Pit Stop in Bloomington, IL

On Sunday as John and I were on the road driving back from our St. Louis trip, we stopped in Bloomington, IL. This is the town where my Grandma Rose and Grandpa Walt hail from, and where my mom lived until she was 5. Grandpa Walt was the Bloomington city planner and actually ran for mayor back in the 1950's. Benson is named after these grandparents (Rose and Walt Benson).


This is what my Grandma Rose and Grandpa Walt looked like. Handsome couple, huh? (By the way, that's me in the middle, and my sisters Elise and Tara are on the bottom. Doesn't Benson- my son- look like me in this picture? If you look closely, we have the same face! This picture represents what Benson would look like if he had a Beatles hairdo and wore a Hawaiian shirt.)


One of the perks to being Bloomington's City Planner was that Grandpa Walt could create streets and name them. Now, if that responsibility were left to me, the street names would all sound delicious, like Doughnut Drive or Hot Bacon Boulevard, but my grandpa went for something a little more meaningful. While we were in Bloomington, John and I searched for 4 streets in particular:

LONGDEN- The man who sealed my grandparents in the temple in 1953
MCKAY- David O. McKay was the prophet when they joined the church
WELLING- A missionary who taught my grandparents the gospel in 1952
ANDERSEN- Another favorite missionary



Here I am with the Longden and Welling street signs. THANK YOU, Sister Welling and Sister Andersen for teaching my grandparents! The ripple effect of those two converts has impacted thousands of lives.



John and I also wanted to see the house where my mom lived as a child. Here's the entrance to the street (White Place). It was a pretty swanky neighborhood, with cool cobblestones and pretty homes.



Here's my mom's home from ages 0-5. It was my grandparents' first home they bought together. My mom told me that her earliest memories are of her playing on the grassy boulevard in the middle of the street with a bunch of other neighbor kids. It was fun (and almost spooky) to imagine her as a little 5-year old playing in the very spot where we stood.



We also found my Grandpa Walt's old house that he grew up in. John and I were floored as we drove up--this place was ENORMOUS!!! It was sold in 1939 to Illinois Wesleyan University and is now a dormitory called Blackstock Hall. 30 students live there year-round. One of the students was practicing on the grand piano as we rang the old-fashioned doorbell, and he let us in and showed us around a bit.



We climbed up the beautiful stairway to the third floor, where there used to be a ballroom. (Unfortunately, the university split up the ballroom and turned it into 4 more dorm rooms.) Can you believe that though, Grandpa Walt grew up with a BALLROOM in his house?! Very cool!

We continued to walk around and saw 5 fireplaces, a wood-paneled library, a big music room, 3 porches, and some stained glass windows. They just don't make houses like this anymore! I had heard somewhere that Grandpa Walt grew up in an affluent family, but I didn't really think anything about it until I saw this house. Outrageous!



At the back of my grandpa's house was a large carriage house. Part of the bottom half of the carriage house was converted to a garage, but it also contained a hay mow, box stalls and an apartment for the "stable boy." This carriage house became Wesleyan's art department at first, but they switched it over and now it is the campus security headquarters.



Anyway, it was interesting to tour Blackstock Hall and see where Grandpa Walt grew up, and to see that Wesleyan University had preserved the home so well. It gave me a lot of insight into my grandpa's life to see his old stomping grounds. No wonder when people do family history research, they like to travel to the homes of their ancestors. It was really enjoyable for me and John to drive around Bloomington and get more of a glimpse into my roots.