While it is natural that people might express interest in the history of the striking and architecturally notable structures of Pekin’s old downtown, in fact there is not a square foot of Pekin’s old town – even buildings that might appear to be humble or mundane – that isn’t heavy laden with our city’s long history.
That truth is especially evident in the history of the buildings and businesses that have operated at 429 Court St. Recently Kalib Jackson of American Inkwell, 429 Court St., asked me to delve into the history and “prehistory” of his building to find out what kinds of businesses have been located over the decades on Lot 11 of Block 72 of the Original Town of Pekin.
According to the Tazewell County Assessor’s website, the current structure at 429 Court St. was erected in 1930. That may or may not have been the actual date of construction, because sometimes the Assessor’s website shows the date of a major remodel or expansion of a structure as the original date of construction. However, Jackson says there had been a fire at 429 Court St. at some point, so it is quite possible an entirely new structure had to be built, or at the least major repairs had to be made to the original building.
When we consult the old city directories of Pekin, we find that there is no reference in the first Pekin city directory in 1861 to any business or residence at the spot that would later be called 429 Court St. Ten years later, however, the 1870-71 Sellers & Bates City Directory of Pekin shows this lot was the location of the Pautz & McIntosh grocery story, owned and operated by Adolph Pautz (1821-1901) and Charles R. McIntosh (1836-1907), “dealers in groceries, provisions, woodenware, queensware, canned and dried fruits, etc.” The 1879 Tazewell County history says Pautz, a German immigrant, was also School Inspector of Pekin. McIntosh’s obituary in the 22 March 1907 Neodesha Register says he left Pekin in 1886 and settled as a farmer in Neodesha, Kansas, where he lived the rest of his life.
In the next Pekin city directory in 1876, we find that Adolph Pautz had relocated his grocery store elsewhere in downtown Pekin. Where his store used to be had become the site of the Herget grocery store, owned and run by the brothers John Herget (1830-1899) and George Herget (1833-1914), prominent Pekin businessmen and civic leaders whose family name is so well known in Pekin’s history. The 1876 directory describes John and George as “wholesale dealers in groceries, wines and liquors, tobaccos and cigars.”
The Herget brothers’ store occupied both 429 and 431 Court St. in 1876 and is again listed as occupying those lots in the 1887 Pekin city directory. Interestingly, the 1885 Sanborn Map of Pekin describes their business as a drug store. The 1870-71 directory had shown that the Herget brothers’ store was then at the northwest corner of Court and Fourth, where Herget National Bank later would be located; and even earlier, the 1861 directory says their store was at the southeast corner of Court and Fourth, catty-corner to where it would move by 1870.
The 1893 and 1895 Pekin city directories do not list any business at this location, but the 1892 Sanborn Map of Pekin says it was then a business selling drugs, paint, varnish and wall paper. The next business we find there is George Bertsch’s meat market, listed in the 1898 Pekin City Directory at 429 Court St. (formerly numbered 423 ½ Court St.), and shown in that year’s Sanborn Map of Pekin. The next Sanborn Map in 1903 again shows a meat market at 429 Court, and the 1904 city directory says its proprietor then was A. L. Smith.
By the time of the 1908 Pekin City Directory, however, Smith’s meat market had been replaced by Fred Schreck Sr.’s saloon, which appears in the 1909 directory as F. Schreck & Son – and the 1909 Sanborn Map shows a saloon at 429 Court St.
The 1913 city directory shows George Stockert as the proprietor of the Anheuser-Busch Saloon at 429 Court St., and this business has an extended directory entry that reads, “This Celebrated Beer Always on Tap, Cool and Fresh. Also Fine Cigars, Wines and Liquors, 429 Court, r 911 N. Fourth. Citz phone 81; res 704-B.” The following year, however, we find Stockert replaced by Joseph Albrecht as proprietor of this saloon, and two years later the 1916 Sanborn Map of Pekin shows that there was still a saloon at 429 Court St.
A few years later, we find an entirely different kind of business at 429 Court St., for the 1922 Pekin City Directory shows James McMillan & Sons Jewelers at that location (the sons were James McMillan Jr. and Robert A. McMillan). Sharing their building was none other than Pekin’s pioneer printer and historian William Henry Bates (who had published the Bates City Directories of Pekin until the 1910s). Bates ran his printing shop out of 429 Court St. until his death.
James McMillan & Sons Jewelers is again listed at 429 Court St. in the 1924 city directory, along with Bates’ print shop and the real estate and insurance agency of John M. Goar (1898-1971), younger brother of Ralph C. Goar who served as Pekin Police Chief and Tazewell County Sheriff. The following year, the final Sanborn Map of Pekin shows that Bates’ print shop took up most of the building. The rest was evidently taken up by Goar’s office, but the McMillan jewelers were gone, no doubt unable to compete with Henry Birkenbusch across the street. The 1926 Pekin City directory shows only Bates and Goar at 429 Court St.
