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Livingston's longtime fixture of downtown's retail scene
By Bill Kemp
Archivist/Librarian
McLean County Museum of History
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BLOOMINGTON -- Although Bloomington’s Jewish community has never been particularly large, Jews played a significant role in the history of downtown retailing. As early as 1877, The Pantagraph commented in a genial manner that “a goodly portion of the trade of the city, especially in the clothing line, is in Jewish hands.” | From Our Past page

It would be difficult to tell the story of downtown Bloomington’s retail scene without a nod to businessmen with names such as Bachrach, Griesheim, Heldman, Mandel, Stern and Livingston — especially Livingston.

“As the names of Funk and Stubblefield have been connected with agriculture in McLean County, so have the Livingstons been connected with the county’s commercial life,” noted The Pantagraph in 1930. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, downtown shoppers could hardly walk a block without coming across a store owned by one Livingston or another.

The largest and most successful (certainly in terms of longevity) of all the Livingston retail establishments was Livingston’s department store. Founded in March 1866 by Sam and Aaron Livingston, the business was originally known as the McLean County Dry Goods Store. It was in the middle of the 100 block of West Washington Street, (the south side of the Courthouse Square), and there it remained for 113 years.

A March 13, 1866, advertisement promised an “unrivaled stock” of “French, English and American dry goods.” The new store’s cosmopolitan inventory included “shawls, black silks, laces, Paris embroideries, plain, hemmed and embroidered handkerchiefs,” as well as “dress trimming and Paris ornaments embracing all the novelties of the season” and “hoop skirts and corsets — elegant in style and material.”

Family partnership

In 1873, another Aaron Livingston (a cousin) bought out the business and changed its name to A. Livingston & Co. In the 1890s, this Aaron Livingston made sons Milton R. and Sam E. partners, and the store became known as A. Livingston & Sons. Livingston descendents held a stake in the store until 1977, two years before the store went out of business.

In 1917, Livingston’s razed five of seven Greek Revival-style buildings on south side of the Square to make way for a modern, four-story, white-glazed brick department store. Today, the street-level floor of this building serves as Michael’s Restaurant.

Up until the 1970s, downtown Bloomington was a great retail center of Central Illinois. Locally owned department stores C.W. Klemm’s and W.H. Roland’s (both on the north side of the Square) competed against not only Livingston’s but also national chains. Sears Roebuck arrived downtown in the late 1920s, followed in a year or two by Montgomery Ward. J.C. Penney’s set up shop a decade or so later.

Around 1930, Hugh A. Henry came to Livingston’s after working retail in Ohio and elsewhere. After the February 1937 death of Milton Livingston, Henry — who had served as Livingston’s advertising and display manager, floor superintendent and store manager — became a partner in the business.

Around the time of Henry’s arrival, Livingston’s had 42,350 square feet of floor space, making it one of the larger department stores in downstate Illinois. Today, by way of comparison, some Wal-Mart Supercenters span 223,000 square feet. In 1946, Livingston’s added another floor by excavating a full basement to hold its household appliance department and a fur storage vault.

Hugh Henry was a master showman, and many longtime locals will recall the frenzied “dollar day” and anniversary sales. In conjunction with the late 1950s game show “The $64,000 Question,” Henry once put 64,000 $1 bills in a window display. The money was transported via wheelbarrow from People’s Bank (now Commerce) to Livingston’s — with a police escort, no less.

In the summer of 1977, Hugh Henry, along with partners Lois Block and Eleanor Dombrowsky (daughters of Sam Livingston), sold the store to Vertin Brothers and Co. of Michigan (who had bought Klemm’s more than a decade earlier). Henry, who was 71 at the time, said it seemed like “an opportune time to sell the thing out.”

By this time, downtown Bloomington was in decline. Sears and Penney’s had left downtown for Eastland Mall in the 1960s, and Ward’s later moved to College Hills Mall around 1980. Roland’s relocated to the brave new world of Veterans Parkway but closed for good in the late 1980s. Locally owned department and clothing stores found it increasingly difficult — if not impossible — to compete against the enormous economies of scale enjoyed by the likes of Sears and other retail behemoths.

Closing in 1979

Livingston’s never made it out of downtown. Despite the Vertin Brothers’ infusion of some $100,000 for redecorating and increased promotion, sales were disappointing, and Livingston’s closed on Jan. 31, 1979. The store held the obligatory “going out of business” sale in its final week, offering up store fixtures, mannequins (“whole and parts”), cash registers and clothes racks.

At the time of its closing, longtime Livingston’s employees included Litta Ballow, foundations; Pat Barnheiser, cosmetics; Irene Davis, office manager; Thelma Free, notions; Ed LaBounty, assistant manager; Mary Murphy, greeting cards; and Rosie Owens, cosmetics.

Several dozen Livingston’s photographs from the Hugh A. Henry Collection are currently on display on the main floor of the McLean County Museum of History. These photographs are sure to take visitors back to the long-gone days before malls and big-box superstores.

Take a look
A. Livingston & Sons seen in the mid-1930s. The announcement below the "Remodeling Sale" sign reads, "A Tremendous Price Smashing Sale We Must Reduce Our Stocks To Make Room For Carpenters & Painters." (Courtesy of the McLean County Museum of History, Hugh A. Henry Livingston's Collection.)
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