PEORIA MAGAZINE January 2023

The Orpheum Theatre (Courtesy of Knox/Galesburg Symphony)

Knox College's Old Main

Douglas debates, in 1858. The nationally recognized liberal arts college employs a faculty of some 120, who teach approximately 1,200 undergraduates. Schwartzman, who has taught environmental science at Knox since 1998, said Galesburg cannot thrive if the college suffers, and vice versa. “They are very much dependent on each other’s success,” he said. On the north end of town is Carl Sandburg College, which offers more than40degree andcertificateprograms in agriculture, business, health sciences, information technology, manufacturing and public service. “We want to keep students in the region and educate them for the jobs of the future,” Schwartzman said. To that end, the city funds the Galesburg Promise program, which provides tuition grants to attend Sandburg as an incentive for Galesburg students to seek post-secondary education. Galesburg District 205 schools have gone through “a flurry of activities” in the past four years to meet the community demand for more equitable learning facilities. “Students now have far superior facilities than they had in 2017,” when the district embarked on an ambitious plan of renovation and consolidation that has resulted in the closing of schools, realignment of others and the consolidation of junior and senior high school students in one building, said Superintendent John Asplund. “We need tomake sure we are current in giving students the skills they need to

work here in the community,” Asplund said. “We want to make sure we are producing as high-level thinkers as we possibly can for our community. Doers, dreamers, and good citizens.” FIRST A DREAM A sculpture of Carl Sandburg, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, author and editor and arguably Galesburg’s most famous native son, is the centerpiece of the town square. Lincoln is memorialized in stone at the Amtrak depot, and renowned Civil War nurse “Mother” Mary Bickerdyke at the Knox County Courthouse. Newcomb continues to push for one more monument in this historic city: a permanent Ferris Wheel to recognize the engineering genius of George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., the Galesburg native who built the world’s first Ferris Wheel in Chicago in 1893. As Carl Sandburg wrote in the poem, Washington Monument by Night, “Nothing happens unless first a dream.” EXPERIENCE GALESBURG

“There have been a lot of people step up to provide new opportunities,” she said. “You can find what you’re looking for here.” Most wouldn’t expect to find a 1911 vaudeville-era theater in a town like Galesburg, but there it is on South Kellogg Street, the Orpheum Theatre, drawing patrons and performers from far and wide. Erin Glansovich is executive director of the nonprofit that operates the theater. “Guests and performers are often surprised to be where they are,” she said. And still the Orpheum remains a hub for the performing arts year-round. She credits the success of the venue to “a lot of community support.” AN EDUCATIONAL TRADITION Education was woven into the fabric of Galesburg from the start. Knox College was founded in 1837 by GeorgeWashington Gale (for whom the city is named) and the same group of abolitionists who established the town. Today the campus occupies 82 acres bordering the downtown, distinguished by the Gothic Tudor architecture of Old Main, at 165 years the oldest building on campus, a National Historic Landmark designee and one of the few surviving sites to host one of the Lincoln The Carl Sandburg statue at Town Square on Main Street in downtown Galesburg

City of Galesburg ci.galesburg.il.us Experience Galesburg experiencegalesburg.com

Scott Fishel is a senior communications executive at WTVP

52 JANUARY 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE