A History of Founders' Grove in Maps
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They Lived on Grove Street, images from the Pantagraph Negative Collection--
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These pictures will give you insights into life in our neighborhood in the 1930s and 1940s and the people who lived there.
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Arthur L. Moore was Managing Editor of the Pantagraph in 1939 and lived at 1207 E. Grove.
Jacob Miller built this house at 1212 E. Grove in 1938. His wife immigrated to Bloomington from Hungary and they had two daughters and a son.
Ruth Ramseyer (flowered collar) was an amateur vocalist in Bloomington and sang frequently. This quartet included Howard Saurer, Lyle Straight and Mrs. Lela Long. Mrs. Ramseyer lived at 1214 E. Grove with her husband Roy who was on the Bloomington Board of Education.
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Janice Robinson was a student at IWU and lived at 1218 E. Grove with her parents Victor and Madge Robinson. Here she is showing Frank Devin the voting booths at IWU during the election for officers of the IWU League of Women Voters in May of 1938.
Professor R. Dwight Drexler is pitching at a IWU faculty-student breakfast in June of 1939. He lived at 1225 E. Grove with his parents in 1940.
Mary Staubus wrote a letter to Santa from her home at 1307 E. Grove in December of 1939. That's her mother Emily helping her. Emily Staubus was a divorced woman raising two children on her own. They lived in the big boarding house that had four other families. Emily was a school teacher.
Betty Leonard (furthest right) was another resident of the boarding house at 1307 E. Grove Street. In this picture she is helping to make Christmas packages for soldiers in 1939 as part of the high school social club, the Tridettes. Her mother, Ella, was widowed and raising her children alone. Her son Kirk was 20 years old and worked full time, probably to support the family. In 1930 the family had been living in Texas, where her husband was a farmer. Jacqueline Rosen, the third girl, was also a resident of FG -- she lived at 1519 E. Grove.
Albert M. Cole was a long time salesman at Livingston's Department Store when he retired in 1939. Mary Weidinger and Hugh Henry are giving his a present as Kate Cole watches. The Coles lived at 1309 E. Grove.
Nancy Noble (left, in checks) was the daughter of Porter and Esther Noble. This picture was taken in 1936 and could possibly be at the family home at 1310 E. Grove Street where her grandparents lived and she later lived. The other girls are Julie Moore and Martha Quisenberry.
Barbara Noble was ten years older than Nancy (above) and was on the BHS Carnival committee in 1938. Barbara and Nancy both graduated from the University of Illinois. Barbara is the girl furthest to the left.
Davis Carson, furthest left, was the son of the Baptist minister, Ralph G. Carson. The family lived at 1313 E. Grove and included sisters Katherine and Corrine and brother Kainor. These boys are playing ice hockey on Angler's Lake in January of 1938.
Harold and Ethel Sinclair lived at 1319 E. Grove in 1939. This picture was taken in 1936. The Sinclairs lived in several different houses in Bloomington mostly due to a lack of money. Ethel worked at the Pantagraph in the library to bring in a steady paycheck while Harold wrote and held a string of jobs. His book, American Years is a fun retelling of the early years of Bloomington and McLean County.
Sally Costigan (furthest left) was just one of many children attending a junior dance at the Lakeside Country Club. Judge Costigan and his family lived at 1321 E. Grove. .
These children are all students at Washington Grade School in 1937. The second girl on the right (am thinking in the flowered dress) is Rozanne Read, who lived at 1322 E. Grove. She had a sister and brother, Mary and Richard. Their parents were Howard and Ina Read. Dollars to donuts, the majority of children in this image lived in FG. Mary Kane, 1502 E. Grove is the girl in the basketweave print (second).
Jacob Lutz lived at 1327 Grove and was in the nursery business. In January of 1939 his business suffered a big loss when his green house at 701 S. Linden collapsed.
Some children in Founders' Grove were lucky enough to have pony carts and a pony to pull them. Here the Miller children enjoy a ride: Earl, Jackie, David and Frederick! They lived at 1330 Grove with their father and mother: Earl and Virginia.
Carl Behr is selling a ticket to the neighborhood football game to Phyllis Engeljohn. Carl lived at 1403 Grove.
It was Leap Year, 1940, and Joan Little was picking up Bill Trenkle for their date at 1407 E. Grove. On Leap Day women could ask men out on a date.
Natalie Osterhout enlisted in the Marines during WWII. She lived at 1407 E. Grove when she wasn't serving.
Gretchen Osterhout (Natalie's mother) was an actor with the Community Players. The play they are practicing here was "Ladies of the Jury." Mae B. Schalla, Norman Marshall and Mary Tatman are the other actors.
Phillip Tiemann was a Boy Scout in 1942, with this poster he was promoting the tax for the tuberculosis sanatorium. Phillip lived at 1412 E. Grove.
