By Ricky Rieckert
Dear subscribers and readers of The Voice.
I would like to wish everyone, a Happy New Year and I hope the quarter century mark of 2025 will be a prosperous year for everyone.
With 2024 at the end, we always wonder what happened to the year. Boy it went by fast!
I wrote my first article for this publication in the April 11 edition.
But back to Aurora’s history! We continue West on E. Downer Place (Fox Street), past the first channel and bridge over the Fox River, on the North Side was the Old Fox Theatre.
Across the street, on the south side, is the G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic) building, which has been remodeled inside, in recent years.
Just west of there, was the building that housed the Old City Hall, Police Department, and jail in the basement. It was a marvelous building with roof ornaments just like Gotham City, in the Batman movies.
An alley ran on the west side, from Fox Street towards Benton Street.
I was just five years old, when they knocked it down in 1964.
Naturally, I was too young, to be walking downtown, but I learned this information from a book at the Aurora Historical Society, with John Jaros, 20 years ago or so.
I’ve also had some older friends reminisce about it and the area, recently.
I asked Jaros at the time, why would anyone knock down such a beautiful building?
He replied, progress and having things more modern.
What a shame. I would have loved a hands-on tour of the building.
The City Hall moved to where it is today, by Water Street.
The Police Department then moved to S. River Street between West Park and Vine Street. Today, it’s on E. Indian Trail.
The River Street location was torn down and today, it’s Wilder Park.
On the southeast corner of Downer and Stolp Avenue (Island Avenue) was the Post Office, before it moved to Benton Street. Today it is the former Sci-Tech Hands On Museum, which had been empty since 2022.
Today, the Aurora Post Office is now on N. Broadway.
The Old Post Office on Downer and Stolp later housed the Tomahawk Club. On Friday nights East Aurora High School and West Aurora High School students would hang out there. That building was raze, too.
When I started hanging around downtown in the late 1960s, early 1970s, that corner was a City Parking lot with the entrance off of E. Downer, you would pull in, take a ticket and park.
Today it’s a deck type parking garage, with store fronts at ground level.
Sometimes memories, aren’t they great….
See you next week.