History of merna

The Ol Merna Tap–the stories that were told there and now the stories that are remembered. The building has been there since the turn of the century. It started out as a grocery store – just a straight up building. Sometime later an addition was added on the south.

Farm machinery was sold there and mechanics worked out of there. The Gould family built it and later added Tom Kinsella to run the grocery. About 1925 they left the business and it was sold to Tidler Martin of Downs who opened a tavern. He ran a good business. After 15 years he got tired of it and sold it to John Kinsella–building and all. John lived in the first house south of the tavern. He hired bartenders to run it. He had a good run for 10 or 15 years. Then a local farmer bought it – Jerry McAvoy. He ran it himself for about 8 years. He sold it to Paul Dalton who ran it with his wife, Frances. Paul died after about 6 or 8 years. Then Frances ran it for several years; she was a sharp business lady. In about 3 years she married Bill Anderson who retired from running semi trucks. They got out of the business by selling it to Mark Koch from west Bloomington. Mark owned the bar for 2 years and then sold it to some people from AB Hatchery in Bloomington.

They tired of it after only a couple of years and sold it to Wayne Roley. He owned it for 3 years before selling it to Larry Kelly, a car salesman from Peoria who had recently moved to Normal, stumbled on it; purchased it and even purchased the old John Kinsella home. Larry ran the bar until 2019, when Katie Schott of Normal and Michael Baker of Lexington purchased it.  During the great Covid shut down of 2020, they were able to remodel a bit and breathe some life back into the tap.  You can now enjoy live music, bingo, karaoke, and many new additions to an already great place!