Take a luminary walk through Belleville history

Keith Owens had a bright idea for Christmas in Old Belleville.

“I wanted to have a free, family-friendly luminary walk to draw people downtown during the Christmas holiday season and give the Old Belleville Historic District some attention for its importance to the community,” said Keith, who recently purchased a historic home at 215 Abend St. “It grew from there.”

All he had to do was get about 1,100 luminaries and convince city and Chamber of Commerce officials plus residents along Abend and Garfield streets to join in the effort within 2 1/2 months.

Sound like one of those Mickey Rooney “let’s put on a show” movies? Looks like it will have a happy ending.

The first Old Belleville Historic Luminary Walk is scheduled for 6 to 9 p.m. Friday and 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday, when portions of Abend and Garfield streets will be lined with candle-filled luminaries spaced about every 4 feet.

“A big box of them was delivered today,” Keith, 44, said Tuesday. “It takes 1,500 pounds of sand to fill them. It’s time to get busy.”

The free event will begin at the Gustave Koerner House on the corner of Abend and Mascoutah Avenue and will continue to the Garfield Saloon at Garfield and Mascoutah Avenue.

Free activities will include:

▪  Open houses and and exhibits at the Koerner House (built 1848-49), Garfield Saloon (1894-95) and Emma Kunz House (1851), plus a Secret Walkway to the Emma Kunz House. The Koerner House will feature a quilt exhibit. Choirs will perform at the Garfield Saloon.

“Did you know the the Koerner House has the distinction of having the first Christmas tree in Illinois?” Keith asked. “It was a sassafras tree. We’ll have a sassafras tree there, even if I have to go out and cut one down.”

▪  Carolers from a Belleville East German class will sing in German along the route.

▪  St. Nicholas will visit families along the streets.

▪  A Digital Historical Home Tour. Photos and descriptions of the 36 historic buildings along Abend and Garfield can be seen at http://arcg.is/1Naf6ya. “People can follow along on their phones,” Keith said. There will also be a geo-cache activity for kids. “We didn’t want kids to get bored on the tour, so they can do the activity on their iPhones. It’s a Victorian Christmas atmosphere with a 21st century twist.”

▪  Hot cider, s’mores, candy canes, gingerbread and roasted chestnuts will be available for purchase at the Garfield Tavern.

Free parking is available at the Public Services Building at 407 E. Lincoln St., the Emma Kunz House parking lot at Mascoutah and Fulton Street, and behind Washington Elementary School.

The walk is sponsored by the Belleville Heritage Society, the Belleville Historical Society, the Belleville Historic Preservation Commission, the St. Clair County Historical Society and the residents of Abend and Garfield streets.

“A lot of people have come together to make this happen,” said Keith, who works at the National Archives in St. Louis and is an ordained Southern Baptist minister. “The residents were very receptive to the idea. Many of them chipped in.”

Keith wants to make the walk an annual event.

“Again, I want to emphasize that everything is free. But we will have two big containers at both ends for donations. Any money we get will be used to do this again next year.”

He hopes it will be even bigger.

“There’s a story that Gustave Koerner, who was a colonel in a local regiment in the Civil War, once had his troops gathered around his house at Christmastime. So next year, we’d like to have a Civil War re-anactment as part of it.”

This story was originally published December 9, 2015 at 5:47 AM with the headline "Take a luminary walk through Belleville history."