Recently I was asked to research the history of the residential property at 920 Broadway and present that house’s story in the manner that I previously had told the story of the old Dietrich Smith-Judge Reardon mansion almost two years ago. The home at 920 Broadway has never been as grand as the Smith-Reardon mansion, but even as humble and unassuming a house at this one can have an interesting story to tell.
Tazewell County records indicate that the 920 Broadway frame house has been standing for 118 years — since 1907 — so although it is not one of Pekin’s notable 19th century edifices, and it is not an architecturally striking structure, it nevertheless has accumulated a fascinating history over the past 12 decades. During its existence, a total of 10 families have called 920 Broadway “home,” with the home’s current residents having lived there for 27 years (since 1998).
The house at 920 Broadway and its associated outbuildings are the only structures that have ever stood on the lot that is legally designated SEC 2 T24N R5W ACME SUBD LOT 1 HAINES ADDN LOT 2 NW 1/4. The legal description of the property contains two clues to the history of the lot prior to the house’s construction in 1907. First, the lot is located in the Acme Subdivision, and second, it is in the Haines Addition to Pekin. Those toponyms, Acme and Haines, testify to this property’s use before it became a residential lot.
The story begins with one of Pekin’s early settlers, an inventor named Jonathan Haines (1808-1868), younger brother of William Haines (1801-1834) who was one of Pekin’s co-founders in 1830. As we have told here before, Jonathan and his brother Ansel Haines went into business together, building a factory out on what was then the eastern outskirts of town, where they manufactured agricultural implements, chiefly Jonathan’s patented Haines Illinois Harvester. Their firm, called A. & J. Haines, was located in the Haines Addition, which is bounded by Broadway, Ninth, Court, and 11th streets. For most of the 1800s, those factory buildings and the old Tharp Pioneer Burying Ground were the only landmarks in the Haines Addition.
After Jonathan Haines’ untimely death in 1868, Ansel went into business with, and then sold the business to, Andrew J. Hodges, who changed the firm’s name to the Hodges Header Co., which continued to make use of the old A. & J. Haines factory. The Hodges Header plant is shown on the 1877 aerial view map of Pekin. In 1890, the company was purchased by the Acme Hay Harvester Co., which only continued operations at the old Haines-Hodges factory for a few years. Around 1892, Acme moved to Peoria and closed the Pekin factory.
That opened up the Haines Addition to residential development — hence, the creation of the Acme Subdivision, through which residential frame homes began to be constructed in the Haines Addition in the early 20th century. The development of the Acme Subdivision can be traced in the old Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Pekin. In Nov. 1903, the Sanborn map shows the south side of the 900 block of Broadway to have been almost completely empty, with just one house on the block: a frame structure at 902 Broadway. The house at 920 Broadway first appears on the Dec. 1909 Sanborn map. Interestingly, although Tazewell County records indicate that 920 Broadway was built in 1907, the 1909 Pekin city directory and earlier directories do not have a listing for 920 Broadway.
Next week, we will begin to recount the stories of the first families to live at 920 Broadway in the period from 1907 to 1923.