The Klenners of Moberly and Klenner lived at 1417 E. Grove. The woman sitting in the dark coat is Maxine Klenner, the only child in the Klenner family. Their house was build in 1927.
Betty Burling (Second in front) was one of the ushers at the President's Birthday Ball in 1937. The birthday balls were fund raising parties for polio research and treatment. She was the daughter of Harold and Agnes Burling at 1500 E. Grove. Also in this image is Jayne Stickrod, (second in back) who lived on Fairview, was a Olympic caliber swimmer, and served as a Doughnut Dolly during WWII.
In 1936 Archie C. Baker became the City Editor of the Pantagraph. He and his family lived at 1504 E. Grove. Mother, Clare, and children Robert and Janet.
Mary Beich was the daughter of Albert and Huldah Beich. In 1930 she lived at 1509 E. Grove with her mother, sister Elizabeth and brother, Albert Jr. (Her parents were divorced.) Mary became a Hollywood actress. In 1942 she visited her mother in Bloomington and took part in a fashion shoot for the Pantagraph.
Beulah Irvin (right) was a lawyer in Bloomington and an example to young women in the professional women's clubs she belonged to. Here she is with Mabel Driscoll, a young woman in the Delphi International in 1941 making quilts for needy families. Beulah lived at 1511 East Grove.
Geneve Whitmer is shown here with her twin sons, Tyler and Peter. She was the wife of Sherman Whitmer, a descendant of early settlers in Bloomington. The twins would be the last to bear the Whitmer name of their generation.
Dorothy Stephenson is shopping for presents for overseas soldiers with Ann and George Jr. They lived at 1516 E. Grove.
Arthur Brandt's children lived a privileged life. Here they are riding in their pony cart in 1939. The Brandt family lived at 1522 Grove.
Mrs. Harry Benson with her twin sons, Walter and Gordon on Mother's day, 1941. Both young men lived with their parents in 1940, when they were 22 years old.
Dorothy Ramseyer was the subject of one of my favorite features in the Pantagraph -- "On the Street Interviews." The question on this date: "Is chivalry dead?" Dorothy thought that young men were not so stiff and formal as in older times and that she liked the new informality. She lived at 1214 E. Grove.
Irene French lived at 1216 E. Grove. She was married to Raymond French and had two children, Joseph and Susan. This picture was taken in June 1945, before dial telephone service was added in Bloomington.
In 1942 a military draft took place that required most men to register -- even those old enough to have served during WWI. Here five men who served in WWI register for the draft. The second man standing is Walter Wolf, who lived at 1217 E. Grove. Walter Wolff was also a reporter for the Pantagraph.
Lula Dolley (seated, left) was very active with the Brokaw Service League, here she is posing with another member of the league, Mrs. Paul Anderson and two trainee nurses, Hazel Balding and Ruby Crum. She was married to Homer Dolley and they lived at 1308 E. Grove. They had no children.
Marilyn Defenbaugh (second left) was a member of the Tridettes, an invitation only girls club at BHS. She is wearing a Red Cross uniform and is part of a fundraising drive for Red Cross memberships with Phyllis Mockert and two men from the Jaycees. Today it seems very incongruous to have these young high school girls working with businessmen in a charity. The Defenbaughs lived at 1309 E. Grove.
Nancy and Barbara Noble were guests at a "Trousseau" tea party where Margaret Admire could display the trousseau she had accumulated before her marriage. Nancy is the young girl and Barbara is sitting on the grass. Such conspicuous consumption was the feature of a five picture society page layout in August of 1942. The Nobles lived at 1310 E. Grove and the party was at the Admire home in Normal, 7 Payne Place. Katherine Carson (sitting in the chair) was a neighbor of the Nobles at 1313 E. Grove. Porter Noble, the father of Nancy and Barbara, was the Bloomington City Clerk.
Puppet making was a popular handicraft in the 30s and 40s. Here Marietta Capodice, 1315 E. Grove is working on a puppet of very high quality.
Bill Costigan (second left) was the son of a prominent attorney in Bloomington. In 1944 word at the Democrat convention was that Will Costigan should be chosen as the Vice Presidential running mate. Here Bill is a baseball player at BHS in 1943.
Velma Arnold (seated, furthest right) was a nurse at St. Joseph's Hospital and attended a conference in 1942 with this group of nurses. She would later become the University Nurse at IWU. In 1940 she lived with her parents at 1323 E. Grove. Tena Tarmen, another nurse at St. Josephs roomed with the Arnolds in 1940. Tena enlisted at the age of 33 to work as an army nurse and endured over two years of army nursing in the battlefields of Europe.
Bruce Hiser was a BHS athlete in track, basketball, football and swimming in the first half of the 40s. His father was Bloomington's postmaster, Eugene Hiser.
Ethel Behr and Mrs. Herbert Parker are displaying their handicraft in tole painting. Mrs. Behr lived at 1403 E. Grove and her husband Carl Behr was an executive at Beich Candy.