I had intended to post something a bit sooner than this, but I have failed to. I wanted to write about The Mid-Century Mile again, that is, Glenstone Avenue between St Louis and Seminole Streets, and I am due to write about the stretch of Glenstone between St Louis and Grand Streets first. Of the three sections I broke the Mid-Century Mile down into, this is the longest, and probably the section that has the least mid-century architecture to mention. It is the section of the Mid-Century Mile that is closest to the center city, and that has had the longest time to get built up. Even so, Glenstone Avenue, until after WWII, was still fairly well to the east in Springfield; there was not much east of it by the end of WWII, except perhaps a few neighborhoods and farmland. But, there are some buildings that should be mentioned, nonetheless. Glenstone Avenue north of St Louis once carried the fabled Route 66, which among other nicknames has been called The Mother Road. Route 66's original alignment brought it into town on what is now Kearney Street, then south to Glenstone, and then it turned left onto St Louis from Glenstone, toward downtown and Los Angeles, eventually. At St. Louis and Glenstone is the Rail Haven Motel. It is not really a mid-century motel, in the strictest sense of the architecture, but it is now an official historic site, and it is still going strong as a motel, targeting the Route 66 nostalgia crowd. I am all for the Rail Haven's continued successes, as it is a local business in central Springfield, and thus a brick in the wall of that part of town's commercial infrastructure. Across from the Rail Haven, there is now a large complex owned and operated by Great Southern bank. However, back in the days when the Mid-Century Mile was going strong, in the 1970s, perhaps before, there was a store there. I have recently been trying to remember the name of this store as it was called in the 1970s, but it escapes me. The building was built with a relatively tall false front that had the shape of an old barn. I can remember going to this store when I was very small, but all I remember really is that it MAY have had food, but it DID have a record section. Later, it became Smitty's grocery store, and kept the barn shaped false front for many years. Smitty's was a fairly unique grocery store, in that each location of the small chain of three or four (at its height) had a little restaurant, as well as a service they called "parcel pick-up." Instead of helping a person to their car with the groceries, the customer would take a little numbered tag out of a holder on the back of the cart, which had a copy of the tag fixed to it. The customer would then go up to a pavilion to the south of the west-facing main entrance, give the tag to an attendant who would get the matching cart, and the groceries would be loaded that way. The carts were higher up off the ground, and shaped differently than carts at other stores (I say this a s a child connoisseur of riding around on the back of grocery carts. Smitty's became Albertson's, a national chain, and when Albertson's left town, the store was closed and eventually became the Great Southern installation. When I was growing up, for a long time, Smitty's was the biggest grocery store I remember in town. Alas, it, along with the barn-shaped false front, is gone.
A little further down, and back on the west side of the street, is George's. George's is still around, and in a great red roofed mid-century style building with support rafters that extend past the end of the roof and to the ground. George's has been there as long as I can remember, and is a kind of blue-collar diner. College students, after drinking half the night, often went (or may still go) there for some chow. It must be 10 years now since I have been in Georges. But it is an institution. The building looks almost exactly like it has for at least 30 years, or longer, and has a real late-mid-century feel.
Back across Glenstone on the east side, across from George's is the old structure that is a clothing shop now, but it was once Herman Lumber. It was a kind of institution there, in its day, though not particularly stand-outish as a mid-century building. Next to it is a bowling alley, once called Walnut Lanes. Again, not a stand-out mid-century building, but there has been a bowling alley there since before my birth.
Next to George's is a filling station, I think it is called Gas Plus, that is in an old Clark filling station building. The Clark buildings are one of my favorite mid-century style filling stations. The buildings were quite small, I'd say 10 x 12, but the flat roof angled upward toward the front, giving a streamline, elegant-in-its-simplicity vibe to the building. This building has been painted to match its current company colors, and a matching canopy has been added over the pumps, but the building itself is pretty much as it was originally built.
Across Walnut from the former Clark station and on the west side of Glenstone is Glenstone Baptist Church. It is not a large edifice, but I think it has some nice mid-century touches. In the 1950s-1970s, many local structures were built with limestone blocks, in varying sizes sometimes in the same structure, or depending on the size of the structure. Glenstone Baptist is built with such limestone blocks. A peaked roof juts out over the main entrance to the building, the eaves being ever so slightly swept back toward the building, giving the impression of an airplane perhaps.
Back across Glenstone, on the east side of the street again, across from the Glenstone Baptist, is a red brick office or retain type building, the name of which I do not know, if it even has a name. I think at one time there was a bookstore of some sort in there, perhaps connected with a college. Not certain. The building has an L-shape, and the whole front has a series of arch-shaped members that form a canopies. A great mid-century touch on a building that is probably often overlooked as people drive past on the very busy Glenstone Avenue. I'll also mention the Mexican Villa restaurant next to this building, as I think it is a great example of a 1960s-1970s interpretation of how Americans of that era thought a Mexican restaurant should look: adobe, with arch-shaped windows, and a terracotta tile roof.
