426 N. Milwaukee Avenue - Petranek's

The original durg store was founded in 1872. The earliest confirmed owner, F.B. Kimball, bought a pharmacy business in 1876 and operated it out of a two-story building owned by his father-in-law, Lorenzo Stowell, near the corner of Milwaukee Avenue and Sprague (now Cook). After an 1880 fire destroyed that structure, Kimball purchased the lot from his father-in-law and construction began on a new building. By the time the building was completed in January 1882, Kimball had a partner – Dr. Fremont C. Knight, a native of New York who came to Libertyville in 1880 after graduating from the medical department of the University of Buffalo. The store was named Kimball & Knight’s. While Knight’s name would later be removed from the store’s name, he became the owner of the building in May 1882. The building became known as Knight’s Block.

By 1888, Frank Lovell assumed ownership of the drug store. F.B. Lovell and Co. was a typical drugstore of the era, filling prescriptions and selling an array of other goods such as “Ada’s Tutti-Frutti”, cigars, musical instruments, paint, stationary, and books. The pharmacy was described as “entirely metropolitan, the arrangement of the interior, of the shelvings and of the stock, all bespeaking the modern and the up-to-date.” (Lake County Independent September 25, 1903, p. 13)

Knight’s Block, a two-story, two-store brick building, survived the Libertyville Fire of 1895. Three years later, Lovell and Fletcher Clark established the first telephone line in Libertyville under the auspices of the Lake County Telephone Company. The switchboard was located in the basement of the Lovell drug store and later in the rear of the store. Mrs. Linna Corlett and Miss Effie Butterfield were a few of the first telephone operators. By 1903, the company serviced over 200 subscribers.

Frank Lovell passed away in late April 1910. Lovell’s widow, Augusta Lovell, and James Swan, assistant pharmacist, created a new company – the F.B. Lovell Company. James Swan helmed the business for the next thirty years. Frank J. Wenban, a pharmacist from Lake Forest purchased the business at the end of March 1940 and kept the F.B. Lovell name over the door throughout his ownership.

Louis Petranek, a native of Kankakee, Illinois, purchased the business in 1948. In 1950, he expanded in to the other storefront of the Knight Block, adding a coffee shop and lunch counter. The name was changed to Petranek’s at about the same time.

A large fire May 11, 1954 gutted Petranek’s and severely damaged the upstairs occupants of the Knight Block -- the Patricia Lee Photographic Studio and Mooney’s Fur Shop. Plans to rebuild began immediately. The current building at 426 N. Milwaukee Avenue celebrated its Grand Opening on April 30, 1956. Described by the local newspaper as “ultra-modern”, the low-slung, one-story structure featured air-conditioning, indirect lighting, oak paneling, a restaurant and soda fountain called Marv’s Grill, run by local Marvin Laycock, and the Delta Dining Room, a banquet room in the lower level of the building.

Lou Petranek retired in 1960 and sold the store. Over the next 60 years the store had several owners, including Don Murphy, John Csiha, and current owner, Beau Diab, but the Petranek’s name remained. Exterior architectural changes, including a stucco facade and peaked parapet wall, were made in 1993, but many of the charming 1950s interior details remain.

