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This business grew into a family owned restaurant that would become a main stay & landmark in Galesburg. Originally built out by Lincoln Park, THIS AREA was originally the northern city limits…the family that owned this property saw that future businesses would be heading on down the road and purchased several tracts of land now known as Henderson Street.
Here is some great historical information....
In 1929, a humble little 20-by-20-foot wooden building was erected on the edge of Galesburg. It was built near Lincoln Park by two brothers from Kewanee who sold hamburgers there for 15 cents apiece. They called it The Huddle. Surrounded by cornfields and just inside the city limits on U.S. 150, the brothers leased the land from the Peck family for $100 a year. The Pecks had purchased several tracts of land on what would become Henderson Street as Mrs. Peck thought someday that area would be a booming business district, and told her sons never to sell the land. By the mid-1930s the Kewanee brothers were doing a good business. So well, in fact, that they hired the Peck’s teenage sons to work part-time at the hamburger stand after school and on weekends. Over the decades, one of the Peck sons, Paul would take this business and turn it into a large venture that was added onto again and again.
During the years of World War II, the little stand closed down, but reopened in 1946 and at some point the Pecks had become the owners. In 1949, after their father passed away, Paul Peck bought the business and continued running the stand, adding other types of sandwiches to the menu. By 1955, Paul’s business was booming. So much so, that he had a new and larger restaurant built. It was designed by local architect Don Gullickson and erected on the southeast corner of North Henderson and Dayton Street. It was a sizeable drive-in restaurant that cost $35,000 to build (about $280,000 in today’s money).
Paul then sold the original little building for $600, and it was moved to the southwest corner Henderson and North Street. In the new restaurant, Paul continued to add to his menu and business increased so much that Paul had the mortgage paid off in four months. He continued to improve the drive-in restaurant over the years, including a carport built on the east side of the building to keep the car hop girls out of the weather. Another innovation was a telephone system at each parking space that allowed customers to “phone-in” their orders directly to the kitchen from the comfort of their automobiles. Both were new innovations that Paul had learned about at the many restaurant conventions he attended. To keep up with the competition, new innovations in the restaurant industry were a necessity, and Paul’s were
The drive-in was all the rage with teens. I can see them after school, piling into their cars and driving from the old high school on Tompkins and South Broad Street, north to the drive-in, sitting in their cars feasting on French fries and cherry Cokes. On the weekends the Huddle stayed open until 10 p.m. and with teens probably making up most of the customers, it could be a hopping place. However, if the boys got too wild, Paul would send them away, telling them to come back in a couple of hours when they had calmed down, if not he would call their fathers, as he knew most of the boys and their parents. Late night dining was new at that time and the Huddle also stayed open until 9 p.m. on weeknights, and adult customers found they enjoyed being able to get a late-night meal.
Over the years, Paul added many new delicacies to the menu, including tenderloins, but the most popular meal was the “broasted chicken.” With 2,800 chicken dinners being served each week, Paul purchased the chickens by the ton. For the always popular hamburgers, Paul bought a farm and had old dairy cows pastured there. He would have one cow butchered a week to keep up with demand for hamburgers and ribs, selling about 1,000 pounds of beef a week. Paul said that old dairy cows had the best beef for hamburgers. The Huddle also had the first double burger in town, called the “Huddle Burger.” Paul also sold 500-plus catfish dinners a week with catfish that was caught and filleted in Oquawka. The Huddle also made its own root beer, French dressing and maple syrup. In 1949 the gross income from the business was $49,000, by 1956 it was $400,000.
The business kept expanding and the slogan in the Galesburg phone book listed the Huddle as “Ever growing.” By 1965, the drive-in was closed and The Huddle became a family restaurant. Paul also added a formal dining room, a lounge with live entertainment on the weekends and a banquet room that could seat 200. Forty local clubs and groups met there regularly including, the Kiwanis, Lions and others, as well as special groups, such as class reunions. Many of the materials used in the newer parts of the building, such as brick walls, were from the old Galesburg Club which Paul had purchased. He also added a package liquor store and in 1973 opened the Regal 8 Motel, located just behind the Huddle to the east. By this time, Paul employed 45 people and had a yearly payroll of $100,000.
Paul told a Register-Mail reporter that the business was kind of like a hobby to him and that he got a tremendous kick out of it, but it was getting harder to run it than in the old days. He worked seven days a week “and I never got to go anywhere or see my grandkids, so I just quit.” (Peck owned the business from 1946 to 1986). The business was first sold to Gene Burwell and then to Joe and Judy Pacheco who also owned the Broadview Restaurant on the Public Square. But by May of 1996, it was announced that The Huddle would be closing its doors for the last time. Many tears were shed by former employees and customers, some who met their future spouses at the drive-in. Some came in for a last drink in the lounge, others to exchange memories of the good old days when along with the Huddle, the A&W Root beer stand was across the street, as well as Put-Put golf, Kiddieland, Augie’s Airport Inn and Harbor Lights.
Paul told the reporter that the owners of all of the businesses on Henderson Street were not just business competitors, but good friends as well. The old familiar building was torn down to make way for a gas station/convenience store, and another Galesburg landmark was gone. By the way, when asked, Paul said he can’t remember why the brothers from Kewanee who started the business way back in 1929 called the place The Huddle, but it stuck and is still remembered fondly by many of us to this day.
Special thanks to Patty Mosher is the archivist for the Galesburg Public Library.