The Wright Brothers Visit to Aurora, IL 1910 4th of July Weekend

The Wright Brothers in Aurora!

Back in 1910, William Howard Taft was our 27th U.S. President, the "Fight of the Century" between Jack Johnson and James J. Jeffries was happening in Reno, Nevada (Jack Johnson won by TKO), and locally, the Sherer Building and the Fox Theater Building were opening. Also, the new concrete bridges were built and about to open.

"Aurora's New Bridges to be Dedicated Next Monday"
Beacon News July 2, 1910
"This view is taken from the upper story of the
Grand Army Memorial Hall on the island and is looking
East, showing the new bridge spanning the channel of the East
branch of the Fox. The bridge over the west channel, just
completed is an exact duplicate"

1910 Aurora, IL
RPPC Tracy Duran Collection

What else was going on in Aurora? Well, let's go back to the first week of July 1910. Many folks from all around visited Aurora to see the downtown decorated with flags and patriotic bunting. Along with this beautiful sight of patriotism for the 4th of July, people from all around came to the Aurora Driving Park, located where the Riddle Highlands subdivision is now off of Lake Street and Illinois Ave.

A Unique Book by Dr. Bernard J. Cigrand

 With today being President's Day, I wanted to share a very unique piece of my collection.  This book, "Lincoln - Prophet and Patriot" was written by local dentist Dr. Bernard J. Cigrand (1866-1932). 

The book was self-published in 1925. Dr. Cigrand is best known ad "The Father of Flag Day" for his 30 years of advocacy leading to President Woodrow Wilson declaring the holiday in 1916. This book is an assemblage of Dr. Cigrand's  writing and poems in Lincoln's life and career accompanied by numerous illustrations and plates in various forms along with facsimiles and tipped in articles on newsprint. 

This volume specially dedicated to his friend Floyd Eckart, an attorney residing in Woodstock, IL.  There is a signed postcard from Dr. Cigrand to Floyd E. Eckart telling him the book was at the bindery and would be arriving soon that is dated December 1, 1931... just a few months before Dr. Bernard Cigrand passed away on May 16, 1932.

Sears, Roebuck & Co.'s Aurora History - The Beginning to the Finale

Sears, Roebuck & Co.~Aurora, Il  ~ 1928-2020

Sears, Roebuck & Co. 
Broadway & Downer
1940s

The ending of an era. 

Sears, Roebuck & Co. was first founded by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck in 1892. The operation began as a mail ordering catalog company and began opening retail locations in 1925.

The first Sears, Roebuck & Co. department store came to Aurora in 1928. The original location was at 69-75 S. River Street up until 1935-1936 where it moved to the corner of Broadway and Downer (currently a parking lot).

Sears Golden Jubilee
Beacon News
June 28, 1936

The Sears, Roebuck & Co. was at the Broadway and Downer location up until the 1960s when Northgate Shopping Mall opened. Northgate was originally the "Aurora Driving Park" where there was a large field for many events, including a visit from the Wright Brothers and their "Flying Machine" back in 1910. When Northgate opened with so many shops, this was the beginning of the retail decline in Downtown Aurora.

Sears, Roebuck & Co.
1940s
Merchants Bank in background

Sears, Roebuck & Co. 
1940s

In 1975, a $1 billion building project that focused on 6 square miles on the eastern edge of town that included a new concept, Fox Valley Mall, that encompassed 1.2 million square feet. Sears then moved to this location as one of the four anchor stores (along with JCPenneys, Marshall Fields (now Macy's), Lord & Taylor (which became Carson Pirie Scott in January of 1996).

Sears Northgate Lake Street location
1960s

 In place of the Northgate location, Bergner Weise/Bergner's took over.  In 1989 Bergner Weise/Bergner's bought Carson Pirie Scott.  Carson Pirie Scott was originally Block & Kuhl which moved from its original location on the corner of Galena and Stolp (now Stolp Island Social/Aurora Arts Center) to Fox Valley Mall and their second location where Sears Northgate used to be.

