I’d been thinking about a prop for my photos for a while and had decided to get a chair. I imagined a cheap card table chair. When I drove to Freeport, Illinois, I had it in the back of my head to look for one — that’s part of the reason I walked into Luecke’s Antique Mall. The chair was tucked against the wall in the ballroom. At the last minute, I thought to take a photo of it where I found it.
I strolled the streets of downtown Freeport taking photos of storefronts and anything else that caught my eye. I found one popcorn shop and wondered for a moment if I’d heard the woman at Mrs. Mike’s incorrectly, but I decided to keep looking.
Then I spotted the Blust Building with the very cool Coke ghost sign.
If you look closely you can see two layers of Coke advertising.
The middle doorway led up a flight of stairs to an antique mall. On a whim, I walked inside. An elderly woman at the register greeted me. I’m not sure exactly why, but I gave her my spiel about being in Freeport for the first time and on the lookout for interesting stuff. When I mentioned my interest in history, she got very excited. She put down what she was working on, grabbed my arm and dragged me down the hallway.
I thought perhaps she was taking me to a display of Lincoln artifacts or somesuch, but no — the Blust Building itself was her passion, and by the time I left an hour later, I knew more about it than any person living except for my guide. (I greatly regret that I never asked her name.)
The lower floor of the building (which I didn’t see) was once a jewelers. The middle floor had eight apartments in one of which my guide had her hair done when she was 15 or 16. (She’s 93 now.) There were signs all over the place pointing to “interesting” features of the building — my guide took me to all of them. She directed me to take photographs of the transoms, the old bathtub, the built-in apartment shelving and the original linoleum flooring.
When I didn’t immediately take a picture of the linoleum floor, she stopped and pointed until I did.
The upstairs was genuinely interesting. Half of it had been Brown’s Business College and the other half the Blust Ballroom (in which my guide had once danced). I was escorted around the room for at least 10 minutes. My friend told me on several occasions that I’d met “the windiest person in Freeport.”
The ballroom had a raised bandstand on one end. I went up there later, but I didn’t stay long. It didn’t seem very sturdy.
Here are a few shots from the college side.
When I was finally left alone, I poked around the antiques. Most of it was junk. There was one room in which everything cost $1.00. It appeared that most of it had been tossed in from the doorway.
I was working my way through the downstairs rooms when my buddy tracked me down again. She greeted me with, “Are you the fella with the pictures?” She had me follow her on another tour of all the same rooms we’d visited earlier, but this time the topic was the antique business. First she took me to several of her competitors’ rooms and showed me how messy and crowded they were. “That’s greed. That’s what it is, just greed.”
Then she took me to rooms she’d arranged and showed me how neat they were. She kept on talking long after she ran out of things to say. When she started through the rooms a third time pointing out individual items for sale, I gently broke away. Earlier, up in the ballroom, I’d spotted a red, wooden folding chair that had a lot of personality.
I photographed it where it sat, then carried it around for a while to make sure it wasn’t too heavy or awkward for what I had in mind. I decided to buy it, and $10 later, it was mine.
My friend rang me up, but surprisingly, it didn’t take her long. A couple from Minnesota had entered the store, and she was anxious to take them on the tour.
While I was wandering about Debate Square, I noticed the Union Dairy next door. People were constantly going in and out, so I strolled over to see what there was to see.
The inside was an old-fashioned soda fountain.
It was only 10:30, rather early in the morning for ice cream, but adventures go like that sometimes. I asked the girl behind the counter for the most chocolate thing they had. She directed me to the triple-chocolate ice cream. I ordered a single dip. I’m glad I didn’t get anything larger. As it was, I got enough ice cream for a family of five.
Satisfyingly full and then some, I set off to my next stop.
It’s a good thing I remembered the location of Mrs. Mike’s from my Internet search. I never would have found it otherwise. Even as it was, I almost missed it. I was looking for a cute little shop. What I found was this.
The sign clearly said “Mrs. Mike’s” but I didn’t see any cute shops. I was about to give up when I spotted a second sign on the side of a long warehouse.
I parked near some other cars at the end of the building, perhaps 30 yards from the door. A woman was backing out as I was getting out of my car. She opened her window and said, “If you’re picking up potato chips, you can park a lot closer to the door.” I thanked her and kept walking. She called, “You can park right up by the door if you’re picking something up.” I nodded and smiled and said, “That’s OK. Thanks.” As I continued walking, she stayed and watched me with a very concerned look on her face. I thought too late to ask her if she was Mrs. Mike.
