Rivalling if not surpassing the Hamm’s Building for the title of most attractive and striking of the surviving buildings in Pekin’s historic Old Town is the 404 Court St. Building, which has been home to Dianna Howard’s popular Coffee Connections café since 2022.
Although the Tazewell County Assessor lists 1901 as the date of construction for the 404 Court St. Building, in fact the building was probably built in the 1880s or 1890s. The earliest directories are imprecise in their building addresses, but it is probable that the grocery store of Nicholas Reuling (1832-1913) and George Ehrlicher (1824-1876) was located on or near the site of the present 404 Court St. Building. The 1861 city directory says the Reuling & Ehrlicher store was the 11th door east of Fourth Street on the south side of Court St.
Ten years later, we find Ehrlicher listed in the 1871 directory as sole proprietor of a store selling grocery, provisions, liquor, and queensware, located somewhere between Fourth and Fifth streets on the south side of Court. The same directory also shows Jacob John Woelfle (1826-1923) operating a watchmaking and jewelry shop somewhere between Fourth and Fifth streets on Court’s south side. Either Ehrlicher’s or Woelfle’s shops could have been at the future site of the 404 Court St. Building.
We reach firmer ground by the time of the 1876 Pekin city directory, which shows Adam Heilmann and Louis “Loue” Trinkaus (1836-1902) as co-owners of the Heilmann & Trinkaus grocery store at 500 Court St. Despite the number “500,” their store was not directly at the southwest corner of Court and Fourth – for that was rather the site of the Arbeiters Heimath boarding house – but instead Heilmann & Trinkaus operated from a building at the site now known as 404 Court.
By the time of the 1887 city directory, Trinkaus was the sole owner of the grocery store, which by then was numbered as “506” Court St. – the same address that appears in all later directories as “404” Court. It is likely that the current 404 Court St. Building was constructed about this same period of time, being given a classic late 19th century American business façade. The same façade is still almost entirely intact today – the only visible differences being the removal of a decorative urn from atop the façade’s peak, and the removal of the building’s weather vane.
In the 1898 Pekin city directory, we find Trinkaus’ son Martin Henry Trinkaus (1878-1942) clerking in his father’s store. When Louis Trinkaus passed away four years later, his son Martin succeeded him as head of the business. However, Martin H. Trinkaus sold the grocery store about 1908 – he last appears as owners of the grocery store at 404 Court St. in the 1908 city directory, and the following year we find Fred Herman Johannes (1864-1917) as proprietor of the store.
Johannes continued to run the grocery store until his death – the 1916 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin still identifies 404 Court St. as a grocery store. But by the time of the 1922 Pekin city directory, Johannes’ grocery store had been succeeded by the Apollo Billiard Hall, operated by Henry Schroeder (1888-1965). Also in the 404 Court St. Building that year was Irve Hewes’ barbership. The 1924 directory also shows Schroeder’s billiard hall, but that year the barbershop was being run by Walter Harrison.
About the middle of the 1920s, William J. Moran of Peoria purchased the former Trinkaus-Johannes Building and opened Moran’s Market, a butcher shop that operated at 404 Court St. until about 1940. The manager and meat cutter at 404 Court St. was Henry Ulrich (1880-1955), who lived above the store with his wife Josephine. Moran also had a second Moran’s Market location at 321 Court St. that he ran personally. “Pekin: A Pictorial History,” page 119, includes the following personal memory of Moran’s Market:
“My dad was a butcher at Moran’s Meat Market where calves were butchered. I got a nickel a night to clean the butcher block using a wire brush. I stood on a three-foot ‘soadey’ case and cleaned that huge block seven days a week when I was eight years old in 1929.”
Moran also provided three apartments – called “Moran’s Apartments” – above his 404 Court St. business that saw a number of tenants over the decades. Another longtime tenant at 404 Court St. was the dentist’s office of Dr. Clyde H. Shawgo (1902-1980), whose office first appears in the building in the 1926 Pekin city directory. Dr. Shawgo maintained his dentist’s office at that same location until his death.
After Moran’s Market closed at 404 Court St. about 1940, Benjamin P. “Ben” Marcus opened Ace Liquor Store in its place. Moran’s former manager Ulrich continued to live in one of the building’s apartments until his death, and his widow Josephine also continued living there for some years after his death. Ace Liquor Store continued operating at 404 Court until the early 1950s, when it moved to 14 N. Fifth St. After Ace’s departure, we find in the 1955 Pekin city directory that Edward Achenbach (1913-1991) had opened Pekin Venetian Blind & Shade Service in its place.
Achenbach’s business is listed in city directories at that location until the 1970 directory. The main business area of the building was then vacant for a couple years, until Weisser Jewelry & Optical Co. moved in about the time of the 1973 Pekin city directory. Weisser remained at 404 Court St. until the latter half of the 1980s, last being listed there in the 1987 Pekin city directory. During its time at 404 Court, the business had seen a fairly frequent turnover of managers or optometrists. The first manager, Matthew Ondrey Jr., appears in the directories from 1973 to 1975, after which we find a rapid succession of five optometrists: Bernard Stern in 1976, Lawrence S. Scott in 1977, Ernest C. Erickson in 1978 and 1979, Roger C. Croland in 1980, and finally Henry C. Paweske (or Paweski) from 1981 to 1987.
The building again went vacant (except for its residential apartment dwellers) for the rest of the 1980s, but in the 1990 Pekin city directory we find DUI Counter Measures Inc. and Developmental Services Group, both of which were served office manager Lorraine M. Comstock (1933-2016), operated from the ground floor of 404 Court St. By the time of the 1992 directory, however, DUI Counter Measures had moved across the street to the 405 Court St. Building, and then in 1993 Developmental Services Group had also crossed the street to 405 Court. (Comstock was office manager for DUI Counter Measures from 1987 to 1996.)
Once more the building’s main business area went vacant, as shown in the 1993 and 1994 city directories. Annette’s Fashions, a women’s apparel store, made a go of it at 404 Court St. in the mid-1990s, being listed at that address in the directories from 1995 to 1997, but yet again the building is found vacant (except for its upstairs apartment residents) in the 1998 and 1999.
With the 2000 Pekin city directory, however, we see the debut of the business that has fixed the association of 404 Court St. with coffee in the minds of Pekinites: CJ’s Café. Year by year, city directories consistently show CJ’s Café at 404 Court over the course of two decades. Beginning in 2007, the directories also show the business’ owner Mary Smith. Tazewell County Assessor’s records show that she and her husband Michael Smith acquired title to the building on 30 Aug. 2013. However, CJ’s last appears in directories in the fateful year of 2020 – and in the 2021 directory, 404 Court St. is not listed at all. That was, thankfully, but a brief hiatus, and the arrival of Dianna Howard’s Coffee Connections was heralded in the 2022 Pekin city directory.
