Historical Photographs

Woodstock Square Park Scene (with Green Frame)

The photograph in this postcard is identical to the postcard entitled "Spring House with address." This one has a green frame and was published by Suhling Company, Chicago.It was taken on a busy day showing horses and buggies tied up to the rope…

Woodstock, IL City Square Park - 1908

Colorized postcard titled City Park, Woodstock, Ill. published by United Art Publishing Co., New York City (Printed in Germany.

This view of the Square park is from the Johnson Street entrance, with the silhouette of the metal fountain in the…

Soldier's Monument - Woodstock Square Park Public - Erected 1909

Four workmen stand next to the newly completed Soldier's Monument. One of the men is Antonio Zoia who erected the statue that had been carved of Barre and dark Quincy marble in Vermont. The statue was dedicated November 9, 1909. Zoia Monument Company…

Soldier's Monument and Band Stand in the Woodstock, IL Square Park (Colorized Postcard 723)

The monument to Civil War soldiers was dedicated November 9, 1909. The Women's Relief Corps, founded in 1883 as an auxilliary to the Grand Army of the Republic, raised the $3,000 needed for the statue. It took the women 12 years to accumulate the…

Jefferson St Woodstock, Ill. - 327 S Jefferson

The residence of Leander J. Young was one of the houses featured in the Woodstock Sentinel's Special Edition December 19, 1901. The entire newspaper was devoted to promoting the idea that Woodstock was a special, and successful, place to live and do…

City Square Park, Woodstock, IL - Panorama

This panorama postcard is slightly larger than two standard postcards and designed to be folded in half and mailed. The photo was taken from Johnson Street and shows the sweep of the park from Cass Street to Van Buren. The buildings include 100 Cass,…

Woodstock Public Square and Spring House - Teich

Curt Teich was one of the most prolific and popular postcard creators. He was prominent in the "Linen Period" in production style from 1930 to 1945. The post card has a textured look and is framed in white to reduce the amount of ink necessary to…

Woodstock Square Park

The photgrapher is standing on Van Buren near the corner of Dean Street to take this postcard photo mainly of trees in the Square park. Only a small portion of the American National Bank at 100 N. Benton is visibile.

The message is on the front…

Woodstock Square Park

This postcard seems to be a photo of trees with the Spring House tucked into the right corner. Part of the bandstand can barely be seen along with glimpses of the businesses on Cass Street. The sign on the bandstand advertizes a band concert.

The…

Looking East from Woodstock, IL Square Park - Spring House

People are seated on benches in the Sqare park near the Spring House. The buildings in the background are the Odd Fellows Temple on E. Jackson and the Sherman building on S. Benton.

This postcard, number 724, was published by Wm G Hoffman of…

Woodstock, IL Square Park

Several groups of people are seen the Square park, some on benches and some under the Spring House. The original fountain is in the center with the buildings on Benton Street in the background. The stately elm trees dominate the scene.

The…

Woodstock, IL City Hall (Opera House) - L.T. Hoy

This colorized postcard shows the City Hall/Opera House sometime between 1889, when it was built, until 1912 when the Square streets were paved and new lights with globes were installed. The older type of light, with a tall pole and small lights…

Birds Eye View of Town Looking South, Woodstock, IL

This postcard has been colorized by Copy Express, an enhancement that emphasizes the details. The original photo was taken about 1912, when the lights around the Square were installed with several glass globes on the single light pole. In this photo,…

City Hall (Opera House) and Bunker Brothers Building 1907

Nearly identical to "Opera House postcard #6203" by C. R. Childs, this "real photo" postcard includes a broad view of the buildings on Van Buren Street. The A. S. Wright drug store and the Bunker Brothers building signs are clear and easy to…

Oliver Typewriter Factory 711 ca. 1906

This postcard shows the 1906 addition to the Oliver Typewriter factory. It may have been taken later, but the trees are not tall. Three years after the 1903 expansion, this addition added 103' x 80' to the front and east with a gangway connecting the…

Oliver Typewriter Co. 1766 A. Stratton Postcard

1766 The Oliver Typewriter Co. Woodstock, Ill. Photo by A. Stratton

This color postcard was produced between 1902, when the separate office and gateway was built in front of the original factory building, and 1906, when a large addition was…

Oliver Typewriter Factory in Winter 1905

This photo shows the grounds of the Oliver Typewriter factory as it appeared between 1903 and 1906. The separate Office building was erected in 1902, and the additions to the rear of the original factory were completed in 1903. The snow obscures the…

Oliver Typewriter Machine Model 5

This rather blurred photo of an Oliver Typewriter is a good illustration for the description in the following publication:

HEADLIGHT: SIGHTS & SCENES ALONG THE CHICAGO NORTHWESTERN RAILROAD (1898)
"Oliver Typewriter Co
This is the largest…

Tappan Steam Pump Company

"Energetic efforts of Woodstock's Public Improvement committee, in which a majority of her citizens co-operated, resulted in the location here a year ago of a large manufactory of steam pumps. The Wheeler & Tappan works were established in Chicago…

Power Plant from Wheeler

This photo was taken the same time as the Power Plant from the Railroad before 1962. It is similar to the other photos taken in the 1950s.