Inside the door, I found myself in a small vestibule with a window into a warehouse. There was a small section of shelves along one wall that contained pretzels, hats and T-shirts. A second woman walked over and asked if she could help me. I replied, “I don’t know. I’ve never been to Freeport before. I drove out to see the Lincoln-Douglas Debate site and thought, as long as I was here, that I’d look around. I checked the Internet and found … “
She smiled and said, “Mrs. Mike’s!” I asked if the pretzels on the shelf were “the” Freeport pretzels and if I could purchase a bag.
As the woman rang up my order, she listed other things in town that I should make sure to see. She mentioned Union Dairy, and I told her I’d already been there. Then she told me about Dragon Popcorn where they make popcorn in all different flavors. She thought for a moment and then suggested I go to McNess because “it’s really fun; they have all kinds of spices and medicines.”
Well, that sounded pretty exciting. She thought so, anyway. She came out from behind the counter and motioned me to follow her outside. We walked a ways into the parking lot until she could point to this building.
Well, why not. I drove around the block and headed for the front of the building. I was approaching this corner when I found McNess on my left.
Just then a guy in a pickup came wheeling around the corner, honking repeatedly. He opened his window and yelled at me as I went by, “You’re going the wrong way.”
Oh.
I passed on the opportunity to quote the classic line from Planes, Trains and Automobiles and made a quick U-turn which brought me up right in front of my destination.
A sign out front said the store was open, so I went inside. I found myself in lobby of a factory. The lady behind the counter directed me to a small room lined with shelves that were filled with items manufactured by McNess. These included mustard, spices, pudding mixes and bathroom cleaning supplies, which I found to be a very strange combination. In the spirit of adventure, however, I bought a can of key lime pudding and pie mix.
So much for McNess. Now for Dragon Popcorn. The lady at Mrs. Mike’s had told me it was on the next block over from Union Dairy, so I drove around the area looking for it. I spotted some interesting stuff along the way. Freeport is an odd mix of run-down and retro touristy. I don’t think anything new has been built in town since the 1950s.
I didn’t find Dragon Popcorn, but I did find Taylor Park where the second Lincoln statue is located.
The area was once a private equestrian driving park, so I made a circuit of the path where the local rich dudes used to take their girls for rides.
A sign informed me that President Theodore Roosevelt had visited the park on September 8, 1910 for a “railroad picnic.” Thirty thousand people showed up to see him. I’d now seen everything I’d intended to see when I left home in the morning, but I still hadn’t found Dragon Popcorn. I drove back downtown and parked.
The Square contains a stone monument (dedicated in 1903), a statue of Lincoln and Douglas debating (dedicated in 1992) and several markers that tell the story.
The stone monument was dedicated by President Theodore Roosevelt. You can read his brief speech in the left-hand photo below, but I should warn you — it is nearly incomprehensible and contains a couple typos.
Freeport was the site of the second of the senatorial candidates’ seven debates. (I have several more adventures to go!) The men met here on August 27, 1858. Douglas asked a question (highlighted in yellow in the right-had photo above) which became known as the “Freeport Question.”
Here’s the debate statue.
The Freeport Debate was also the occasion when Douglas first uttered those now-famous words …
“Pull my finger.”
Later in the afternoon, when I’d purchased the red chair, I thought, “I wish I’d had the chair when I visited the Lincoln-Douglas site earlier.” And then I realized I was only three blocks away.
It was the day after my birthday, and I was off work and in the mood for adventure. I decided on Freeport, site of the second Lincoln-Douglas Debate. But as much of a fan of history as I am, looking at a spot where two guys argued 152 years ago didn’t seem like much of an adventure in and of itself. I searched on the Internet to see what else of interest the city had to offer. There wasn’t much — another Lincoln statue, a Civil War monument …
I discovered that Freeport claims the title of Pretzel City, USA after the Billerbeck Bakery which made pretzels there beginning in 1869. The local high-school teams are known as the Freeport Pretzels, and every June the city hosts the Pretzel City Festival. I could find nothing on the Billerbeck Bakery, but I did see a reference to Mrs. Mike’s Potato Chips which claimed to make “Freeport pretzels.”
Still not much to go on, but I decided to head west and wing it. It was a bright, sunny day in the mid 50’s, and as I drove along the U.S. Grant Memorial Highway (Route 20), I was in the mood for almost anything.
I didn’t have time to read the details on the barn in the center photo above, but I was able to enlarge the picture on my camera and see what it said. I wasn’t even in Freeport yet, and I already had something else to see!
I spotted a church with a “write-your-own-message” sign out front. At first glance, I thought the second line said “ringworm.”
As soon as I arrived in downtown Freeport, I spotted the Civil War monument. I’m sure it was originally built on a spacious lawn in front of a courthouse, but it is now crammed onto a tight corner between a busy intersection and an ugly cement building.
I parked and took some photos because that’s just the kind of day this was.
