Photo Detectives, your February challenge is to put names with faces in a Don Peasley photo from 2010. This happy group is celebrating a $500,000 donation from the Gavers Community Cancer Foundation to Centegra Health System’s Gavers Breast Center. The donation brought the total Gavers contributions to Centegra to $1.1 million. We know that Denise […]

Our new year of Photo Detective is off to a successful start! Anneliese McGregor (on the left in the photo) contacted our intrepid Photo Detective Maggie Crane and provided names for Dana Emery (center) and Alie Aydin (right). McGregor believes that the Northwood Middle School Patriot Pen winners were in seventh grade when this 2009 […]

Photo Detectives, your last mystery should have been relatively easy to solve, an early Christmas gift from our intrepid Chief Photo DetectiveMaggie Crane. The Shell station was located at 850 S. Eastwood Drive. The original owners were Louis and Jack Wendt. Today, this is DeCraene’s Service Center. Mark DeCraene runs the Woodstock location, while Tony […]

Last week’s Photo Detective showed what might have been Woodstock’s smallest gas station, located at 425 Washington St.; the street address was 421 Washington St. until 1944. Today, shrubs and a small tree hide the concrete area in front of what is now a home where George Meyers (police officer and later mayor of Woodstock) […]

This building is in the running for the smallest gas station in Woodstock. Built in 1929, it operated as a Shell station until ceasing operation in 1941. The building is on what was once a U.S. highway and an Illinois highway. Gene Limbaugh suggests that the owner of the station was Orlow Brown, since he […]

The station was located at 235 Washington St. After Andrew Steffensen retired, Ralph Kristensen stepped in to lease the station in 1946. In 1961, he moved his business across the street to 230 Washington St.  where he had bought land and had a new station and shop built. Twelve years later, Ralph’s son Bob took […]

How did you do, Photo Detectives? The building pictured above is located at 245 McHenry Ave., at the northwest corner of Routes 120 and 47. The spot was nicknamed Six Corners until Seminary Avenue and North Avenue were closed off. After Harvey Jensen retired, brothers Nick and Cas Polizzi took over the store, naming it […]

While our dedicated Photo Detectives might find this photo relatively easy, The Woodstock Independent also asks you to identify the building’s chain of owners. Caps on? Here are your clues. Harvey Jensen built a handsome brick building for his new grocery store in 1922. He moved his business from his previous store at 901 Wheeler […]

Photo Detectives, did you recognize this gas station as the current location of Frisbie & Lohmeyer Insurance? In 1964, Maurice and Leland Brasile took over from the Goodall family, changing the name to Leland Oil in 1964. In 1976, the station became the Short Stop. Owner A. Walter Gleitsman bought gas on the open market […]

This month, Photo Detectives, we have two photos to help you identify the location. Harvard businessman F.R. Goodall founded one of the first oil companies in McHenry County. He distributed White Rose Gasoline, along with En-Ar-Co Motor Oil, to Woodstock and other communities. His service station in Woodstock operated under the Cities Service banner. In […]