The Pekin Public Library, with the help of the Tazewell County Genealogical & Historical Society, has prepared a self-guided historical tour of the Tazewell County Courthouse Square in downtown Pekin, comparing today’s downtown with a look back to 100 years ago or more. Printed itinerary brochures are available in the library lobby and Local History Room.
The tour, entitled “Tazewell County Courthouse Square History Walk,” may also be accessed on a smart phone using the PocketSights app (which may be downloaded and installed at the PocketSights home page or at the Apple App Store or Google Play Store). When using the app, vintage photographs of downtown buildings may be pulled up for viewing, along with brief historical descriptions.
This self-guided tour takes approximately 25 or 30 minutes to complete, or could last longer depending on one’s pace and one’s interest in each of the buildings and points of interest.
The itinerary extends along the four blocks surrounding the courthouse, starting at the courthouse and McKenzie Building, then beginning a square at the intersection of Court and Fourth streets, heading west down to Capitol Street, then south to Elizabeth Street, east to Fourth, and then north back to the intersection of Court and Fourth. The tour debuted on Thursday, June 24, during celebratory programs marking the 125th anniversary of the Pekin Public Library’s existence as a department of Pekin’s city government.
Highlights along the tour include the former sites of Herget National Bank and Farmers’ National Bank, the historic Arcade Building, Schipper & Block (Block & Kuhl) department store, Old Post Office, former sites of the Pekin Theater and the Tazewell Hotel (formerly Woodard’s Hotel), former site of the Zerwekh Building (later the Pekin Times Building), and the corner of Fourth and Court streets where Circleville outlaw Bill Berry, leader of the Berry Gang, was lynched by a mob on July 31, 1869.
