What is the history of Roxana, Illinois?
In 1918, the Shell Oil Company opened its Wood River Refinery in what was then called Wood River Field, an area south of the City of Wood River. As houses began being built close to the refinery, the population there grew to the point that in 1921, this unincorporated area became the incorporated Village of Roxana. Local lore is that the name Roxana was chosen to honor Queen Roxanne of the Netherlands, inasmuch as the village owed its very existence to state owned Royal Dutch Shell. A Baptist Church was organized in September 1921, and the land where the current ‘First Baptist Church of Roxana’ now stands at the corner of Tydeman Street and Central Avenue was purchased in early 1922. The first services were held there on December 3, 1922. J.A. Wilson served as the church’s first pastor. http://www.fbcroxana.org/history.html In the early 1940s, a large art deco style theater was built at the northwest cor
