Illinois Pioneers

Downtown Department Stores

 

Illinois Pioneers: Downtown Department Stores from Illinois Public Media on Vimeo.

Kyle Robeson, grandson of the founder of Robeson's Department Store, and Gordon Tracy, general manager of Joseph Kuhn's and former employee of W. Lewis and Company, discuss the the rise and fall of the downtown department stores in Champaign. Opened in 1865, Kuhn's was the first, and still exists. Others went out of business or moved to moved to Marketplace Mall once it was built.