After the city sold the power plant to Commonwealth Edison in 1963, this building was sold to the Eltra…

Power Plant from the Railroad Tracks

This photo of the city's Power and Light plant on Wheeler Street and First Street has few clues for identifying the date. The buildings are the same as in other power plant photos taken in the 1950s, but are taken from a different angle. There is no…

Woodstock Power and Light Plant - 1954

This photo of the Woodstock Power and Light Plant on Wheeler and First Streets is nearly identical to the Power Plant ca 1956 photo. The coal is stored behind a chain-link fence rather than a concrete wall. Neighboring houses are visible in the…

Oliver Typewriter Type Bar Mounting Department - 1907

The men in the photo are attaching the keys on the typewriter to the metal arms that control the type bars (also called strikers). Each striker has a metal letter on the end corresponding to the key that strikes the inked ribbon and leaves an…

Woodstock High School Baseball Team in 1923

L-R Back Row: Larry Reed, Fred Wells, Clarence Olson, Karl Moritz, Lynn Sweetland, John McConnell, Elmer Miner, George Moriarty, Caroll Sherburne, Clarence Foote, Howard Courier

Front: Irvin Hecht, Dwight Stussey, Kenneth Gay, Raymond Jensen.

Central School Classroom

Central School classroom when the school was the Junior High School. The plaster wall friezes are still in the stairwell to the second floor at City Hall.
120 W. South Street

Woodstock's Singing Mouse

A mouse, caught at the Chicago Industrial Home for Children in Woodstock in 1936, brought fame and a bit of fortune to the city and the Children's Home.

An article in Time magazine, December 28, 1936, tells the best version of the…

401 W. Jackson Always Inn Postcard

This postcard, published circa 1910, shows the Cyrus Durfee House, 401 W. Jackson, during the years it was a hotel. Cyrus Durfee built his "mansion" in 1867. The Woodstock Sentinel extolled it as "One of the largest, most convenient, and best…

Corner of Benton and E. Judd

The brick buildings on the northeast corner of North Benton and East Judd house several businesses and offices. At the time this photo was taken, the street in front was called Lumber Street.

The building on the right was known as the Dacy Block,…

Southeast Corner of the Woodstock Square

This circa 1870 photograph of the southeast corner of the Woodstock Square appeared in the January 20, 1916 issue of the Woodstock Sentinel Newspaper.

A decade after the photo was taken, 1893, this section of the Square burned to the ground. A…

Courthouse, Square Park and Baptist Church ca 1867

This photo of the west side of the Square, which is very similar to the photo Item #373 (Square in winter ca 1867) and features the Courthouse and the Baptists church which was located directly to the west of the Courthouse on the northwest corner of…

Oliver Typewriter Band on Courthouse Steps

Oliver Typewriter Band photographed on the steps of the Courthouse. Original photo is dated 1898. On the back of the photo it is indicated that the far right musician is Herbert B. Medlar, prominent Woodstock photographer during the time period.

Gus Persson

This biography of Gus Persson (pronounced Pierson) was written by his daughter Mildred L. Persson (Fish) Luallen in 2017

Gustav "Gus" Persson
Born in Grums Skruvstad, Varmland, Sweden, November 8, 1879; immigrated to America in 1896; came to…

Tripp Photography

Born in Woodstock, Melvin G. Tripp took over his uncle G. A. Burbank's photography business in 1891. His studio was on the corner of Cass and Main Streets at 204 Main. He took many of the photos in the Woodstock Sentinel 20th Century Edition,…

Medlar Studio Photographers

His photos are the oldest in the library's collection. According to Woodstock Illustrated, published in 1895, J.S. Medlar was the first photographer in McHenry County and one of the first in the state. He was still working at that time, but in the…

Emerson Typewriter Company

Gus Persson took this photo of the Emerson Typewriter factory under construction in the winter of 1909-1910.

Emerson Typewriter Co. was founded in Momence, Illinois in 1909 and moved to Woodstock in 1910. City subscribers raised $30,000 to…

Park and East Side of Square before 1909

Horses with wagons and buggies are parked on Johnson St in this dark colored photograph. The buildings on Benton St can be glimpsed through the trees with additional buggies and wagons parked on Benton St. The Spring House (built 1876) is visible,…

Midge's Café

Jackson St W from Tryon Postcard 6225

South and Hayward Sts. 740 Postcard

This is one of a series of Woodstock postcards that Wm. G. Hoffman of Chicago printed. The earliest is dated 1908 and the latest in this series was 1912. Three large houses are pictured. The one on the left is 414 W. South St. The one in the middle…

401 W. Jackson Always Inn Postcard

This postcard, published circa 1910, shows the Cyrus Durfee House, 401 W. Jackson, during the years it was a hotel. Cyrus Durfee built his "mansion" in 1867. The Woodstock Sentinel extolled it as "One of the largest, most convenient, and best…

445 Fremont St

The snow in this photo erases some of the clues to the date, but we know who lived in the house in 1914, the earliest City Directory in the library collection. Dexter and Mable Herrington moved there sometime between the 1900 US Census, when they…

Woodstock Hospital Postcard 1914

In 1914, the newly formed Woodstock Hospital Association took over Dr. Hyde West's private hospital at 417 Clay Street. The hospital remained here only one year, moving to the Judge Theodore Murphy home at 527 W. South Street in 1915.

The American…

310 W. Jackson postcard

Man with Horse and Buggy - 130 Washington Street

130 Washington Street
This print was made from glass negatives donated to the Woodstock Public Library.

Woman with Dog

This print was made from glass negatives donated to the Woodstock Public Library. The photograph was taken at the Abraham (or Abram) Bodine McConnell House at the corner of Jefferson and South Street in Woodstock Illinois. A.B. McConnell was a son of…

Dog on Horse the A.B. McConnell House

This print was made from glass negatives donated to the Woodstock Public Library. The photograph was taken at the Abraham (or Abram) Bodine McConnell House at the corner of Jefferson and South Street in Woodstock Illinois. A.B. McConnell was a son of…

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