After years of declining sales, Sears' parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 15, 2018 and chose to close its many stores including our Fox Valley Mall location. On December 26, 2020, demolition was started at the Fox Valley location.

Centennial Real Estate Company, owners of the Fox Valley Mall, began demolition of the former Sears store. The plan is to construct Midrise Multiple Family dwellings at the Sears site. This will be a new beginning for the mall which opened in 1975. The retail portion will go from the current 1 million square feet to approximately 500,000 square feet, basically transforming the mall into more walkable, mixed used development. 

Beginning of the end 2020
Sears Fox Valley demolition
Mural by Gregg Valley 2019

 

Leland Hotel Was Originally Named The Illinois!

Original Newspaper Article
Beacon News
November 28, 1927

Still under the concept of Herbert P. Heiss, the building will first be known as "The Illinois". The original newspaper article from the Beacon News November 28, 1927 reads as follows:

NEW HOTEL TO BE KNOWN AS THE ILLINOIS

Contract for Steel for Nineteen Story Structure Has Been Awarded

The contract for steel to go into the new 19 story hotel to be erected by H.P. Heiss and his associates at Main street and Island avenue has been awarded, was announced last night by Mr. Heiss.  Preliminary excavation has been started and a steam shovel will be put to work Monday, he said. Concrete can be poured in about two weeks and this will be followed by steel construction work. The hotel will be known as the Illinois.

Building Described

Following is a description of the building by Graven & Mayger, Chicago architects, by whom it was designed:

     "The architectural style chosen by Graven & Mayger, architects, is to be a modern adaptation of Italian Romanesque which leads itself admirably thru its picturesqueness and dignified character to hotel design expression."

"The materials to be used are similar to those used in the original Roman monuments built during the Romanesque period, which were stone, brick and terra cotta."

Why Leland Hotel is considered "fireproof"

Leland Hotel

I had seen a lot of posts on social media where someone asks "Why is Leland known for being "fireproof"". For this question, we have to go all the way back to the late 1800s in Chicago, IL. To the first "skyscraper" ever built, the Home Insurance Building.

It all began in Chicago,IL after the great Chicago Fire in 1871. There were many new building constructions that were made mostly of iron, brick and steel instead of wood. During this time period it was illegal to erect non-fireproof buildings of more than sixty feet in height. Basically, you couldn't build anything that was taller than nine stories tall (this is an important fact to remember later in this story). 

William LeBaron Jenney

Well, along came William LeBaron Jenney [1832-1907]. He was a Chicago inventor, engineer and contractor. Now, here is a fun fact for us history nerds. W.L.B. Jenny had began his formal education at Phillips Academy in Andover, MA in 1846, then to the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard in 1853. Hang in there... you'll see where I'm going here... He then transferred to École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris to study engineering and architecture. Here is the fun fact, he learned the latest iron construction techniques with his classmate, Gustave Eiffel [1832-1923]. So, knowing this, the technique that is used for Leland Hotel, was also used for the Eiffel Tower. Kind of neat!

Leland: In the Beginning 1926 Beacon News Article September 19,1926

Leland: In the beginning 1926: As originally written in the Beacon News Article
September 19, 1926

Aurora Beacon News Article
Provided by Aurora Public Library
Photo of Leland was original architectural sketch
different than what was built

Aurora Beacon News article September 19, 1926

Aurora is to have the tallest skyscraper in Illinois outside of Chicago, when the new 18 story hotel to be erected by a building corporation headed by Herbert P. Heiss, president of the First Illinois company at the southwest corner of Main street and Island avenue is completed. Work will be started within 30 days.
The cost of the building, land and equipment which will include the Moose building, recently purchased by Mr. Heiss, as a part of the Improvement, will be $1,750.00 according to an announcement made last night by Mr. Heiss. The building itself will call for an investment of $1,000,000. The Aurora Building corporation, organized by Mr. Heiss with himself at the head, will handle the financing of the project, the largest single downtown real estate development in the history of the city.

