Photo 69-KVE-31

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Town Square in Georgetown IL, looking to the southwest

I'm sure I am not the first to comment, but: the Fazio buildings on the NW corner of square are gone (now a restaurant); the SW corner Grab-It-Here grocery store is now a retail store and the three story Fazio building is primarily a hairdressers with the uper levels empty (normal for Fazio buildings!); Southeast corner of square has old bank building with newer attachement that is now totally gone and is all NEW bank; there is a veterans monument section on the SW corner instead of parking; the Western Auto store on the NE part of square is gone, along with the basement barber shop--now a war memorial to G'town veterans and parking lot for the Subway Restaurant which replaced the old building housing the Henderson Ins. Agency and Blaney's Drug Store. North main fromt he square is totally different now also. All of the original retail stores and the movie theater are gone--replaced by a small mall with a Pizza Hut, betting parlor, empty bldg and a Family Dollar store.
Gone are the Crawford food locker, Terrell & Dinsmore Dime store, a watch repair store, the show and Joe's corner restaurant with apartments above.
The west side of the street included (now empty lots after the big fire) Fazios 5 &10, the old post office, a hardware store, a stairwell to upstairs apartments, and a ground floor bakery. The Fazio Federated Dept Store was destroyed in the big fire also. That rebuilt building became a tavern. Currently the block includes one working tavern and the AF&AM lodge in the last two story building. Also missing now are the Winters Feed Mill and the Georgetown News building (now the location of the city library). Downtown is totally different from the picture.
Moving south on Route One, gone are: a restaurant, barber shop, tavern and bakery. The dentist, a gas station, the Ford dealership, another gas station, the Gallez Gardens and the old tomato factory which was replaced by the new Wyer's IGA which was the replacement of Spud's little grocery store on the opposite side of Rt.One. The building still stands--empty and dilapidated with the brand new Police Station sitting on the south side of the store's parking lot. Also have changed places on the street were the DX service station (became a car dealership), Radio Snyder's TV store and Doctor Murphy's office and the Callahan Plumbing business. The Quaker Church begins the southern portion of Rt. One and much of that is now pretty much the same. Some properties were removed, as was the Clark house on the corner of S. main and McKinley. It is now the Baptist Church. Charlie's little grocery store is now a beauty parlor.
The greatest change is the fact that the majority of those large shade trees which lined Route One and most of the cities side streets, have been taken down. I remember as a kid delivering newspapers on South Main that in the summer I could ride the entire length of the sidewalks from the Quaker Church to McKinley and never be touched by the sun! Of course, without natural gas, most people heated with coal or oil and in the winter, with a snow blanket, the whiteness of the snow became dingy with the coal dust coming from the chimneys of the houses. We don't miss that! The town has changed much in the past fifty years as have many towns. It's nice to reminisce, however.

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