Bob Cavanagh

I don’t know for sure whether history repeats itself, but I do know this: What goes around comes around. Nearly 100 years ago, on Nov. 27, 1907, Professor Alja Robinson Crook, curator of the Illinois State Museum, addressed the Springfield Ad Men’s Club at the group’s home in the Ferguson Building at Sixth and Monroe […]

Last year, Dan Hillis — a local attorney who is originally from Binghamton, N.Y. — purchased a home on South Douglas Avenue that he is now in the process of renovating. A curious metal plaque, prominently affixed to the house with screws, greets visitors with a whimsical, if false, statement: “On This Site in 1897, […]

When the family and friends of Olga McAnarney gathered during Christmas week last year to mourn her death, the traditional repast after the burial was an occasion that reunited many current and former residents of the old North 22nd Street neighborhood near St. Aloysius Church on Springfield’s North End. The mourners, many of them now […]

In the hot summer of 1904, Springfield photographer Guy Mathis sallied forth from his downtown offices above Coe’s Book Store at Fifth and Monroe streets in his brand-new Cadillac to photograph the officers and men of the 7th Regiment of the Illinois National Guard. These guardsmen, known as the “Irish Brigade” of Chicago, were at […]

The Rev. Dr. James H. Magee (1839-1912) is one of the most interesting, yet obscure, characters in Springfield history. Were it not for a semiautobiographical book he published in 1873 while serving as pastor of the Union Baptist Church of Cincinnati, scant little indeed would be known about this high-minded, eloquent African-American social progressive and […]

In the summer of 1942, the District Convention of the Order of AHEPA (the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association) was held for three days at the Abraham Lincoln Hotel in downtown Springfield. The executive officers of the convention and their wives welcomed chapter members from around the state of Illinois to meet, enjoy each other’s […]

The terrible fire that gutted the Herbert Georg Studio in downtown Springfield in February 1980 was very nearly thorough in its destruction of the studio building and its contents. Only about 9,000 usable negatives survived the catastrophe. Readers of this column know of the esteem in which we of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library now […]

Two of the most interesting, accomplished, and talented people ever to appear on the Springfield arts scene were Romain and Ellen Proctor, who quite casually fell in love with the ancient art of puppeteering during the Great Depression and over time became influential and internationally known experts in the field. Romain Proctor — or Proc, […]

Among the many collections that make up the Audio-Visual Department of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, the Guy Mathis photographic collection stands out for its unparalleled documentation of turn-of-the-century Springfield, particularly the downtown area. The approximately 1,700 images are a fascinating visual chronicle of a fairly narrow window of time — roughly 1899-1905. Mathis, who […]

One hundred years ago, automobile racing came to the Illinois State Fair dirt track for the first time when the Springfield Automobile Club sponsored a meet at which the featured driver was the famous Barney Oldfield. By the end of 1905, Oldfield held every dirt-track speed record from one to 50 miles. Although Oldfield’s name […]

At the intersection of Lincoln Avenue and Edwards Street is a two-story building with a “For Lease” sign in the front window of the vacant first story. Until recently, the location served as a religious meeting house and, for many years before that, as an antique shop where a languorous cat spent her days blissfully, […]