Oak Street
115 North Oak Street, ca 1850
Centralia House Entrance
History of 115 N Oak
1900-02 - A.W. Schroeder, Shoemaker (1900-02 City Directory)
1938 - Midway Tavern (Source: 1938 Centralia City Directory)
1963, May - City police confiscated gambling equipment, including tip boards and a roulette wheel from a vacant building at 115 Oak Street, The building was formerly the Midway Tavern but had been empty for some time.
Architecture
A narrow, two-story building of red tile and brick presents three bays on the second floor. The original brick first floor storefront is intact, though the penetrations have been filed with contemporary materials. The three window penetrations on the second floor appear to be original, as does the brick cornice and shallow pediment.
111-113 North Oak Street, ca 1850
Centralia House
History of 11 N Oak
1894 - J.F. Doe, Office Buffet (1894 City Directory)
1900-02 - Fred S. Doe billiards & saloon. (1900-02 City Directory)
1904 - Fred Doe saloon. (1904 City Directory)
1909 - Office Buffet, F.l. Doe, Proprietor
1910 - Buffet Saloon (1910 Centralia City Directory)
1933 - City Club tavern & billiards
1977 - Centralia House Restaurant
Architecture
This two-story red brick commercial structure has a cast-iron storefront. Wow panels and plate glass fill most of the storefront openings. The second floor facade retains significant. Historic fabric: sills of pained wood or metal and brick hoods decorate. The seven evenly-spaced windows below a brick cornice composed of recessed soldiers and a series of machicolations ending with a simple row of brick coping.
Vicinity 121 South Oak Street, ca 1850, 2004
Illinois Central Railroad Water Tower
A wooden water tower approximately 40 feet high has stood here since the immediate area was part of the Illinois Central Rail Yard in the 1850s. The tank in supported by twelve timbers with cross-bracing arranged in two concentric rows.
The structure was restored in 2004 and remains 1 of 2 original wooden water tower structures left along the railroad from New Orleans to Chicago. The other water tower is in Kinmundy, IL.
Vicinity 103 East Broadway, ca 1920, 2009
Centralia your Opportunity sign
In 2009, the sign was rehabilitated by removing the original, deteriorating letters and replacing them with painted exterior-grade wooden letters created by students in the carpentry training program at Kaskaskia College’s Crips Technology Center in Centralia. Although the replacement letters clearly present a different profile from the original, the basic structure has been retained and the overall effect is sufficient to warrant treating the sign as a contributing element.
