Downtown Paxton gets history-filled, interactive sign

PAXTON, Ill. (WCIA) — The City of Paxton has unveiled this new sign in their downtown to welcome and greet residents and visitors as they drive in from the south.

Paxton resident Nate Grice, designed and painted the faces to pay homage to the city’s landmarks. Each letter of the sign represents a specific part of Paxton history, from the time the town was founded, to today.

“The ‘P’ in Paxton is for the PBL Panthers, and it has the the team mascot in the paws,” said Donna McGuire Pepper, Executive Director of Paxton Main Street. “The next one is the Swedish heritage of Paxton. The ‘X’ is for the Paxton Swedes baseball team.”

She continued, “The ‘T’ shows the Paxton water tower, and then the ‘O’ is a flag representative of the veterans that have come from Paxton. The last one is books and a combination of the founding of Augustana College, which was originally located in Paxton, and has a book with a spine that says, ‘Prairie City,’ which is the original name of Paxton before it was changed.”

Not only does is the sign packed with history, but it’s interactive, too. If you stand next to the red heart, you become the “I” in the sign to create “I love Paxton.”

The sign sits in Veterans Square off of Market Street, across from the library.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com.