Echoes of Elgin: Timeless Tales from the Elgin History Museum

All aboard the Roarin' Elgin train!  Tune into this echo from July 12, 1982 to learn about the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin interurban electric railway.  Aurora Elgin...Roarin' Elgin...get it?  Say it fast.  There you go, you got it.

Much is written about Elgin's worst tornado.  Our second-worst tornado was noteworthy as well.  Learn more about the July 2, 1933 tornado in this echo from June 1, 2008.

Strange!  But true!  Enjoy some of Elgin history's tiniest, yet most interesting, tidbits in this echo from January 27, 1991.

Do you have more than 3 hogs in your yard?  Did you walk on the grass in Gifford Park?  Does your sleigh lack bells?!  Well, be glad it's not 1883 when all of these things were against Elgin's Municipal Ordinances.  Take some legal advice from this December 2, 2002 echo and clean up your act.

South Elgin's road to incorporation was as bumpy as its unpaved portion of Route 31.  Learn about the details in this echo from June 25, 1989.

The stories of Robert Meggison, Ed Souzla and Shanty Pask have something in common.  Tune into this echo from May 14, 2001 to find out what it is.

Happy Holidays!  Today is the last day of our Extra Echoes of Elgin celebration.  We hope you enjoy this echo from October 12, 1981 on the Seybold Piano Company. 

Happy Holidays!  The gifts keep coming; here is another extra Echo of Elgin, just for you.  Did you know sledders used to fly down our city streets in the old days?  Learn more in this echo from February 23, 2008.

Happy Holidays!  We have a present for you: another extra episode.  Are bicycles still a common holiday gift?  Well, they sure were popular in 1896, at least.  Learn more in this echo from July 19, 1982.

Happy Holidays!  It's time to unwrap another Extra Echo of Elgin.  Are you traveling for the holidays?  If so, we hope that you do not have the same kind of trouble these railroad passengers had.  Let's unwrap this echo from February 16, 1986.

Happy Holidays!  Echoes of Elgin has a gift for you...extra episodes!  Please don't give anyone a box of "Renovated Butter" for Christmas this year.  You'll make Elgin look bad.  Learn more in this echo from June 10, 1984.

When fashionable skirt lengths rose above the knee, Elgin National Watch Company profits seemed to rise as well.  Coincidence?  You be the judge after listening to this echo from November 9, 1997.

Richard R. Parkin (1845-1915) was probably not a guy you would want to stand next to.  Heed this warning from November 15, 1987.

Some of the biggest names in early baseball once played in Elgin. Let E.C. "Mike" Alft give you the play-by-play in this echo from July 23, 1995.

The Woodruff & Edwards foundry stood on State Street for more than a century. E.C. "Mike" Alft gives a history of the company in this echo from February 22, 1998.

I, for one, am glad they went with the name "Shoe Factory Road" rather than "Selz-Schwab Shoe Supplier Street."  Tune into this echo from January 25, 1982 to learn more.

The site of Channing Memorial Elementary has a history that goes way back...and way down.  Learn more in this echo from March 20, 1988.

Elgin is well-known for its historic architecture.  We even have some old  homes made of an unexpected material...concrete block. Tune into this echo from December 21, 1981 to learn the how and where.

Would you have frequented the Purple Grackle, back in the day?  Wait...which version?  The Purple Grackle in 1923, or the Purple Grackle in 1951?  There is quite a difference, and one you may not want to admit to.  Pour yourself a drink and learn more in this echo from December 15, 1996.

Tune into this echo from July 26, 1998 to hear about a few houses on South, Brook and Morgan Sts., as well as Bluff City and McLean Blvds.  

Have you seen the ornate clock in downtown Chicago?  Not the Marshall Field's clock...the better one!  The Elgin National Watch Company clock on East Wacker Drive, of course.  Tune into this echo from July 25, 1999 and you'll learn enough to educate some Chicagoans on their own clock.

We can never hear too many stories about Elgin's unique homes.  This echo from September 22, 2007 covers a few classes of architecture rarely mentioned.

Do you have freckles, premature old age or diptheria?  Better get yourself a bottle of patent medicine. I would go with the one made in Elgin.  Let Mike Alft prescribe you a remedy in this echo from April 19, 1982.

Spiess and Ackemann's, two Elgin shopping icons, are no more.  Tune in to this echo from July 23, 2001 to hear how these stores rose and fell.

Elgin lost 6 servicemen at the battle for Iwo Jima in 1945.  Historian Mike Alft recounts the tale in this echo from March 26, 1995.