The Duplicate Key Monument

Prentice Grove, Illinois · Monument · est.

The four keys on their pad behind the annex, with the labels still legible from the parking lot.Photo: Brenda & Carol Vantine

Four oversized brass-colored keys stand upright in a diamond on a concrete pad beside the former Prentice Grove Civic Center annex, each cut to the same old municipal master profile and each labeled for a different building that no longer uses that system. A small aluminum sign attributes upkeep to the Prentice Grove Facilities Harmonization Committee, which appears also to be responsible for the shrub ring and for replacing the laminated explanation sheet when it fades. The reported reason for the monument is unusually specific: sometime in the late 1980s, after a school, library, township hall, and parks garage were all re-keyed in separate capital projects, a retiring locksmith donated the obsolete pattern books and urged the town to mark what local minutes reportedly called "the end of universal access by convenience." One hook detail needing confirmation is that one of the four keys may have been recut in 1996 after residents complained the original teeth were for the wrong garage.

Field File · Pending Full Documentation

This location has been reported to Slop Obscura but not yet formally documented. A correspondent has been assigned, pending mileage reimbursement. Details above reflect the original report and have not been improved.