local goods
Created in Quincy
Surrounded by the fertile Midwestern land of the expansive Mississippi River Valley, the Quincy region is burgeoning with family farms, vineyards and orchards. It’s also home to a vibrant community of local makers whose goods are available via storefronts, eateries & bars, events and online.
We've gathered the places to shop for and enjoy consumables + products crafted in the Quincy area. The Created in Quincy Guide covers everything from wild bird food and herbal dog treats to distilled whiskey and raw honey from Illinois hives. You'll find staples for your pantry, bar & fridge along with home & garden accessories and personal care items. Plus, a brick & mortar list of shops and eateries with local flair and the community lineup of maker-focused events.
Cheers to All Things Local!
meet your makers
QUINCY EVENTS
MAKERS MARKETS
Seasonally throughout the year / 6th Street Promenade / Downtown Quincy
May / June / July / Sept / Hosted by Quincy Brewing Company + Fawn Berry Apothecary / quincymakersmarket.com
FARMERS MARKETS
Quincy Farmers Market
Washington Park/ 4th & Maine
Saturdays 8AM-1PM / May-Oct / thedistrictquincy.com
ART FESTS
Dogwood Downtown Art Walk
Various locations downtown Quincy
1st Saturday May / quincyartcenter.org
Midsummer Arts Faire
Washington Park / 4th & Maine
4th Weekend June / midsummerarts.com
WINE, BEER & FOODIE EVENTS
Summer Flavor Tours
Saturdays June-Aug / Downtown Quincy
seequincy.com
Wine Down Quincy
Washington Park / 4th & Maine / September
Hosted by Wine Gal Meets Whiskey Guy / 217.779.2768
Feast in the Heart of Quincy
Annual fall farm-to-table meal for 200 people / Downtown Quincy / Sept / thedistrictquincy.com
Oktoberfest
Dick Brothers Brewery District / 9th & York
Last Saturday SeptT/ quincyrotary.org
HOLIDAY EVENTS
Christkindl Market
Dick Brothers Brewery Complex / 9th & York
November / thedistrictquincy.com
Quincy Service League Holiday Gift Show
Oakley Lindsay Center / 3rd & York
November / quincyserviceleague.org
FAMOUS MAKERS & SHAKERS FROM QUINCY
THOMAS SCOTT BALDWIN / AVIATION PIONEER BALLOONIST / 1854-1923
It’s Not Luck, It’s Results! - The motto of the showman whose success inspired the naming of Baldwin Field, Quincy Regional Airport.
When Thomas Baldwin was a young boy, his family moved to Quincy after his father was killed during the Civil War. His mother died shortly after, and Tom and his brother raised themselves.
While young, the natural showman
in Baldwin began to appear. He demonstrated gymnastic ability and developed a series of acrobatic stunts for his own enjoyment. He landed a job as an acrobat in a traveling circus, combining trapeze art and a hot air balloon. In 1887, Baldwin made one of the earliest recorded parachute jumps from a balloon, and on July 4, 1887, he performed his second parachute jump in Quincy‘s Singleton Park at 30th & Maine (now Baldwin School).
Baldwin was an overnight phenomenon. In the midst of his success, he married Caroline Pool in Quincy and took his show to Europe, Hawaii and the Far East. In 1891 Baldwin returned to Quincy and redeveloped Singleton Park into “Baldwin Park,” with bowling alleys, amphitheater, hotel and race track on 32 acres.
In 1900 Baldwin built a small pedal-motorized airship, followed by an aerodynamic cigar-shaped hydrogen-filled dirigible, California Arrow, flown at the 1904 Saint Louis World‘s Fair. In 1910 he designed his own airplane, making history with the first airplane flight over the Mississippi River. 200,000 citizens lined the riverfront to watch Baldwin fly the Red Devil from St. Louis to Illinois.
NEYSA MCMEIN / AMERICAN ILLUSTRATOR / 1888-1949
Marjorie Frances McMein was born in Quincy to Harry and Isabelle McMein. After graduating with honors in 1907 from Quincy High School, McMein attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, followed by a commercial art career in New York City where she adopted the name “Neysa,“ thinking it held a commercial value “above that of her birth name.“
McMein was a revered illustrator for national publications; 60 of her illustrations appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post from 1923-1938.
She created the portrait of the fictional housewife “Betty Crocker“ for General Mills and was a successful portrait painter of presidents, actors and writers. She was active in Women‘s Suffrage in New York State, a member of the Algonquin Round Table and a volunteer in France during World War I.
Featured in Life Magazine for flamboyant fetes in her West 57th Street studio, McMein was a fashion icon and entertained the likes of Harpo Marx and George Gershwin. She had an open marriage to John G. Baragwanath, during which she had affairs with Charlie Chaplin and George Abbott. Baragwanath described their marriage as a successful one based upon a deep friendship.
Neysa McMein was the highest-paid artist of the Jazz Age and inducted into the Society of Illustrators‘ Hall of Fame in 1984. Her work was published on a United States Postal Service Collectible Stamp sheet in 2001.
JOHN QUIDOR / AMERICAN PAINTER / 1801-1881
John Quidor was an American painter of historical and literary subjects, with fewer than forty known surviving works, many of which are housed in institutions such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Quidor's family moved to New York City in 1810 and at age 17, he began an apprenticeship with John Wesley Jarvis. Following his training, Quidor earned a living by painting decorative work on steamboats and fire engines for New York's fire companies. In 1823 he began creating paintings based on literary themes.
After a fire destroyed Quidor's studio, he abandoned New York and moved to Quincy in 1837 and in 1844, purchased an $8,000 farm, which he paid for by painting eight large religious canvases. In 1851 Quidor returned to New York where he stayed until his retirement in 1869.
In 2025, Quincy historian Robert Turek located and acquired an original oil painting by Quidor, titled “The Water Sprite.” This newly uncovered work had been in a private New England collection, passed down through the family of the great-great-grandson of the first Governor of Maine, and most recently to an art collector in Boston, where it was acquired by Turek. The painting had never before been publicly displayed.
Robert Turek is a best-selling author and lifelong Quincy resident dedicated to sharing forgotten stories of America’s past. His forthcoming book, The Mysterious John Quidor, is the most comprehensive study ever written on the elusive artist.
