Benld

Benld was established in 1904 to exploit coal. It is part of Macoupin County’s once fabulously productive “coal country.”

Italians, Croats, and Russians – as well as other Europeans – came to Benld for the employment opportunity offered by coal mining. The immigration story of Benld’s coal miners is still visible on the landscape. 

 There is still a Russian Orthodox Church in town.

Italian surnames are found on street signs (such as Saracco Drive), buildings (such as the Bertetti Library), businesses (such as Fassero) and restaurants (such as Fema’s and Amore). Indeed, into the 1950s Italian (including dialects thereof) was commonly spoken on the street. Most of the Italian population was from northern Italy. There is still an Italian Club civic association.
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And in the city park there is a Croatian pavilion and an Italian pavilion.
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Benld was part of the “Miners, Mobsters and the Mother Road” tourism and development initiative that began before the start of the Mythic Mississippi Project.  “Miners” was relevant to most towns south of Springfield for this was the central Illinois coal belt. Mother Road refers to Route 66.
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Benld was a raucous coal town in its heyday. It is the “mobsters” aspect of the “Miners, Mobsters and the Mother Road” initiative (CLICK). Al Capone hid a distillery under the non-functioning “No. 5 Mine” and he moved liquor along Route 66. There were four nearby real coal mines: Superior No. 1 in Eagerville, Superior No. 2 in Sawyerville, Superior No. 3 in Mt Clare, and Superior No. 4 in Staunton.
Al Capone was not alone in producing liquor in Benld. Some Benld households hid vats in their basements for crushing grapes – a tradition brought from the Italian homeland and forced underground – so to speak – by Prohibition (see the photo below).
      In 2019 Edwardsville entrepreneur Ken Snider adopted that history as the name and theme of his new wine/bar called “No. 5 Mine”. This was a brilliant deployment of a town’s heritage for economic development based on tourism.

In Mine No. 5 Wine-Bar, Mr. Snider curated what was, essentially, an exhibition of aspects of Benld’s past, even of the building itself, which had been a packing facility (see photo below), by displaying old family photographs (donated by locals) on the long wall of the bar. Unfortunately, it closed after Covid-19.

Across the street is Capone’s Saloon and Pub. One can see the “Capone’s” plaque on the annulled original entrance (below): it is spolia, in effect, from the previous owner’s use of the building as a bar for an older generation. We’ve heard that the current owner is going to remove the Capone’s plaque. We hope not, because the name iterates the historic landscape of Benld.

Sadly, Benld’s greatest attraction, the Coliseum Ballroom, was lost to fire in 2011. It had been built in 1923 and was a regionally renowned music and dance venue. But in its last years it was converted to shops. The Coliseum nevertheless remained a significant memory because people recalled its glory days. 

Benld has erected a roadside display near where the Coliseum used to be. The display is large enough and clever enough as to make one stop to look at it. And the Illinois Coal Museum in nearby Gillespie has an excellent exhibit, created by Jim Marcacci, about the Coliseum.  Please listen to Mr. Marcacci’s podcast and watch this brief “Adventures in TV-Land” video about the Coliseum.

Benld was devastated by the loss of its mines (i.e., their employment) and dramatic ground subsidence under many properties. In 2009 its new elementary school split open due to mine subsidence.

Today, a group of local citizens is seeking to remediate the town’s severe economic decline through a program called Build Benld. 

Our project would like to contribute to Build Benld’s effort by contributing print materials to the Benld Public Library to create a wall exhibition there and we hope that a larger venue can be found for a little community museum that would tell the town’s colorful history and its rich immigrant story. We also would like to undertake an oral history project in Benld with those remaining residents who lived during its boom days.