Birkey's Community Chronicle: Urbana, IL

Birkey’s began in the small town of Fisher, Illinois, in 1954. Since then, we’ve expanded to 17 stores and an administrative office location, but we still have small town heart.

Our communities matter to us. We’re delving into the history and little-known-facts about each Birkey’s community. 

Urbana, Illinois 

Urbana was first settled in 1822, when it was called “Big Grove.” Prairie groves were pockets of forests within the prairie, home to large oaks, hickories, walnuts, and elms—many of which were cleared for communities and the Illinois Central Railroad.

Matthew W. Busey was considered a founder of Urbana, settling in the area in 1832, and was one of the most influential residents of Champaign County. As a state legislator, Matthew Busey made sure railroad routes included Urbana.

Urbana encountered a setback when the Chicago branch of the Illinois Central Railroad, which had been expected to pass through town, was instead laid down two miles west, where the land was flatter. The town of West Urbana flourished around the train depot built there in 1854, and in 1861 its name was changed to Champaign.

Several hundred commercial buildings and houses were erected within a year of the arrival of the railroad. Urbana was chartered as a city by the state legislature in 1855.

In 1863 the first streetcar, drawn by mules, began operating between the newly incorporated Village of West Urbana depot and the Urbana courthouse.

The University of Illinois 

The University of Illinois (U of I) has been incredibly influential to the development of Urbana. State congressman Clark R. Griggs was credited with bringing the university to the county; and in 1867, the Illinois Governor signed the bill to establish Illinois Industrial University, which would evolve into the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It opened in 1868 with 77 students.

Today, the University of Illinois is ranked the #14 public university in the country, with more than 47,000 students from all 50 states and over 100 countries. The university is known for pioneering innovative research tackling global issues. U of I is consistently ranked among the top five universities for NSF-funded research. 

The Birkey’s Evolution

Birkey’s in Urbana was created in 1987, with its new location and building opening in April of 2014. The building features 60,000 square feet of space—with 32,000 square feet of shop area—on 20 acres just east of Urbana. It’s a state-of-the-art, customer-friendly facility; today, the store handles agricultural, construction, and lawn and garden equipment, catering to the diversified needs of the Urbana community.

Brian McCoy, Birkey’s Urbana Store Manager, says Birkey’s is critical to the community, because it supports everyone with land to care for, “from the 5,000-acre farmer to the homeowner with a 5,000-square-foot lawn.”  

Major agricultural lines include Case IH, Unverferth, and Brent. The store carries Case, Kubota, and Wacker Neuson construction equipment, and Exmark, Kubota, Stihl, and Grasshopper lawn and garden equipment. Birkey’s in Urbana is a Pinnacle Case IH Dealer and Premier Kubota Dealer; both of which represent the highest level of excellence within each dealer network, throughout sales and business operations.

Notable Residents and Research 

There’s an extensive list of notable residents, ideas, and inventions, which have all come from Urbana, Illinois.

A few include:

The Morrow Plots

The Morrow Plots are the oldest experimental crop field in the United States, established in 1876. They’re also the second oldest in the world—second only to Rothamsted Research station in England, which was established in 1843.

The plots were originally divided into 10 half-acre plots; today, there are only three plots, however they are protected as a National Historic Landmark.

Research on the plots was instrumental in gaining knowledge on crop rotation, soil nutrient depletion, and the effects of synthetic and natural fertilizers. With crops being consistently grown in the same place for well over 100 years, research and records on the Morrow Plots continue to provide valuable information for a variety of topics, including soil carbon sequestration and long-term effects of fertilizers on soil bacteria. Corn, wheat, soybeans, and other crops are still grown on the plots to this day.

Supersweet Corn

At the University of Illinois, corn geneticist Professor John Laughnan was studying the shrunken-2 (sh2) gene in corn and discovered the gene created less-starchy, more-sugary kernels. When he started marketing varieties of sweet corn with the sh2 gene, he developed the “Illini Supersweet” hybrid.

In the 1980s, Professor “Dusty” Rhodes discovered the sugary enhanced trait which also produced sweeter kernels.

Supersweet corn has surged in popularity over the decades; with a longer shelf life than se (sugar enhanced) or su (standard sweet corn) varieties, supersweet corn is great for shipping and stocking in grocery stores. It’s also more protein-rich and lower in calories than conventional varieties. 

Roger Ebert (1942 – 2013) 

Roger Ebert, born in Urbana in 1942, grew up to be a “critic for the common man,” revolutionizing the film criticism industry with his dry, witty comments and thumbs up/down rating system popularized through his TV shows with co-host Gene Siskel.

The first movie he saw was a Marx Brothers movie, “A Day at the Races,” at the Princess Theater in Urbana. He edited his high school paper, and covered high school sports for the News-Gazette while still a student.

In 1964, he graduated as a journalism major from the University of Illinois, where he was an editor of the Daily Illini.

Since 1999, he had been a host of a film festival in Champaign, IL, known as Ebertfest. Until 2008, it was called Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival because it showed movies Mr. Ebert thought critics, distributors, or audiences had overlooked.

A statue in Roger Ebert’s honor was unveiled in 2014, and titled “C-U at the Movies.”

Visit Today

Located on Highway 130 on the east side of Urbana, Birkey’s is your local premier Case IH and Case Construction dealership serving the counties of Champaign, Piatt, DeWitt, Ford, Iroquois, and Vermilion.

Learn more: https://www.birkeys.com/map-hours-directions-tractors-combines-planters-dealership--hours-urbana