One must go several blocks, south of Cherry and nearly to the railroad tracks that cross Glenstone, to get to the next buildings I shall mention. On the west side of Glenstone, between the tracks and Monroe Street, is an Arby's. The building was redone a few years ago, and looks like a modern Arby's, but it was built in a style common to 1970s (maybe even 1960s?) Arbys' that were reminiscent a Conestoga wagon with its curved top. The roof itself was flat, with fairly sharply sloping sides, and the ceiling and front window were curved. I think the ceiling was unstained light wood, oak or pine perhaps. The light fixtures hanging from this, I think, were globe-shaped, very late mid-century style, and the floor tiles were hexagon-shaped terracotta in orange. I loved Arby's when I was little. My parents never had to demand I eat my "junior" roast beef sandwich, and I still adore the jamocha shakes.
Across Glenstone from Arby's is perhaps the most obvious landmark on the whole street: the water tower. I am not sure how tall it is, but it is not one of those simple towers with the ball-shaped top, no siree! The tank is a flattened sphere, and much larger around than a regular water tower, and has the supports to go along with it. One cannot miss it! I think the tower has been there since the 1950s or 1960s.
Back on the west side of Glenstone, several doors down from Arby's is another building that many probably don't pay much attention to, but I think is interesting and has a mid-century look. It was originally an architecture firm, and may still be. The building is flat-roofed, but the front has a sloped roof of composite shingles that runs from roof line to the ground. It is broken by two windows and the door, which reach about 2/3 of the way up the front, and the sides of the openings are native stone walls that stand at about the same height as the openings. It gives the building a vintage effect, and quite an interesting mid-century appearance.
One door down and across the street from this building is a 1960s era Firestone store. It was built after 1961, as it is not listed in my 1961 Springfield phone book, but it is clearly mid-century in its construction. The structure is long and not very wide. At the front of the building is the showroom/waiting area, which is glass windows on three whole sides. The roof overhangs the showroom by quite a bit, and "Firestone" is spelled out in free-standing letters on this roof, in its 1960s era font. The garage bays are behind the showroom.
I'll now move back to the west side of Glenstone, a bit further down, at Lombard and Glenstone. At this intersection is McDaniel Bridal and Formal. They used to be a furrier, but I guess that with furs being quite unpopular these days, it is just dresses. The building is mostly a simple red brick, two story structure, but has a couple of interesting touches. One is that on the second floor, on the right side, over the entrance, is a second story glass show window, the only window on the front, and the show window extends a bit on the side of the building, so traffic going down Glenstone can get a good look at the merchandise the store carries. The side of the building still carries the old "McDaniel Furs" sign in white lettering attached to the expanse of red brick on that side, the north side of the building. The other interesting feature is a white bear on the roof. I am not sure what this statue is made of--fiberglass maybe? Concrete even? The bear statue is older than the building; it was once at Taylor's drive in downtown, at Trafficway, where the Benton Avenue Viaduct comes into intersect that street and becomes Kimbrough on the south side of town. I am sure the bear is over 60 years old, but how much more than 60 I don't know.
There is only one more building that still exists on Glenstone Avenue between St Louis and Grand Streets that I shall mention, and that is Anton's Coffee Shop. It seems that Anton's is never open when I am going down St Louis. I know that it is still operating, as it has been for 35 years or more. The building isn't particularly mid-century, but Anton's is something of an institution. I hope to eat there one day.
There are a few other places now long gone in this northernmost stretch of Glenstone, that I could mention. There was a doctor's office plaza once upon a time, in from the late 1950's til the early 80s, called Medical Gardens, I think. I have not seen a picture of the place in some years, but I think it had a mid-century look that fit the Mid-Century Mile. My pediatrician was there, when I was very little, and I think I remember going to the building once. He was located in my active memory at the Professional Building downtown at Cherry and Kimbrough, though. There was also Glenstone Block Company, across from McDaniel Furs, and it is no longer there, as far as I know, under that name. I am not sure if the company is still around but located elsewhere. It took up quite a bit of real estate along Glenstone, though. I think the site is still functioning under a different name. And there were a few filling stations, office buildings and restaurants along that stretch that are now long gone, demolished or under new names in buildings that have been remodeled to reflect more up-to-date styles. But the real heart of the Mid-Century mile is to come next: the stretch of Glenstone from Grand to Portland-Cinderella Streets.
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