1. Petranek’s Pharmacy advertisement. The Nautilus, 1958. Libertyville High School.
2. Kimball, Frank Z. The Past and Present of Lake County, Illinois. Chicago, Wm. Le Baron, 1877, p.407.
3. Libertyville Telephone Directory, 1949, 1950.
4. “Store Has Rich History.” Independent Register, April 26, 29156, p.11.
5. Francis “Frank” Zeno Kimball. FindaGrave.com. Accessed December 15, 2017.
6. Deed. Lyman S. Wilson to Lorenzo Stowell. October 21, 1872. Book 50, page 237. Lake County Recorders of Deeds office.
7. “Many of our citizens will remember…” Green-Mountain Freeman (Montpelier, VT), February 11, 1880, p.3.
8. “Fire at Libertyville.” Waukegan Weekly Gazette, February 7, 1880, p.3.
9. “Mr. Stowell’s losses…” Waukegan Weekly Gazette, February 7, 1880, p.2.
10. Deed. Lorenzo Stowell & Olive Stowell to Frank Z. Kimball. August 27, 1881.
11.  “Fremont C. Knight, M.D.” Portrait and Biographical Album of Lake County, Chicago : Lake City Pub., 1891. p. 489-90.
12. “Building Boom.” Independent Register, Souvenir Centennial Edition, June 30, 1936, p. 3.
13. 1901 Waukegan, IL City Directory. Ancestry.com. Accessed January 6, 2018.
14. Libertyville Illustrated, Chicago : Kehm, Fietsch & Miller Co. Press, 1897. p. 7.
15. “Dr. Fremont Knight is Dead.” Herald Examiner, April 30, 1931.
16. “Dr. F.C. Knight of Waukegan is Taken by Death.” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 1, 1931, p.22.
17. “Death removes a splendid citizen.” Lake County Independent, April 29, 1910, p.5.
18. “Frank Lovell, The Citizen.” Lake County Independent, May 6, 1910. p.5.
19.  “Frank B. Lovell.” Lake County Independent, September 25, 1903, Special Souvenir Edition, p.4.
20. “F.Z. Kimball is nicely located…” Waukegan Weekly Gazette, February 21, 1880, p.2.
21. “F.B. Lovell arrived from Atlanta, GA.” Lake County Independent, April 22, 1910, p.5.
22. “3 Leading Pioneers Die Here.” Independent Register, August 15, 1957, p.1.
23. F.B. Lovell advertisement. Lake County Independent, April 30, 1915, p.3.
24. F.B. Lovell advertisement. Lake County Independent, May 5, 1915, p.5.
25. F.B. Lovell advertisement. Lake County Independent, December 3, 1915, p.4.
26. F.B. Lovell advertisement. Lake County Independent, December 20, 1917. p.5.
27.  “James Swan”. 1910 U.S. Census for Libertyville, IL. Ancestry.com Library Edition. Accessed July 26, 2019.
28. “James Hobart Swan.” Willard Genealogy: sequel to Willard Memoir. Ancestry.com Library Edition. Accessed July 26, 2019.
29. “Hobart Swan.” Independent Register, January 29, 1976, p.5A.
30. Libertyville. Waukegan City Directories. Ancestry.com Library Edition. 1901, 1903, 1905, 1908, 1913, 1916, 1922, 1925.
31. “H.M. Lovell.” 1860 U.S. Census for Onarga, Illinois. Ancestry.com Library Edition. Accessed April 28, 2019.
32. “Frank Lovell.” 1870 U.S. Census for Onarga, Illinois. Ancestry.com Library Edition. Accessed April 28, 2019.
33. “Frank Lovell.” 1880 U.S. Census for Onarga, Illinois. Ancestry.com Library Edition. Accessed January 6, 2018.
34. Caspar’s Directory of the American Book, News and Stationery Trade, 1889. Google Books.
35. Druggists Directory of the United States and Canada, 1888-89. Google Books.
36. “The 1890s Drug Store-Intriguing Place.” Independent Register, July 14, 1960, p.6S.
37. “Lovell always shows rare taste…” Lake County Independent, December 20, 1895, p.5.
38.  “Village Makes Rapid Progress in 100 Years.” Independent Register, Souvenir Centennial Edition, June 30, 1936, p.5.
39. “Lovell, Frank B.” 1900 U.S Census for Libertyville. Ancestry.com Library Edition. Accessed January 6, 2018.
40. Annual Report of the State Board of Pharmacy of Illinois, Volume 25. Google Books.
41. Frank B. Lovell. Find A Grave, http://www.findagrave.com. Accessed April 28, 2019.
42. “Swan, James.” 1910 U.S. Census for Libertyville. Ancestry.com Library Edition. Accessed July 21, 2019.
43. “James Hobart Swan.” U.S. World War I Draft Registration Cards. 1917-1918. Ancestry.com Library Edition. Accessed July 21, 2019.
44. “The Frank B. Lovell Company.” Lake County Independent, May 20, 1910, p. 4
45. “In the Drug Store World.” Western Druggist, vol.39. 1917. Google Books.
46. “Mrs. Lovell, Former OES Matron, Dies. Independent Register, February 2, 1939, p.1
47. December 1950 Libertyville Telephone Directory, Illinois Digital Archives, Libertyville History Collection. Accessed January 6, 2018.
48. January 1949 Libertyville Telephone Directory, Illinois Digital Archives, Libertyville History Collection. Accessed January 6, 2018.
49. “Petraneks have 171 years of know-how.” Independent Register, April 26, 1956, p.11.
50.  “Lovell, Frank.” 1910 U.S. Census for Libertyville, Illinois. Ancestry.com Library Edition. Accessed August 14, 2019.
51. The Nautilus, LTHS yearbook, 1937-1942, 1944-1949.
52. “Frank Wenban May Purchase Drug Store in Libertyville Soon.” The Lake Forester, March 28, 1940, p.14.
53. “Frank Weban.” Independent Register, October 9, 1975.
54. “Willis W. Griffis Buys Control of Lake Forest’s Oldest Drug Store.” The Lake Forester, July 6, 1939, p.1.
55. “Lovell Drug Store Changes Hands Monday, Ending Half Century Under Same Name.” Independent Register, March 25, 1940, p.1.
56. “Hello Everybody! Libertyville to Have Telephone Service.” Lake County Independent, February 11, 1898, p.5.
57.  “F.B. Lovell Drug store in Libertyville…” Highland Park Press, April 4, 1940, p.11.
58. Email from Sandy Laycock Wilson to Jenny Barry, December 3, 2017.
59. “Petranek to Enlarge His Drug Store.” Independent Register, August 17, 1950, p.1.
60. “Coffee Shop Opens.” Independent Register, November 39, 1950, p.1.
61. “Petranek’s Pharmacy has new proprietor.” Independent Register, August 11, 1960, p.3M.
62. “Patricia Lee Studio, Mooney Fur Shop Severely Damaged.” Independent Register, May 1954, p.1

64. “Experience, friendliness sets Petranek’s apart.” Libertyville News, July 17, 2005.