Thursday, January 31, 2013
The Geneva Ace Hardware fire in 1953 burns to the ground most of the south side of the 100 block of West State Street, including the First National Bank.
Sixty years ago tomorrow, on the bitter cold and windy night of Sunday, Feb. 1, 1953, the clock at the First National Bank of Geneva stopped at 7:45 p.m., marking the apex of the Geneva Ace Hardware fire—very likely the worst downtown fire in Geneva history. And though he was just a boy at the time, longtime Tri-Com Central Dispatch Director Jerry Bleck, now retired, carries memories of the devastation to this day and compares it to the other well-known Geneva downtown fires. "I was only 4 years old in 1953, so a little young to have many of the fire details," Bleck said in an e-mail to Geneva Patch. "However, I had been working for the Geneva Police Department for eight years and Tri-Com and 9-1-1 was just 2 years old when the Kaiser's …
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Saturday, December 22, 2012
Part 1 of a multipart series: Merritt King was a giant among Genevans.
On Jan. 24, 2012, Geneva lost a giant of man in Merritt King. In so many ways, Merritt was larger than life: a gifted athlete, a legitimate war hero, a seven-term alderman, a 12-year Geneva mayor pro-tem and Geneva's historian emeritus. He is credited, among so many other achievements, for coming up with the idea for Geneva's historic Third Street gas lamps, for rescuing the historic creche that graces the Geneva History Center and for saving countless lives in 1945, when he and other Seventh Army troops nabbed a convoy in southwestern Germany and uncovered maps that revealed the exact placements of hundreds of thousands of landmines planted in 19 countries all over Europe. Merritt is remembered in this beautifully-written article by …
Friday, December 21, 2012
In Memoriam: In a multi-part series, we pay tribute to the men and women of Geneva who contributed so much to our community and who passed away this year.
2012 was an extraordinarily sad year for Geneva, IL. In that 12-month time period, we lost literally dozens of our city's favorite sons and daughters, folks who who were pillars of our community and who have earned a place in Geneva's history books. We talk a lot about institutional memory in Geneva, but few years have seen the passing of so many people who were institutions in their own right and who carried so many Geneva memories in their heads and in their hearts. The list reads like a Geneva Who's Who: Merritt King, Dick Jaeger, John VanThournout, Mary Bencini, John Anderson, John Barton, Janet Safanda, Joe Radovich, Allen Mead, Roger Morris, Jack Ryan, Paul DesCoteaux. This is the introduction to a series of Geneva Patch articles …
Colin C.
2:32 pm on Friday, February 1, 2013
I remember the Ace fire very well. I was eleven. My father, Stephen Senyard, was assisting the fire department with technical training at the time. He was called first when the blaze started. My mother and I walked from our house on Sixth Street and could only go as far as Nelson's (Doggie Divine today). I was very frightened because my family always talked about the Great Chicago Fire. (My great… more ›