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Former Hawkinson Manufacturing Once Nationally Renown for Restoration
The former Hawkinson Manufacturing-- most recently a storage facility and third-floor loft apartment-- once received national acclaim for its restoration business.

It was the big ticket for the Galesburg building that's now turned to rubble after a spetacular fire destroyed it last Tuesday. That's according to local historian Tom Wilson, who tells WGIL workers did more than just make chairs and doors.

"They actually went all over the country doing restoration, and probably at the peak had around fifty workers," Wilson said. "And those were very skilled people as you could imagine."

Wilson says Hawkinson restored both General Ulysses S. Grant's home in Galena and Vandalia's original state capital building.

Then around 1937, he tells WGIL they rejuvenated Old Main at Knox College.

"They went in and technically gutted that inside of that building and took the various parts back to Cedar Avenue, restored them, and then put everything back together."

Wilson says Swedish immigrant Charles Hawkinson was the company's founder-- who only had as high as a third grade education.

To Wilson, Hawkinson and neighboring Willis Steel were two under-appreciated small family businesses that were unique to Galesburg.
06 17 12 by Newsroom
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