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Neil Street or Eleventh Street?
Street Renaming Plan Throws the Streets of Champaign into Chaos! On August 12, 1913, a simple nine to two vote by the Champaign City...

TJ Blakeman
11 min read
1,629 views
0 comments


15 East Main Street - Willis Department Store, JC Penney's, and News-Gazette Headquarters
If you ask the casual observer how old the current News-Gazette headquarters is, their answer would likely reflect the modern look of the...

TJ Blakeman
7 min read
2,990 views
0 comments


33 East Main Street - Jos. Kuhn & Company
Born in Greenstadt Germany on April 14, 1837, Jos. Kuhn arrived in the United States at age 19. He arrived by way of Louisiana where he...

TJ Blakeman
4 min read
2,281 views
0 comments


29 East Main Street
You may have passed by 29 Main Street and never gave it a second glance. Aside from the amazing drum shop, Skins N' Tin's, which...

TJ Blakeman
2 min read
768 views
1 comment


30 East Main Street - First National Bank
The first building constructed on this parcel was a small wood frame commercial building that is depicted in the 1858 Urbana-West Urbana...

TJ Blakeman
7 min read
1,764 views
2 comments


2 Main Street
There have been two buildings constructed at this address since 1850, The Gazette Building and The Kresge Building. The Gazette Building...

TJ Blakeman
3 min read
988 views
0 comments


1 East Main Street
There is no better place to start this blog than 1 Main Street. The first building constructed on this site was Barrett Hall and was one...

TJ Blakeman
2 min read
1,067 views
0 comments
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