From the archives, 1923: County hard-road work advances as Illinois Central turns down Champaign subway request

CHAMPAIGN - Champaign County's county-aid hard roads stood at 3½ miles laid on the Mira-Deer station road, 2½ miles at Five Points and 1 mile, 800 feet at Sadorus as of the previous Saturday night, the Twin City Review reported on its front page 103 years ago today, on Oct. 19, 1923, adding that more trains and equipment were headed to the Deer station road that week in a bid to finish it by mid-November.

The same page reported that the Illinois Central's engineer of plans and construction, a Mr. Thompson, had told Main Street merchants pushing for a traffic subway under the tracks that the question was already settled and their proposal would not be considered; according to several merchants cited by the paper, he also warned the railroad could pull its plans and halt work on the new station if the campaign went on, and the paper said the ruling left east side residents and merchants cut off.

Source: Twin City Review (Champaign, Ill.), Oct. 19, 1923, page 1, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn96071000/1923-10-19/ed-1/?sp=1