My research history of Leland Hotel

Leland Hotel
Tracy Duran Collection

When history is being written, we have to take it into consideration of what is true and what is storytelling. An account of this or another account of that. He said and she said and so forth. History is rife with stories that we don't know that are true or not. There have been many stories and legends of the Leland Tower. All of us have that story. Either a personal story or the well known, “My dad's uncle's friend's grandmother who knew this gal who knew this fellow who used to work at the Sky Club and had served steak to Al Capone, true story I swear” type of story. Heck, even my Uncle Rusty (Howard) Gates had told us that when he worked at Leland, that he did serve steak to Al Capone. There obviously isn't any proof of that. This was the late 1930's-early 1940's, no cell phones, no video cameras. You could get away with telling tall tales like this. Does this make it untrue? Not necessarily. It is one of those things that you never know. Some folks have the craziest stories from their life. Plus, they are fun stories from folks that are no longer with us. It was very true to the little tiny redhead, with big amber eyes, mouth agape with what she was hearing. Imagining this glamorous type of restaurant on the very top of Leland Tower and a “penthouse” that Al Capone supposedly stayed in, that had tunnels going all sorts of ways in case the police came to catch him.

Jerry Fredricksen
1953

Growing up back in the late 1970's and early 1980's, my father, Jerry Fredricksen (1941-1999) always told my sister, myself and usually any of our friends who were hanging out with us on a Saturday, stories of his childhood in Aurora, Illinois. He had some really neat stories, some though, you kind of figured were him seeing if we were paying attention.

One story in particular, when we would have Oberweis Dairy deliver milk to our home, we would always get regular milk and chocolate milk. One of my sister's friends had asked about the milk delivery since she had never seen that before (she was visiting from out of town via our church) and he told her that the truck had two cows inside and the milk man would fill up the bottles. One white cow for regular milk and one brown cow for chocolate milk. He was a witty guy and we miss him a lot even after all these years.

Little Jerry and his friends
1947

He talked about how he and his friends would walk down the train tracks looking for an adventure of some type. He'd walk across the Fox River to one of the many islands in the middle of the river to look for arrowheads. I became fascinated about the history of our town because of dad.

One of the stories he shared that always intrigued me were the stories of the Leland Tower and the “all mysterious” Sky Club. A nightclub that was on the top floor of this 21 story building.

Sky Club Leland Hotel Coaster
Photo provided by Aurora Historical Society

As an adult I am still amazed with this building and it's history. I lived on the fifth floor in #501, then being one of the first inhabitants to the nineteenth floor in #1901, where Sky Club used to be after the owners, at that time, remodeled. So the family tradition continued. Knowing that where I was staying, sleeping and eating that there used to be people dining and dancing made the living experience that much more exciting. Knowing I was living among history of some sort. Be it my own or any of the other spirits, yes spirits, that reside on that floor and many other floors of Leland Tower.

As the saying goes, there are skeletons in closets. The Leland Tower holds more secrets than anyone will know of. We'll never know all of them yet if walls could talk, Leland willingly goes mute. The building, to me, is one of mystery. You might also believe in the mystery of Leland Tower. There is a mystery revolving around this restaurant/ballroom. There are very few photos, which will be shared here. What I do hope is to give you at least an idea of how awesome this place was.

There is history deep inside of the steel, concrete, limestone and brick. It just needed a guide to bring it out. Someone determined, someone crazy. Well, here you go! Voila, here I am.With many Saturdays of research at the Aurora Public Library, the Aurora Historical Society, along with the help of David Karademas, the current owner of Leland Tower who had guided me to where I needed to go; I was able to locate genuine newspaper articles, ads and photos.  So, grab your favorite drink (for me, if it's early in the day, my favorite, PG Tips tea. If the early evening, make it a pineapple and rum), sit back and imagine you and I talking about Leland Tower. I do hope you'll be able to go back in time with me, back to when Downtown Aurora was the place to be! This is the history of Leland Tower.