Raymond Hodde was the Illinois State Journal’s first staff photographer. He began taking pictures for the newspaper in 1929, just a year after Col. Ira Copley bought the Journal and put into place a plan to modernize it and update its plain gray look. That included the use of staff-produced photographs and an end to the practice of publishing pictures that were submitted by local commercial photographers. Hodde, along with Ernest Pearson who joined him a short time later, took the pictures here, part of a collection of 1,300 glass plate negatives taken between 1929 and 1936 that have survived.
The images create of portrait of the city during the 1930s. Not a portrait defined by a single image, but one that emerges from the scenes and moments recorded by Hodde and Pearson over time. It’s the city’s cultural and built environment, the people walking its streets and in their daily routines, the lively public square in its role as the heart of Springfield, the grittiness of a growing urban center and the personality of a place that comes through in the interaction of all these things.
South Grand Avenue underpass construction, 10th and South Grand Ave., looking west from 11th Street, Nov.1931. File/The State Journal-Register
Adams Street, south side of public square, circa 1933. File/The State Journal-Register. C-98-1260
Tennessee state Yo-Yo champions, sponsored by Duncan Yo-Yo Company and The Illinois State Journal, in Springfield for demonstration, June 7, 1935. File/The State Journal-Register
Crowd in front of Springfield Dry Goods store. circa 1931. File/The State Journal-Register
Funeral for Springfield Police Detective Porter Williams, First Presbyterian Church, Seventh Street and Capitol Avenue. File/The State Journal-Register
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Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) encampment and national convention Sept. 22, 1932. Parade on Capitol Avenue at Sixth Street, facing west toward capitol. Hotel Abraham Lincoln on left. Col. William J. Butler, grandson of Gen. John McClernand, leads the parade. File/The State Journal-Register
Construction of Lindsay Bridge at Lake Springfield, circa 1934. File/The State Journal-Register
Baptism by Rev. Frosty Foster in Bunn Park pond, Nov. 24, 1930. File/The State Journal-Register
Man jogging, date and location unknown. File/ The State Journal-Register
Springfield Browns minor league baseball team. File/The State Journal-Register
Standard Oil Company service station operated by H.C. Gordy at West Grand Avenue (now, MacArthur Blvd.) and South Grand Avenue, June 30, 1929. File/The State Journal-Register
Funeral at Westside Christian Church for Norman and Emmerson E. Lawyer, killed in airplane crash, July 1930. File/The State Journal-Register
Springfield High School students, from left, Pauline Hotz, Mildred Hall and Maxine Haigh, Nov. 21, 1931. File/The State Journal-Register
Shriner’s Band marching in parade on Sixth Street between Adams and Monroe streets looking south, Ferguson Building in background, circa 1933. File/The State Journal-Register
Gelder Lockwood and biplane at Southwest Airport, circa 1930. File/The State Journal-Register
Ford Tri-Motor airplane draws a crowd at Southwest Airport, circa 1930. File/The State Journal-Register
W. F. Feldwish and Elward Holcomb, the new manager of the local weather bureau, during a trip to the roof of the federal building where weather monitoring equipment was kept, Nov. 7, 1932. File/The State Journal-Register.
Polar Wave root beer and sandwich stand, 2008 West Grand Avenue South (now MacArthur Boulevard), date unknown. File/The State Journal-Register
Wilson Briegel and Marian Robertson were married in an airplane, August 2, 1930. The Rev. Lewis Fisher, left, conducted the ceremony. Mrs. Briegel, mother of the groom, rode along and the pilot was Craig Isbell, right, at Southwest Airport. File/The State Journal-Register
Mrs. W. F. Sherman flies Curtis Wright Jr. airplane after only 20 minutes of instruction, Feb. 24, 1931. File/The State Journal-Register
