December 5, 2016

Following up on ‘Five Points’

In the From the Local History Room column published in the April 23, 2016 Pekin Daily Times, we discussed the “Five Points” intersection in downtown Pekin and sought an answer to the question of when the intersection first got its name.

At that time, we were able to determine that the “Five Points” name for the intersection of Court and Broadway must have been well established by 1955, because the 1955 Pekin City directory lists the nearby “Five Point Tavern” (sic) at 623 Court St.

Another interesting scrap of information has since turned up that enables us to state that the terminus a quo for the origin of this designation must be well before 1930. This we know from the headline of an article on the front page of the Sept. 8, 1930 Daily Times, which says, “2 A.M. Crash Wakens 5 Pts. — Embarrassing Time for Girl.”

As will become evident, the article itself, shown below, really needs no further comment.

fivepointscrashin1930

Local History Program Coordinator at the Pekin Public Library. I oversee the library's local history room collection, write a weekly local history column/weblog for the library, and present local history programs at the library and in the community.

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