912 Walnut Street

The 912 Walnut property was purchased by Michael Flanigan in 1948 from Homer Waughop to build a grocery store.  Flanigan already had a Flanigan's Grocery in East Peoria, and he had decades of experience working at the McElwee Meat Packing Company in Peoria.  The grocery store opened in 1949.  He opened another store in Sunnyland in 1954, replacing the longstanding Sundoer Market.

On April 21, 1959, Flanigan sold the store to Mac Kimple of Morton, who opened one of his Mac Hy Grocery stores at the location.  The Mac Hy store would be an east-end landmark for 15 years.

The Mac-Hy store closed in 1974 and, for a very short time, was re-opened by Jim Zilch as Jim's Bi-Rite, who was also the manager of the Mac Hy market in the later days.  After that, in 1975, grocery man Jack Cook took over and opened Cook's Market.

The Cooks tried very hard to make it work, offering many specials and sprucing up the store, but within a year, they had closed.  The final grocery store in the area, Nyman's, opened in late 1975 and lasted about 4 years, closing in the late 1970s, like so many other businesses.  The era of the east-side grocery store was over.

The building then sat vacant for a few years.

In 1982, Body Basics by Gloria, run by longtime Washington dance instructor Gloria Harp, opened.  In 1983, Melvin Duree opened the Cave Arcade in another part of the building.

Unsurprisingly, the arcade was short-lived.  It was replaced by Fur, Fin, & Feather, which opened and closed in 1984.

After all of that excitement, Dr. Donald Cihak opened the Associated Veterinary Clinic in 1985, and it remains 40 years later today.