EFFINGHAM FIRE DEPARTMENT - NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS - JUNE 2007
Fire Guts Green Lantern
June 5, 2007Bill Grimes - Effingham Daily News
An Effingham County landmark is no more.
The Green Lantern — for decades a restaurant, but more recently styled into a “roadhouse” with live bands and karaoke music several nights a week — was destroyed by fire this morning. The “Lantern” was located on U.S. 40 between Effingham and Teutopolis.
“There was a lot of history here,” said longtime owner Lou Buennemeyer, who operated the restaurant from 1969 to 2002. “There’s a lot of fond memories going up in smoke today.”
Effingham firefighters received a cellular phone call from a passer-by at 4:59 a.m., Chief Joe Holomy said.
Holomy said heavy black smoke was emitting from the building when a police officer arrived to survey the scene. When firefighters arrived, there was heavy smoke emitting from the second floor of the old building.
After police determined nobody was inside, firefighters fought the blaze completely from outside.
“Because of conditions in the building, we did not enter the building,” Holomy said.
Fire raged throughout the two-story building for more than two hours. By 7 a.m., the flames were more intermittent, but firefighters still had water hoses trained on the remains.
Holomy said no other structures were threatened, though there had been a concern a house immediately next door to the west was in danger. But by 7, it was apparent the fire would not jump the 30 feet or so of pavement between the Green Lantern and the home next door.
Holomy said there was no way firefighters would be able to determine the cause of the fire until at least this afternoon because of dangerous conditions inside the building. He added investigators from the Illinois State Fire Marshal’s Office were on their way to evaluate the situation.
Teutopolis firefighters fought the blaze alongside their Effingham cohorts. The American Red Cross and Effingham City-County Ambulance also were at the scene.
Shumway firefighters manned Central Fire Station, while Watson firefighters covered Station 3 on the south side of the city.
U.S. 40 between Effingham and Teutopolis was closed for several hours this morning so fire trucks and emergency vehicles could maneuver without having to dodge traffic.
Watching from the driveway next door, Buennemeyer recalled the days he was associated with the restaurant.
“I got out of the service and started working here in 1964,” he said, adding he bought the business in 1969 and operated it until 2002.
“I was here for a bunch of years and met a lot of people,” Buennemeyer added. “I have a lot of fond memories of different things that happened such as weddings, birthdays and a whole bunch of other things.”
Buennemeyer sold the business on contract several years ago to Linda Kratt of rural Effingham. Within the past several months, the business had been converted into a “roadhouse,” with regular karaoke shows and live bands.
A phone number for Kratt listed in the local telephone directory was out of service this morning.
The building was originally built as a house in the 1930s, but was converted into a restaurant after World War II, functioning primarily as a restaurant until the past few months.
“We probably did 90 percent of our business in food,” Buennemeyer said. “We had alcohol there as more of a convenience.”
Karaoke DJ Lisa Jewell, who operates TLC Country & More with husband Tom, said business had been going well for their regular Saturday night shows.
“Things started really going well the first part of May,” Jewell said. She heard about the fire when a niece called her about 5:30 a.m.
“It was a shocker,” she said. “It was like ‘OK, now what are we going to do?’”
The Jewells ran their first show in February, before becoming a Saturday night fixture at the revamped Lantern in March.