Lucca Grill stands the test of time in downtown Bloomington Karen Hansen
khansen@pantagraph.com
The venerable Lucca Grill always extends a warm welcome to friends, whether gone a day or a decade. The downtown Bloomington landmark, 116 E. Market St., is long on comfort and short on pretense; hang around long enough and you’ll join an extended family. The eatery is nearly an octogenarian now, begun in 1936 by immigrant brothers Fred and John Baldini near the end of the Great Depression. Over time, many superlatives have described its special ambiance: painted tin ceilings, a working dumbwaiter and Lilliputian-sized bathrooms. “A delightful old-time saloon” gushed The New York Times; “one of the most congenial bars ever founded,” fawned The Washington Post. Its long love affair with Democrats was trumpeted by John Baldini No. 2, revered leader of McLean County’s liberal wing until his 1994 death. The grill dispenses Kennedy half-dollars in change and one manager – John Fitzgerald Koch – is even named for the 35th president. Oodles of celebrities have walked through the doors but it’s regulars like 91-year-old Priscilla Blakney and her late husband Karl, or 43-year employee Lois Durbin who have been vetted with a picture on the wall or a plaque on a barstool or a menu item named in their honor.
B-N in 50 objects: Memory game CARLOS T. MIRANDA, The Pantagraph
Lucca Grill has been a landmark in downtown Bloomington since 1936. That menu’s most-favored meal is the “A La Baldini,” the dime-thin Italian pie with sausage, pepperoni, ham, onions, mushrooms, green peppers and pepperocini. Slide into a stool along the timeworn mahogany bar and savor some. It’s a family rite of passage.
Test your memory and relive recent “B-N in 50 objects” articles with Pantagraph.com’s photo memory game. Match photos of objects that scream Twin Cities. Photos are chosen randomly — always two of each — and more will be added as the series continues. There are easy, medium and expert levels, all of which you can play on any device, but levels below expert will appear better on phones and tablets. Play it at www.pantagraph.com/game
Watterson Towers is a sight that stands out for miles and miles Lenore Sobota
lsobota@pantagraph.com
You can see Watterson Towers for miles. It’s among the tallest residence halls in the world. Pretty much everyone in Central Illinois knows the Illinois State University’s scion is the tallest building in Bloomington-Normal and among the tallest buildings outside of Chicago. It’s also among the most populous, called home each year by about 2,200 students. Arthur W. Watterson was not a major financial donor to the university, the primary way people and corporations get their names on buildings these days. Instead, Watterson was a geography professor who died in 1966, a year before construction began on the 28-story building. He had joined the ISU faculty in 1946, after serving in the Office of War Information in Washington and later with the Office of Strategic Services, mostly in Europe, during World War II. He led the geography department for 15 years, from 1951 to 1966. Selected in 1961 for the Outstanding Citizen Award by the Normal Chamber of Commerce, he was described as a “tireless worker on the ISU campus, in his church and in his community.” His name - rescued from relative obscurity - isn’t the
B-N in 50 objects: Memory game DAVID PROEBER, The Pantagraph
Illinois State University’s gigantic Watterson Towers is seen in Normal. only one attached to the residence complex. The 10 “houses” within the towers are named for the first 10 secretaries of state, some of whom later became president: Thomas Jefferson, Edmund Randolph, Timothy Pickering, John Marshall, James Madison, Robert Smith, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and Martin Van Buren.
Test your memory and relive recent “B-N in 50 objects” articles with Pantagraph.com’s photo memory game. Match photos of objects that scream Twin Cities. Photos are chosen randomly — always two of each — and more will be added as the series continues. There are easy, medium and expert levels, all of which you can play on any device, but levels below expert will appear better on phones and tablets. Play it at www.pantagraph.com/game