When McHenry was a travel destination for vacationers, it offered many colorful locations for people to enjoy themselves. One of the most interesting places was the Polly Prim which was located where the Hickory Pit now sits today on Rte. 120 & Charles St. The Polly Prim was built in the spring of 1924, by… Continue reading The Polly Prim
When the McHenry Post Office moved in 1882, it opened up one of the most interesting parts of the city’s history. For many years, McHenry was the only city in the country with two Post Offices in one zip code and surprisingly, it had some rather colorful events. (There was another fire on the north… Continue reading The Closing of the West McHenry Post Office
In the early morning of April 11, 1926, Mathias Laures was walking down Main Street in West McHenry when he noticed a fire in the back of the Justen Furniture & Undertaking business. He quickly spread the word, which included blowing the large whistle at the Borden Factory summoning help. Yet but by the time… Continue reading The 1926 West McHenry Fire
On the night of September 5, George Phister was just starting his security rounds at the Ravinia Park Casino when he was overtaken by a group of men in the dark. They took his keys, bound him and proceeded to rob the Casino. Also, in what was probably an accident in attempting to scare him,… Continue reading The Mysterious Case of Frederick Wennerstrom pt. 2
On a Sunday morning, September 3, 1911, a couple of fishermen who were out on the Fox River and made a gruesome find. Floating in the river was the body of a man. Authorities were called and after the body was removed from the water, they could see it was wrapped in a rain cover… Continue reading The Mysterious Case of Frederick Wennerstrom
In the early morning of Tuesday, Aug 16, 1911, the West McHenry Post Office was robbed. It probably wasn’t too surprising, as there were a string of post office & bank robberies in the area at that time. About four days before the McHenry Post Office was hit, the South Elgin Post Office was robbed… Continue reading West McHenry Post Office Robbery
On September 5, 1913, a man strolled into the McHenry Plaindealer’s office. His name was Joseph Hoffman and he was on a walking journey from Cincinnati, Ohio to Bismarck, North Dakota. The adventure started out as a dare at Hoffman’s athletic club because he wasn’t much of a walker. One thing led to another and… Continue reading The Journey of Joseph Hoffman
McHenry has had several things that make it stand out from its neighbors. Yet, one of the more distinctive things about it was that for many years it was the only city in America to have two Post Offices that worked independently of each other. From 1882 to 1950 McHenry had two post offices, one… Continue reading The Origins of the West McHenry Post Office
In the 1950s, the US was in the tensest time of the Cold War. This new type of war brought a new variety of fears due to the weapons of mass destruction that were available. The most infamous being the atomic bomb. Civilian defense organizations were set up at the state and national level. Many… Continue reading Operation Alert
Going into the 1900s, McHenry had a lot going for itself. It was a summer tourist destination and had a great agricultural community. Businesses and factories were also starting to spring up throughout the village. One of those was the Gail Borden Condensing Plant. The Gail Borden Company had factories in many towns in the… Continue reading McHenry’s Borden Factory
