The 2020 “Now” photo is of the same location. Businesses shown are Cafe Paradiso and Oxner’s General Store.

This is a circa 1910 photo (#1834) of the Douglas Hotel looking west from Monument Square down Miami Street in Urbana. About 1815 on the present-day site of the Douglas Hotel, John Reynolds built a frame house. The Reynolds family lived on the second floor and operated a general store on the first floor. It also served as Urbana’s first post office.

In 1819, John C. Pearson purchased the property and in 1825 erected a two-story brick building, which he established as a hotel. This brick building ultimately became the nucleus of the Douglas Hotel.
Sometime prior to 1844 Henry Weaver acquired the property and built two additional floors to the hotel, which was then referred to as the Weaver House. In 1877 the Weaver family sold the hotel and C. L. Stough became the proprietor. Around 1900 the hotel began to be referred to as the Douglas Inn/Hotel.

Source: A Brief Early History of the Douglas Hotel by Barbara E. Sour (#8689)

The Champaign County Historical Society, an all-volunteer, not-for profit organization that preserves, protects, archives and displays the artifacts that tell the Champaign County story. The society depends upon donations and dues to provide a free public museum, which is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays.