A demolition crew tore down the 134-year-old Burnham Mansion in Champaign on Tuesday, reducing it to a pile of rubble by evening. The home on Church Street that later become an apartment building is coming down to make room for the expansion of Champaign Central High School.

Requiring only a simple majority, three Champaign Park Board commissioners rejected the plan for a land swap with the school district to place a new Central High School in Dodds Park. 

Monticello been called “the patent medicine capital of the world,” and is home to the famous Allerton Park. This hour on Focus, we’ll talk with author Maureen Holtz about the town’s history…in pictures. Then, we’ll talk with former Mayor Dannel McCollum about his book “Remembering Champaign County.”