fronts from 347 to 353 Court as vacant.
At last, with the 1990 directory, we see the debut at 347-351 Court St. of Trade Mart Furniture & Appliances, with the proprietors Alvin Hamm (1923-1994) and his wife Edith Ruth (Smith) Hamm (1927-2021), and their son Russell A. “Russ” Hamm as deliveryman and salesman. The Hamms had moved their furniture business to the former Steinmetz and McLellan’s buildings from 328 Court St. Soon after moving to 347 Court St., the Hamms placed their focus on furniture and bedding.
City directories continue to list the business as “Trade Mart Furniture & Bedding” until 2001, which marks the first appearance of the new name “Hamm’s Furniture.” After Alvin’s passing in 1994, Edith briefly continued as sole owner in the mid-1990s before retiring and handing the business over to her son Russ, who has carried on the family business ever since.
