(Information Taken From The 1993 & 1995 Royalton Round-Up Booklets.)

BELLINA BUILDING/LEVAN DRY GOODS STORE Built in 1923, the Bellina Building held the Dry Goods Store and the Home Bakery. (Photo Submitted By Mickey Smith.) Robert Joseph Bellina, (father of Gena, Amelia and Americo Bellina), moved from Christopher to Royalton in 1918. He started a bakery on the West side of South Main Street, and Gena Bellina started delivering bread with a horse and buggy at the age of 13. Mr. Bellina then designed the three-section Bellina-LeVan Building, and it was built in 1923. Mr. Bellina moved the bakery into the center section of the new building to bake Italian bread, sweet rolls, pies, etc. In 1930, Americo Bellina took over the bakery route. Mr. Bellina opened a grocery store in the North section of the building, and later, the grocery store was moved to the South side of the building. At one time, Amelia Bellina Diehl operated a beauty shop in the building. The Bellina's had living quarters, two extra apartments and sleeping rooms that were rented to others upstairs. John LeVan and Gena Bellina were married in 1925, and they had an apartment upstairs where they later raised their daughter, Leta LeVan Bleyer. Ben Link, a mine company bookkeeper, and a school teacher named Ms. Trigg, rented space upstairs for some time. Dr. Ivan Lewis had his office upstairsand practiced there for several years. Mr. Robert Joseph Bellina became a beer distributor for Cook's and Pabst beer in 1934. Housed in the back of the Bellina Building, the business was called the Royalton Distributing Company, and he had several trucks that delivered beer to taverns in the area and a large tractor-trailer truck that was used to deliver the beer to Royalton from , Cook's Brewery in Evansville, Indiana. Gena LeVan kept the books for the company, and it was sold to the Alongi brothers of DuQuoin in the 1940's. A dry goods store was opened in the north section of the building in the 1930's. The drygoods store carried a selection of shoes, clothing such as ash Kosh overalls, yarn, greeting cards, over-the-counter drugs, etc. A $5.00 drawing was held each week for those who had made a purchase and registered for the drawing. If the person whosename was drawn at the end of the week had not registered that week, the winningsincreased the next week. The dry goods store was operated by Gena Bellina LeVan until December 1,1992.

 

BLUE FRONT TAVERN AND BLUE FRONT GROCERY In the mid 1920's a farmer, Domineck Battaglia opened the Blue Front Tavern and the Blue Front Grocery Store. They got their names from both buildings being painted blue. Domineck owned and operated both businesses until his death in 1937. Farmina (Domineck's daughter) and her husband Stanley Norville then ran the tavern until retiring in 1965 or 1966. The tavern was then leased to different people until 1977 when Domineck's grandson Adolph (Putsey) Polbinski purchased it. He ran the tavern until it burned several years later. The Blue Front was a tavern where everyone knew your name. The grocery store was run by Joe (Joker) Battaglia after his father's death. The grocery store was a gathering place for a lot of the men in town and a lot of stories came out of there. The men would sit for hours and see who could tell the biggest yarn. Joker decided to retire and closed the store. They were missed by many. Delores (Docky) Fiss

FAIRLEY'S SHELL SERVICE STATION In 1947, Thomas Fairley, along with Raymond Presley, opened the Royalton Shell Service Station, which was located on the corner of North Main and North Second Street. Presently this is the location where Steve McElroy now operates an auto repair shop. After only a few years, Mr. Fairley bought Presley's interest of the business and in May of 1966 the station changed to the Mobil Oil Company. Mr. Fairley continued operating the station until he retired in 1967.