Bates and Goar continued to share the building until Bates’ death in 1930. After that, the 1932 Pekin City Directory shows Goar sharing the building with the Tazewell County Maytag Co. By the time of the 1934 directory, though, Goar had moved next door to 427 ½ Court St. (where his agency would remain in the coming decades), while 429 Court was occupied by Unique Cleaners and Shirley O. Cox, printer.
Neither of those businesses lasted long at that location, but beginning with the 1937 city directory we see the first appearance of a business that would make 429 Court St. its home for the next three decades: The Saratoga Cigar Store and Saloon, owned and operated by Foy Fass (1897-1993). Fass is listed as proprietor of The Saratoga until the 1958 Pekin City Directory (although in the 1946 directory his name is misspelled “Floyd Fass” and “Floyd Faso,” while in the 1952 directory his name is misspelled “Fay” Fass).
Fass sold his tavern in the late 1950s to Edward J. Boeck, who is listed as its owner in the 1959 directory, after which The Saratoga rapidly changed owners about every other year. In the 1961 directory, The Saratoga’s owner was Robert Rushing Jr., who sold the business to John T. Smith and his wife Pricilla. The Smiths tried changing the tavern’s name to Sarge’s Sand-Bar, but in the 1964 city directory the tavern’s name was back to “The Saratoga,” owned and operated by Charles H. and Mary C. Smith. In the 1965 and 1966 directories we meet The Saratoga’s last owner, Walter C. Evans – but the property at 429 Court St. is shown as vacant in 1968 and 1969.
In the 1970 Pekin City Directory, the Heights Finance Corp., offering loans and mortgages, appears at 429 Court St., remaining at that address through the 1976 city directory. During those years, Heights Finance had a succession of four managers: first David W. Harrison, then Thomas O. Kromphardt, then Dale G. Stalker, and finally Robert L. Mullins.
With the 1977 directory, we see something of a revival of 429 Court St.’s heritage going back to the Herget brothers’ sale of tobacco and cigars back in the 1870s, or The Saratoga’s 1937 debut as a cigar shop – for in that year’s directory we see “The Smoke Shoppe,” operated by James H. and Edith I. Taylor, selling pipes, cigarettes, cigars, tobaccos and smoking accessories. The Taylors promoted their own blend of tobacco, known as “Jims Blend,” and also sold 3-Star Tobacco.
The Smoke Shoppe was only at 429 Court St. for about four years, though. Beginning with the 1981 city directory, 429 Court St. is listed as the address of the Tazewell County Dental Clinic, where Leland S. Hickman, DDS, was the main dentist. About this time, the 429 Court St. building itself was owned jointly by Steven P. and Helen Budisalich, along with Steve L. and Sandra L. Budisalich, who together deeded the property on 30 Aug. 1980 to Wesley J. Waterhouse. The Tazewell County Dental Clinic then leased the building from Waterhouse.
The dental clinic, and Hickman, are listed in Pekin city directories at 429 Court St. until the 2000 directory, when the listing is for the Tazewell County Health Department. The county clinic was evidently still there, though, for it again appears in the 2001 directory as “Dental Health Clinic Tazewell County.” While the dental clinic continued to operate at 429 Court, Waterhouse transferred ownership of his building on 2 May 1990 to the Wesley J. Waterhouse General Trust, of which Waterhouse himself was the trustee. He was succeeded as trustee by the Mercantile Trust Co., which sold the building on 5 Oct. 1999 to Thomas N. Trump and his wife Nancy W. Trump as joint tenants. The Trumps then transferred the building’s ownership to the Nancy W. Trump Living Trust on 20 Dec. 1999. It is from the Trumps that Tracy D. Denning purchased the 429 Court St. on 20 Dec. 2006.
Again consulting the Pekin city directories, we see that 429 Court St. does not appear in the directories from 2002 to 2005. In the 2006 directory, Leland S. Hickman makes one last appearance at that address. Then in 2007 we meet the building’s new owner, Tracy D. Denning, and remarkably, the building is listed as her home address that year and again in 2008. But 429 Court St. again disappears from the city directories from 2009 through 2013. The 2014 directory, surprisingly, lists the Tazewell County Dental Office at 429 Court, but perhaps that is an erroneous “ghost” entry.
Then in the 2015 Pekin City Directory, we find that Tracy Denning had opened Muse Salon Inc. at 429 Court. Her salon is listed at that address each year until 2022. The 2023 directory does not have a listing for 429 Court St. due to the closing of Muse Salon. On 17 Jan. 2014, Denning had transferred the building’s legal ownership to Muse Salon Inc., which sold 429 Court St. on 12 May 2022 to Todd Hasty.
Then on 9 Aug. 2023 the building was acquired by its current owner: “AI06,” that is, American Inkwell, the tattoo parlor of artists Jason Parry, Kalib Jackson and Summer Oggero. Before moving into 426 Court St., American Inkwell was established in 2006 as a custom tattoo parlor at 1310 N. Eighth St. It’s open Tuesday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 7p.m., closed Sunday and Monday, and may be reached at (309) 346-8282.
