Park Once - Explore More
Stockton Township Library & J. Howard Smith
140 W Benton Ave
The first Stockton Township Public Library opened in 1903 and was in the W.E. White Building above Hermann’s Clothing Store. In 1966, the library purchased the former EUB Church property at 140 W Benton St. to construct a brand-new library, which was completed in 1971. Today, the library hosts extensive genealogy collections, historical photographs and more, including a series of paintings from local illustrator and painter J. Howard Smith.
Blair Lunchroom & Ice Cream Parlor
117 W Front Ave
Betty Schap was a high schooler who worked in the Blair Lunchroom. Ira, her future husband, was a milk hauler for Kraft and always took his lunch break at the Lunchroom. Betty and Ira bought the business when the owner decided to sell the Lunchroom. Together, they ran Blair Lunchroom along with the Black Cat Café at 127 W. Front and opened the Stockton Bowling Lanes on the former site of the Marvin Carpenter residence.
Eades Building
102 S Main St
This was Stockton’s first brick building, built by S.T. Eade, who started a general store here and lived above the store with his family. It was said Eade must have had great faith in the village's growth, as the other buildings were wood structures, and he invested in brick. After the 1896 catastrophic fire, this building survived due to his investment.
Kraft Cheese
114 S Main St
L. Kraft & Bros. Co. opened their first cheese factory in 1914. The Kraft Bros. Plant grew and continued to evolve, becoming a center for employment in Stockton and providing America’s favorite cheese.
Niemeyer Drug Store
107 W Front Ave
The Niemeyer Drug Store opened in 1891. Over the years, it has also served as a general store, a place to purchase crushed ice and a popular soda fountain. Entering this store in the heat of summer was a cool relief because the air was stirred by a huge paddle fan suspended from the ceiling.
Site of Former Dale’s Opera House
116 E Front Ave
Between 1850 and 1915, Midwest towns built opera houses for the community to gather for performances, high school plays, graduation ceremonies, and to host celebrities passing through. A town wouldn’t be considered civilized without one. The Opera House operated well into the 1940s. Since then and until it was demolished in 2018, the building was also home to a bowling alley, archery court, roller skating rink and a 10-cent movie house.
Stockton Theater
124 S Main St
John Parkinson, an avid movie fan, started the first movie theater in Stockton in 1918. Originally named the Parks Theater, its first films were silent and accompanied by a pianist who would play the scores provided by the movie companies. Parkinson’s sons would market daily showings by attaching a sign to a pony cart and driving around town. It closed in 1954, and the marquee’s last sign read: “Unfair Federal Admission Tax and TV has closed this theatre.”
Great Western Hotel
132 S Main St
A pioneer merchant of Stockton named Charles Hermann bought this corner lot for only $800 and commissioned local architect Peter Schroeder, who designed a renowned masterpiece with its Mansard roof, elaborate design of cupolas, festoon, scroll trim, oval windows, and stained-glass trim. The hotel was a namesake of Chicago’s Great Western Railroad and opened its doors on Christmas Day, 1899. Its 40 rooms were the first of its kind– heated with hot water radiators and electric wiring.
Hermann Clothing Store
100 N Main St
In 1908, this building became home to Jones and Hermann Clothing Store. Today, you’ll find Stella’s, a family-run restaurant and cafe named after the owners’ daughter. Stop inside to see the wall art celebrating the many businesses that have run out of this building.
Hardware store
116 N Main St
Constructed in 1897 by the Glanville Brothers, this building is one of two in Stockton still featuring its original use. The Hardware Store housed a second-floor meeting room that hosted dances and meetings for the community and was once home to a tinsmith.
Lynch’s Confectionery
118 W Front Ave
When this building was finished in 1927, the whole town came out to see its dark wood and iceless marble soda fountain, large booths and seven flavors of Allen’s ice cream (including brick). Lynch’s also sold fancy boxed candy and a large selection of penny candy. Hot buttered popcorn was always available on Wednesday evenings for 5 cents a bag and 10 cents a box.
