The First Beatle in America Marker, Benton, Illinois

The First Beatle in America marker stands in Capitol City Park on the Public Square in Benton, a small town in southern Illinois. It records George Harrison's visit to his sister Louise in September 1963, five months before the Beatles' Ed Sullivan appearance. Louise Harrison unveiled it on 21 September 2013, fifty years after the trip.

Why George Harrison was in Benton in 1963

Louise Harrison moved to Benton from England in March 1963 with her husband, Gordon Caldwell, who had found engineering work with a local coal company. That September George and his older brother Peter flew into St. Louis and came to stay with her. The Beatles had hit singles in Britain by then but were little known in the United States, and each member took a separate holiday. George's made him the first of them to visit the country.

He stayed at Louise's house at 113 McCann Street. According to the marker and later press accounts, he jammed with local musicians, played a VFW hall in Eldorado with a band called the Four Vests, bought a Rickenbacker 425 guitar in Mount Vernon and camped in the Shawnee National Forest. Marcia Schafer, a teenager whose father owned a radio station in West Frankfort, interviewed him on air, which the marker calls the first interview given by a Beatle in America.

Accounts of the length of the visit vary. The marker says a fortnight, while other write-ups give 18 days.

The 2013 marker

The Franklin County Historic Preservation Society and the Illinois State Historical Society put up the marker. It was dedicated on 21 September 2013, and Louise Harrison unveiled it before a crowd reported at several hundred. The text panel runs long and tells the whole visit, naming the McCann Street house. It stands near the band shelter in the square's park.

The house and the mural

The McCann Street house is a five-bedroom brick bungalow built in 1935. It was nearly demolished in 1995 before local campaigners, Louise among them, saved it. It then ran as the Hard Day's Nite Bed and Breakfast until 2010 and later as rental apartments, and was recently listed for sale. It is private property.

The artist John Cerney added a second landmark in 2017: a 16-foot mural called "George Comes to Benton - 1963", facing Interstate 57 near Benton Municipal Airport. Cerney gave it to the city, and it has been lit at night since July 2019.

The band's first trip to the United States together came the following February. For Harrison's own later memorial, see the George Harrison Memorial Tree in Los Angeles.