Jerry’s Restaurant - CARLI Digital Collections Featured Image

Vintage photographs were so much cooler in the pre-Instagram era. Look how marvelously red-hued this slide has become with age, picking up on the color from the storefront signs lining the street and casting a pinkish wash over the scene. The institutional watermark bar at the bottom of the image further enhances the aura of redness.

But while an app filter can alter the look, it can’t imbue an image with the nostalgic feel of the genuine historic artifact. This picture couldn’t be taken today—Jerry’s Restaurant is long gone, and would perhaps have faded from memory entirely if not for images such as this. Or rather my ninja-level Google-research skills were unable to turn up any information about this now-defunct establishment. But, aha! By applying good old-fashioned visual detective work and comparing this image to other views in the same digital collection, I managed to piece together a few fragments about the site’s history.

An undated view of the tavern next door shows the sign for the business currently occupying the Jerry’s site—Wildwood Gallery and Framing, at this location since 1995. The previous business at this address, Wildlife Images, had hung its shingle by April 1994; an image dated August 1993, as the art and gifts shop prepared to open, offers the best view of the building’s façade.

An earlier view of the 1000 block of State Street places Jerry’s at this location in 1979. Though small and blurry, the restaurant’s sign can be seen about halfway up on the right, with the other street signage serving as points of reference.

Bonus discovery: A November 1926 Sanborn map of Lockport, Illinois shows the single-story brick building at 1010 S. State St. as the site of a restaurant. Amazing what can be gleaned from decades and miles away by using digital collections.

Written by Ellen K. Corrigan, Assistant Professor, Cataloging Services, Booth Library, Eastern Illinois University

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