Ray’s Hotel
105 S Main St
Before the closing of East Stockton as a railroad dispatch office, railroad workers and crews would stay at the hotel, which was known for its inexpensive rooms, showers, and great dining room. The Continental Café, a Stockton staple, moved from S. Main to the Ray Hotel in 1936. At least a couple of celebrities have frequented the spot. Fred Waring’s Banjo Orchestra had a Stockton native as a member and on one of their trips to play at area dance halls, they had dinner at the hotel. Legend has it that Al Capone visited Stockton on his way from East Dubuque to Chicago. People would see him sitting outside of the Continental having a coffee.
Village Hall
155 W Front Ave
Village Hall was built in 1915 for $7,800 from plans drawn up and designed by Architect Preston Valentine Goodmiller. Although women did not have universal suffrage until the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, women in Illinois did have permission to vote at the local level in 1913, just before the building was erected. The State became the first east of the Mississippi River to give women the right to vote for township officials and presidential elections.
Kringle Building
101 N Main St
Designed by Peter "Pete" Schroeder, this building is one of many Queen Anne-style structures found in Stockton. Built after the Stockton fire of 1896, and known as the Kringle Building, this brick storefront was known for dry goods, a grocery store and later, Eddie’s Cafe. In the 1960s, if you wanted the Sunday newspaper, you could pick one up at Eddie’s or the Drug Store on the Corner.
Bowling Alley & Birding Sanctuary
102 S Ward St
The Bowling Alley has been in the same family since it opened in 1949. It’s one of the three businesses in Stockton (including the Hardware Store built in 1896 and the Spahn and Rose Lumber Company built in the 1920s), which are still operating at the same site as when the business started. The Birding Sanctuary has over six miles of trails to explore. To date, there have been documented sightings of over 100 different bird species, with April through August being the prime viewing season
Masonic Lodge & Hartig’s Drug Store
117 N Main St
Constructed in 1912, the building is still in use as a gathering place for masons, and it is the location of a Hartig Drug Store. The columns were originally from the first courthouse in Jo Daviess County and there’s a photo of a young Ulysses S. Grant leaning against one of these very columns. Legend has it that Arthur Modell Smith, who started A.M. Smith’s Drug Store in this building, was once hired by a clerk to run a Chicago south side drug store. The clerk who thought Smith was “a bright boy” was Charles R. Walgreen, the founder of the well-known Walgreens Drug Store chain.
Stockton Fire of 1896
111 N Main St
The mural at this location is meant to capture a phoenix rising from the ashes as a metaphor for how Stockton experienced a rebirth after the terrible fire. There are several stories of where and how the fire started in downtown Stockton in 1896. The prevailing thought is that it started in a store in the mid-block of west Main Street and captured the rest of Downtown within minutes. The village night watchmen discovered the fire, but whether it was arson or an unbanked fire in a furnace is still a mystery to this day.
Dr. Loretta Backus Lyons & Mary Pitcher Peters
107 W Front Ave
Dr. Loretta Backus Lyons was Stockton’s first health professional. Committed to serving the community, she turned no one away, regardless of pay, and she made frequent house calls around town in her bright red Buick Roadster. Dr. Lyons served as the physician for Stockton Public Schools, and in the early 1920s, she started the Stockton Woman’s Club to promote fellowship among women of all faiths.
Chicago Western Railroad
E Queen Ave
Stockton was essentially created because of the railroad, whose first depot was built here in 1887. The nearby Stockton roundhouse provided a place for trains to turn around, switch crews, get repaired and load up fresh goods, livestock and lumber to go to market. The Railroad provided jobs for over 400 residents of Stockton and boasted one of the largest workshops. With changes in transportation across the United States, the last train ran through Stockton in 1972.
The Stockton Herald
119 S Main St
In 1888, John Nellis Klock moved to Stockton from Rochester, NY and established the Village’s first newspaper. He purchased a complete newspaper outfit on credit. In fact, by the time he was ready to print his first paper, he had a very heavy debt and only a few dollars of working capital. Klock said: “The paper was a success from the very beginning. Not only did it attract the support of the local community, but unsolicited subscriptions came from as far away as Galena and Freeport.” The paper was just a few days short of 100 years of printing when it closed in 1988.
The Stockyards
122 E Front Ave
The stockyards were completed in November of 1887, a month after the rail depot was opened. While Stockton may be known as the former home to the Chicago Great Western Railway, the village actually got its name by serving as the meeting point for people to bring their livestock from neighboring farms and take them to market.