We have been in business since 1976, all of those years in Uptown Normal. Our humble beginning landed us in the basement of the Janet Hayslip Dance Studio at 110 E. Beaufort St. When Janet (Bill's wife) decided to expand her business, they bought the building at 115 E. Beaufort St. and opened The Dancer's Answer, a dancewear store popular in the 80's. The lockshop was then moved to the back end of that building, with a hallway giving it street access. This move provided us with a garage bay where we could work on automotive locks. Business grew and we hired our first employee. The dancewear store couldn't outlive the fad and soon closed. The space was then rented to a fledgling new franchise called Subway Subs and Salads. Subway needed all the storefront space they could get, so the hallway connecting Bill's Key and Lock Shop to the street was cut off and our years with only back door alley acess began. This is the store many of our veteran customers remember.
After one small remodel at that site, it became evident that we had outgrown the location and we began to keep our eyes open for vacant Uptown buildings. The former Schnebley's Garage was top on our list for a while, but fears of ground contamination steered us clear of that location. The former Culligan's Water Softening building came available and we jumped at the chance. In the summer of 2000, we opened up in what is now our current location at 127 E. Beaufort St.
We operate the largest retail locksmith shop in Bloomington-Normal and offer the widest ranges of hours. Specialties at our shop include hard-to-find key blanks, repair parts for all locks antique to modern, safes, padlocks, key acessories, and while-you-wait service and sales of locks and keys. The shop is decorated with local antiques, bottles, old toys, antique padlocks, and wooden wall phones. We have five fully equipped mobile vans for out of shop service calls to your house or business. We are proud to be a part of Uptown Normal for all these years and plan on staying indefinitely.
