A great project was happening last month in downtown Champaign.
Jason Mack and Mack Glass erected “the world’s tallest glass Christmas Tree” on the vacant lot at the northeast corner of Neil and Washington streets over the course of the first three weekends of December, although they put in many additional hours.
The public was invited to not only stop by and watch the progress, but also recycle their green and clear glass to be crushed and melted down as the material for the tree.
This glass tree project captured the hearts of hundreds, if not thousands, of us.
Although not a Champaign County History Museum project, we posted a photograph on the museum’s Facebook page.
Many people likely think the Champaign County History Museum collects only old artifacts that are related to well-known residents, businesses and buildings.
That’s only partly true. It takes more than the famous to tell the story of Champaign County. It takes representatives of all people of the county to properly tell the story.
And the story of Champaign County includes events that may turn out to occur only once or a limited number of times.
The 2020 glass tree falls in this category. It’s too soon to tell how frequently, or if, it may be repeated. It absolutely should be documented and recognized as a piece of our history that is happening now.
The Mack Glass tree brings to mind some past holiday traditions.
Around 20 years ago, the Parade of Lights returned as a reincarnation of a Christmas parade that was an annual event for many years.
Likewise, the Champaign Center Partnership’s tree in the One Main Plaza recalls a municipal tree that we know was first put up in 1914 in roughly the same location.
Back then, the area was unofficially called Gazette Square, because for several years, The Gazette was in a building at 2 Main St. that was the predecessor to the one currently occupied by Guido’s Bar & Grill, then moved to the Flatiron building between Neil and Hickory (since vacated) whose apex was at or a bit south of Hill Street.
In 1914, a tree committee had been formed to run a charity drive to benefit children in need as well as erect the tree.
It arranged festivities that included a lighting ceremony with music by the University Choral Society and the Associated Musicians’ Band and special programs for the children at local movie theaters.
The kids were invited back to the tree on Christmas morning for candy followed by a free movie at the Lyric and Neil theaters.
Similar activities occurred in 1915, and this time they were filmed with the movie to be shown at the recently opened Belvoir Theatre (later renamed the Rialto).
While the Champaign County History Museum is closed to the public during the pandemic, its staff and volunteers have been busy reorganizing the research library and vertical files and planning a new video initiative.
A major ongoing project is the acquisition of The News-Gazette’s Stevick/
Chinigo Family artifacts.
Work continues with assigning accession numbers, entering details about the objects into our collections-management system, photographing them and packing them in acid-free containers.
As an aside, the collection-management system has an add-on component that would allow patrons to view the collection online.
We are looking for funding for this project that would greatly increase the accessibility of our collection.
We will announce on Facebook and our website, champaigncountyhistory.org, when we will be able to once again see you in person at the Cattle Bank.
Perry C. Morris is the vice president of the Champaign County History Museum. He has a special interest in local theater history and shares his research at cutheaterhistory.com. He can be reached at [email protected].
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