Pekinites of an older generation will remember the building at 525-527 Court St. as the home of the Pekin Music Store and The Photoggery. Though this downtown building has long stood vacant, the current owners, Gary and Crista Flynn, are currently renovating and revitalizing the structure to become the home of their daughter Ashley Simmons’ resale boutique Take 2 and Gigi’s Pet Treats. Their daughter’s businesses will be located at 527 Court St., while the Flynns intend to rent out the next door 525 Court St. space to a local business.
The exact age of the 525-527 Court St. building is uncertain. The Tazewell County Assessor’s website says it was built in 1957, but city directories indicate the building was already there by the early 1950s if not earlier.
The story of 525-527 Court St. begins in 1881, when a pair of German immigrants named Nicholaus or Nicholas Weber (1834-1920) and John Frey (1837-1913) partnered to create the wagon-making firm of Weber & Frey in a building located at 625-629 Court St. – an address that was soon renumbered as 525-529 Court St. Weber and Frey made and repaired wagons and carriages, and Frey was also a blacksmith.
The 1887 Pekin city directory not only lists Weber & Frey at 625-629 Court, but also shows the related firm of Weber & Voll next door at 631 Court St. (later renumbered 531 Court). The proprietors of Weber & Voll were Nicholas’ son Henry Weber (1860-1940) and Charles P. Voll (1853-1911), who were general machinists, manufacturers, and repairmen.
The buildings of Weber & Frey and Weber & Voll occupied all the lots from 525 Court St. east to Sixth and Court. Weber & Frey are listed at 525 Court St. in the 1893 and 1895 city directories, and at 525-527 Court St. in the 1898 and 1904 city directories. Weber & Frey appear in Pekin city directories up to 1909, with their street address give as 525-529 Court St. in the 1908 and 1909 directories.
The partnership of Nicholas Weber and John Frey was brought to a sudden end on 25 Sept. 1913, when Frey died of a stroke at the age of 76. Weber then retired, selling the wagon-making and blacksmithing business to Bert Fisher and his brother Henry Fisher, who thus changed the firm’s name to Fisher Bros. The business is listed under that name at 525-529 Court St. in the 1913 and 1914 Pekin city directories.
But by that time, wagons and carriages were fast giving way to automobiles. The Oct. 1916 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin shows that the old Weber & Frey, Weber & Voll, and Fisher Bros. buildings had been remodeled to become an automobile dealership and garage called “Court Garage,” with a 20-car capacity. By the time of the 1922 city directory, Court Garage had become a Ford dealership called Conaghan Motor Co., owned and operated by James T. Conaghan (1874-1936), son of Irish immigrant Thomas Donegan Conaghan who had founded the Planter’s Hotel (today’s Ashers Bar & Grill) at 353-355 Court St.
By 1926, the city directory shows that Conaghan Motor Co. had become the Dowdle Motor Co., owned by William R. Dowdle, and the Sept. 1925 Sanborn map shows that the Conaghan garage had been further remodeled to accommodate up to 50 cars. The 1930 Pekin city directory lists Dowdle Motor Co. at 525-529 Court St., but also shows that the building was being shared with Robert Orvil Schwenk Sr. (1884-1945) who had a bakery at 527 Court St., and with Henry Shutler “Harry” Kluever (1893-1949), who sold electrical appliances at 525 Court St. (Kluever also served on the Pekin City Council.)
With the 1932 Pekin city directory, however, we find Dowdle Motor Co.’s address listed as 529-531 Court St., while Toney D. Taylor was teaching music at 525 Court St. and Leland E. Jayne (1869-1952), a machine operator for Pekin Leather Products at 1101 Margaret St., was living at 527 Court St.
In the 1934 city directory, we find John W. Davis and Muriel Davis, a dressmaker, living at 525 Court, while 527 Court was the location of Progressive Miners of America, Charles Grant (1893-1950), secretary, which met every Friday. Three years later, the directory shows Elmer Alvis, locksmith, along with something called Pekin Dime Delivery, at 527 Court St., while the Central Illinois Light Co. (CILCO), Willis M. Beardsley (1890-1950), district manager, had moved their offices to 525 Court St.
From the 1937 Pekin city directory until the 1956 directory, CILCO’s address is listed as 525-531 Court St., but starting in 1956 the address is listed as only 531 Court St. After Beardsley, the Pekin district manager for CILCO during those years was Arthur L. Grob (1897-1962), who is first listed as district manager in the 1941 Pekin city directory. The 531 Court St. building is now Deverman Advertising.
As for the 525 Court St. address, the 1939 and 1941 city directories say that was then Lofthouse Dress Shop, owned by Fred Lofthouse (1888-1944). In the 1943 and 1946 directories, however, we find that Lofthouse Dress Shop had moved to 436 Court, while 525 Court St. was the home of one of Lofthouse’s dressmakers, Lillian G. Elkins. But by 1948, 525 Court St. was a substation for Peoria Newspapers Inc. (i.e., the Peoria Morning Star and Peoria Journal-Transcript). Peoria Newspapers Inc.’s office was then at 318 Elizabeth St., managed by Paul H. Massey. We continue to find Peoria Newspapers Inc.’s substation at 525 Court St. in the 1950 and 1952 Pekin city directories.
In the 1955 directory, 525 Court is listed as the Peoria Journal Star substation (following the merger of the Peoria Star and the Peoria Journal-Transcript). In the same directory, though, Pekin Music Shop makes its first appearance at 525 Court St. The proprietors of this popular business were Richard C. “Dick” McCloud (1921-2011) and his wife Merla M. McCloud (1926-2017). In 1967, Dick and Merla sold Pekin Music Shop to Charles Sisney, who changed the business’ name to Hi-Fi One Stop. Sisney’s store last appears in Pekin city directories in 1974. In the 1975, the music store at 525 Court St. is listed as Royal Sounds, owned by David Prince.
Meanwhile, since the mid-1950s Bernard W. Heberer Sr. (1914-2002) had been running a successful photography and camera shop called The Photoggery at 527 Court St. The Photoggery first appears in Pekin city directories in 1956. In the 1969 directory, we find that Heberer had also started a companion business devoted to video and sound, called Engineered Sound-Video (later abbreviated as E. S. V.). Bernard W. Heberer Sr. is listed as president of The Photoggery until the 1989 city directory. After that he retired and his son Steven H. Heberer moved the business from 527 Court St. out to the Pekin Mall, and the old storefront at 527 Court went vacant for a few years.
As for E. S. V., Bernard W. Heberer Jr. took over that side of the family business, being first listed as president of Engineered Sound-Video Inc. in the 1977 Pekin city directory. The year before that, Engineered Sound-Video had moved into 525 Court St. after Royal Sounds went out of business there. After The Photoggery left 527 Court St. at the end of the 1980s, E. S. V. at 525 Court began to use the space at 527 Court as additional space.
E. S. V. Inc. last appears in Pekin city directories in 2000. Since that year, neither 525 Court St. nor 527 Court St. have been listed in Pekin city directories – both storefronts have been vacant since then. But Gary and Crista Flynn are now working to bring that long hiatus to an end.
