Ralph Laughery’s eyes light up when he
remembers his neighborhood the way it used to be. “Everybody
knew everybody,” he says. “It was an extremely friendly
place.” After he was born, in 1932, his parents brought him
home from the hospital to the house at 800 N. Seventh St., at the
corner of Seventh and Enos. There he lived for the next 67 years,
until he moved into an apartment in 2000. Every workday for 48
years he walked to his job as a medical technologist at St.
John’s Hospital. “Everybody lived close to
everything,” he recalls. He walked to grade school at
McClernand and later walked to high school at Lanphier, where he
graduated in 1951. He could walk downtown in 10 minutes.
When planners talk about the kinds of
neighborhoods they want in the future, they describe the
neighborhood his was in the past. In cities across the nation, the
goal for the future is to blend housing, offices, stores, and parks
into compact neighborhoods that foster a sense of community and
reduce the need for driving. Springfield did that once. Could it be
done again?
Among the best features of the old
neighborhoods were the small commercial establishments —
stores, taverns, restaurants — that not only provided
services and supplies within walking distance but also provided
destinations with personality. When Ralph Laughery was a child in
the 1930s, directly behind his house was the Enos Candy Kitchen
Confectionary, 709 E. Enos Ave. There proprietor Charlie Poulos
sold candy, ice cream, sodas, and barbecue and lived above the
store. “Sometimes after he’d just made ice cream
Charlie would come up to the house with a sample. He made the most
delicious orange-and-pineapple ice cream you ever
tasted.”
There were five grocery stores within a few
blocks of Laughery’s house. One of them, Reinhart’s
Grocery, was at 713 E. Enos Ave., just behind the candy store.
Across the street from that was Andrew’s Tavern. “Dad
ran it more like a church than a tavern,” recalls Jack
Andrew, the former city council member, whose father bought the
tavern in 1937. “There was no swearing, no fighting, and no
big gambling. You could get a shot and a beer for 15 cents and a
bowl of chili for 15 cents.” Jack took over from his father in 1960 and ran the tavern until
he sold it in 1978. “It was the last tavern in town to have
barstools. You put your foot on the rail and drank standing up.”
It’s still in business as Suzie Q’s.
In the old days the taverns and stores were
supported by foot traffic, especially from area factories. The
International Shoe Co. factory was at 10th and Enos, and the Farris
Furnace Co., which made coal furnaces, was at 920 E. Enos Ave.,
next to the 11th Street tracks. The factories closed and then cars
changed everything. “After the war there were more
automobiles,” explains Laughery. “The town started
spreading out. The old people moved away.”
“That was democracy in action, when the
little people had stores,” Andrew says. “The economy
and the conglomerates have forced the little people out.” Sociability and a
sense of community were lost in the shuffle. Neighbors knew each other
when the little people had stores.
You can still find tucked within
Springfield’s neighborhoods some of the old brick commercial
buildings that used to be mom-and-pop groceries or corner stores. They’re often
empty or used for storage, built too well to die completely. Now
that big stores have given way to big-box stores, would it be
possible for Mom and Pop to come back and make a living off the
backlash? Could government, banks, or nonprofits lend a hand to
someone starting a store that will help revitalize a neighborhood?
Can Internet sales supplement the income of a book shop or antique
store enough to make a neighborhood location viable?
In Springfield’s old neighborhoods,
there is still plenty of foot traffic. The very young and very old
don’t drive, and many in the middle can’t afford cars.
Others of us live in old neighborhoods because of their
walkability. We all just wish there were more places to walk to.
This article appears in Feb 10-16, 2005.
