Colonel Ralph Plumb founded Streator, but the Plumb name kept turning up in town long after he died in 1903: on a theater marquee, a hotel, a bank, a park pavilion, and even the credits of Disney films. This page follows the family’s legacy. For the colonel’s own life, see Colonel Ralph Plumb, and for the full timeline, visit our History of Streator.
The Plumb Opera House
In the late 1800s every growing town wanted an opera house, a hall for touring companies, lectures, concerts and civic meetings. Streator’s was the Plumb Opera House. Besides entertainment, it gave a home to the Ladies Library Association, which kept its collection there for years. That arrangement led to Plumb’s request to Andrew Carnegie and the 1903 Carnegie library.
From Opera House to Movie House
As movies replaced live shows, the opera house became the Plumb Theatre at 108 S. Vermillion Street, one block south of the Majestic. The two theaters competed for decades. The Plumb was demolished in 1980, leaving the Majestic as Streator’s only cinema.
The Plumb Hotel
The Plumb Hotel was for many years the most elegant hotel in Streator. In the 1950s through the 1970s it housed many of the trainees who came to town to learn to operate the Arctic radar stations of the DEW Line. A DEW Line veteran’s account passes along a local story that Al Capone’s crowd once stayed there, but there is no documentation for it.
Education and Banking
Ralph Plumb paid for the first building of the high school now known as Streator Township High School. Its first class, seven students (one boy and six girls), graduated in 1876. After his time in Congress, Plumb went into banking. His wife, Levancia Plumb, also played a notable part in local finance and is recorded as having served as president of Streator’s Union National Bank, an unusual role for a woman at the time.
Edward H. Plumb: From Streator to Disney
The family’s most surprising chapter belongs to the colonel’s grandson. Edward Holcomb Plumb was born in Streator on June 6, 1907. He went to Dartmouth College, where he became a lifelong friend of Theodor Geisel, the future Dr. Seuss. After graduating in 1929, he studied music in Vienna on a fellowship, then moved to Hollywood and arranged for bandleaders such as Paul Whiteman and Rudy Vallee.
Walt Disney Studios hired Plumb on March 15, 1937. He was musical director of Fantasia (1940), co-wrote and orchestrated the score for Bambi (1942), and orchestrated music for Snow White, Dumbo, Song of the South, Cinderella, Peter Pan and Lady and the Tramp. He developed the ominous three-note theme that signals “Man” in Bambi. Plumb received Academy Award nominations for Bambi, Saludos Amigos, Victory Through Air Power and The Three Caballeros. He died in Los Angeles on April 18, 1958, at age 50.
The Name Today
Today the Plumb name lives on in City Park, where a 2004 monument to the colonel by sculptor Marlene Miller stands and where Plumb Pavilion, built in 2012, hosts concerts and events. When a summer band plays there, it carries on the family’s long role in Streator’s cultural life.
Related Streator History
- Streator History Overview
- Colonel Ralph Plumb: Streator's Founder and First Mayor
- The Majestic Theatre: A Century of Streator Entertainment
- Streator's Cold War Secret: The DEW Line Training Site
Sources
- Ralph Plumb – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Plumb
- Edward H. Plumb – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_H._Plumb
- Streator Township High School – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streator_Township_High_School
- Cinema Treasures – Majestic Theatre (Plumb Theatre history). https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/5132
- "DEWLine Training Site: Streator Illinois" (Plumb Hotel recollections). https://lswilson.dewlineadventures.com/streator/
- Streator, Illinois – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streator,_Illinois
