1 January 10, 2012

 

A view of High from Spring of downtown Springfield, Ohio. In the foreground is the Lagonda Club Building, with the Fairbanks Building and Tecumseh Building in the background.

 

Jesus Christ.  Springfield lost 75% of the damn downtown.

And they just lost another visual landmark.

2 January 11, 2012

 

The Crowell Publishing Company was the world’s largest magazine publishing house and the manufacturing plant was located in Springfield. By the early 1900s, Crowell was home to The American Magazine, The Woman’s Home Companion, Collier’s, The National Weekly, Farm and Fireside and The Mentor, among others. It had a monthly circulation of over 10 million copies with an average of ten carloads of magazines produced per working day.

 

 

More coming soon on this abandonment.

!

http://www.historicaerials.com/aerials.php?scale=1.36401175525467E-5&lat=39.9238467402546&lon=-83.8062684137369&year=1959

 

Their downtown was more cohesive and appeared larger than Columbus!

I wouldn't go THAT far.  Even back when, downtown Columbus was substantial (though it lacked height except for LeVeque).

Well, when I panned over to Columbus, which was still in the 1959 aerial profile, you could clearly see more open parking lots and scattered buildings throughout their core. This was before the building boom, and I think the only tall building then was LeVeque. Did Columbus have any substantial tall buildings besides that prior to the boom?

Prior to the 1960's boom, no, aside from LeVeque.  Clearly, Columbus was a "dense" downtown before the vogue of parking lots but even WITH Columbus' parking lots in that 1959 aerial it is still significantly larger than Springfield's.

Springfield should have been the capital! It's not too late!

Wow, it looks like Springfield was the most destroyed city in the state of Ohio, which is really saying something. I had no idea they had a downtown like that! What a tragedy. Even Youngstown looks more intact.

 

Their downtown was more cohesive and appeared larger than Columbus!

 

Springfield doesn't appear larger (though surprisingly not much smaller either), but I agree there may have been more density and cohesiveness at peak. Columbus had pretty early street widenings and was one of the first cities to start leveling landmarks for parking lots. Columbus is a severely damaged core, no doubt about it, but it looks like Springfield takes the title for total destruction in not only the state, but possibly the country.

 

This is like what happened Gary, Indiana, but even sadder, because it looks like downtown Springfield was much better. Judging by historical photos, the situation in Springfield seems similar to what happened to Parkersburg, West Virginia. This was a highly urbanized small city with great aspirations that was just gutted.

 

How did nearby Hamilton, another small urban center in Ohio, avoid this fate? Hamilton has one of the best small city downtowns in the state. Is this due to economic differences or leadership differences?

^Hamilton isn't on a highway, and is kind of isolated up in Butler County, but still close enough to the northern Cincinnati burbs, which is why I suspect it has done better than most small cities.  Hamilton is a real city with urban neighborhoods and a downtown, but is surrounded by the south and east by Cincinnati sprawl, and Miami University is just off to the Northwest, which I bet has also helped Hamilton.

1 January 10, 2012

 

A view of High from Spring of downtown Springfield, Ohio. In the foreground is the Lagonda Club Building, with the Fairbanks Building and Tecumseh Building in the background.

 

Do you think this was taken from the church on that corner? If so, a modern version of the same pic might be possible. (and very cool)

This article is interesting about what Springfield has lost.

http://springfieldfirejournal.blogspot.com/2008/04/old-no-2.html

I think Springfield was the piano plate capitol....

"On Feb. 10, 1902, a wind-whipped general alarm fire leveled the East Street Shops industrial complex and threatened the city's downtown."

"Constructed in 1882, the plant - stretching for 800 feet along East Street, and extending for 1,200 feet along the Detroit Southern railroad line - was the largest of its kind under a single roof. (By the turn of the century, the complex had been surpassed in size by Germany's famous Krupp Gun Works.)"

1 January 10, 2012

 

A view of High from Spring of downtown Springfield, Ohio. In the foreground is the Lagonda Club Building, with the Fairbanks Building and Tecumseh Building in the background.

 

Do you think this was taken from the church on that corner? If so, a modern version of the same pic might be possible. (and very cool)

 

That's what I am thinking, and it has a bell tower that should be accessible. I'm looking into doing a before and after with a few that I have in my collection. So much has been lost, but there are quite a few gems that remain.

3 The Crowell-Collier Publishing Company was the world's largest magazine publishing house with its primary manufacturing plant located along High Street in Springfield, Ohio. The editorial, circulation and business offices were located in Chicago and New York, with the printing operations located in Springfield. It's rise to prominence and its sudden collapse of its prized magazine division was sudden.

 

Here is a view of the main magazine printing house in Springfield in 1949:

 

 

And in 2010:

 

When I took my folks to Springfield (on a road triip north of Cincy to visit Wittenberg College), we came in from Yellow Springs through that low key entrance to the city from the south.  Where you dont expect much of a town since there is minimal suburbia.

 

Then, you pop out on the main e-w streets and that C-C plant just dominates the view, catching the late afternoon sun in all its red brick glory.

My Dad exclaimed "Holy Cow, look at the size of that plant!"  ....he was pretty suprised.  I explained to my folks Ohio is filled with small factory cities like Springfield with big plants like this (Mansfield had Westinghouse, for example).