Pekin, Illinois–June 25, 2021

As always, click a picture to see it at a larger size.

I walked downtown from the east side of Pekin via Court Street; here are some of the things I saw along the way.

Honor America / July 4 Celebration lawn sign
Patina'd bronze compass rose on wooden fence
Dilapidated house with no glass in windows; door open

This house had the door open and no glass in many windows. Very creepy.

Sign advertising for teens to detassel corn

This is something you’d only see in corn country.

Front of “Big Top Tattoos” with circus font

The circus font and theme of this place does not inspire confidence.

Variety of lawn decorations: flowers, swans

People in this area love their lawn decorations.

This is the area near the park and lagoon.

Replica of coal cars used as flower planters. Plaque nearby says it is a memorial to the coal miners who worked in the area.
Red brick building with dome on one side.
Colorful paddle boats, plus one in shape of green dragon

Moving further down Court Street:

Clock with roman numerals on brick building above portico
Bicycle with flower pots and flowers on it.
Anchor and red and white buoys in front of a white picket fence

Claes Oldenburg would like this one.

Front porch of house with “fence” of colorful plastic float boards.

This is where Washington Street begins. A couple of lawn signs:

Lawn sign: J B Pritzer Sucks (and in small type) the life out of small businesses

There is at least one conservative living in Pekin.

Lawn sign: Trump 2024

As in, really conservative.

Here’s the house I lived in the first few years of my life.

Two-story white wood house

Washington Street has a lot of really large, magnificent houses:

White two-story house with attached cupola
Three-story large wood house painted gray
Gray concrete planter with small blue and yellow flowers
House with blue door on second floor that exits to first floor overhang rather than a balcony.

The blue door on the upper floor leads to the porch roof, not a balcony. That seems weird to me.

Windows with facets in shape of diamonds.
Side of house with three adjacent windows at “stepped” levels
Stone house with steeply-angled A-shape roof
Large brown brick buildling with four white columns

And houses that have seen better days:

Closeup of peeled paint on windows and missing/loose shingles
Red brick house in state of disrepair
Crumbling brickwork under column

More scenes from front lawns, and an interesting porch:

Variety of sculptures in front lawn of house
Statue of a long-haired dog
Porch with four white columns; each column has four green bands on it

Finally made it to the downtown area.

Decal on police car showing stylized Chinese dragon

The Pekin Dragon logo is featured everywhere.

Mural of orange bell-shaped flowers
Tanning salon in a light brown brick building

This is where my dad had a clothing store.

Front display window for “Peek In Pottery”

A cleverly named pottery store...

Whimsical pottery in shape of lamb, a grinning tree with feet, and a duck

...and a closeup of the display window.

Name “Konisek” spelled out in black mosaic tiles with white tile background on a brick building.

Mosaic tile on second floor of a building.

Closeup of mosaic showing individual tiles

And here’s a closeup.

A couple of murals on the side of a building:

Mural of a movie theater on side of building
Mural of grocery and candy store on side of building

Sunset Hills

Later in the afternoon, I took a walk around Sunset Hills, the subdivision where I lived most of my life in Pekin. Most of the houses are built along the same lines. The second picture is of the house where I lived.

Several one-story houses in 1960s style architecture
One-story light yellow brick house, long view

With the usual lawn displays

Stone lion with headband with two red white and blue whirligigs on it.
Free library cabinet decorated with images from Peanuts comic strip
Stone sculpture of a sea serpent that makes it look as if it is swimming through a bed of small rocks.
Old-fashioned wheelbarrow with flower pots and flowers
Small sculpture with word “Welcome” and a little girl and boy.
Small sculpture of a fox
Two small sculptures of a little girl and boy in one he is standing, kissing her, with a gift behind his back. In the other they are seated, holding hands.

Signage

Sign: When it has to be perfect in italic type with straight quotes

If it really has to be perfect, you’d think they would use typographically correct quotes.

Sign: UBEAKIFIX (smart phone / computer repair shop)

The first “I” in “IFIX” tends to disappear into the “F”.

Store selling discount tobacco, vape, and CBD.

All your vices in one place!

This person has a couple of really attractive logos for their businesses:

Sign for Photography by Deverman; “photo” is in cursive, “graphy” in a block sans-serif font
Sign for Deverman Advertising in clean serif font, with a rectangle logo made up of three triangles

Other signs:

Sign for Pekin Community Bank in an old gothic-style font

I am not sure a gothic font is a good choice here.

Sign: Mobil CBD Oil Sold Here

I knew Mobil was into a lot of products, but I never expected this.

Sign for Maquet Rail House (restaurant) with logo in shape of the front of a locomotive.

Sign for a restaurant

Sign: Snow Route / No Parking / 2 or more inches of snow

Don’t see many of these in San José.

Bicycle rack with legend “Bike Pekin”

I like the font on this bicycle rack

Street sign for Court Street in a serif font

And on the street signs