Three

WHERE SPRINGFIELD LIVES AROUND THE TOWN

Springfield is many things more than Abraham Lincoln’s hometown and the seat of Illinois government. To the early settlers, it was a hunter’s paradise with lush vegetation fed by Spring Creek. For them and for future Springfield residents like Lincoln, it was a place for beginnings. The family of George Donner started its historic journey to California from Springfield. The Springfield Maid-Rite was one of the first franchises and drive-through restaurants in the United States. Poet Vachel Lindsay found his muse in his hometown and went on to national fame.

Springfield citizens value their arts and leisure activities. Businesses use original sculptures as their corporate symbols. Individuals and organizations invest in public art for the benefit of the entire community. Surviving examples of early-20th-century prairie school works by two of the most prominent leaders of the movement, Frank Lloyd Wright and Jens Jensen, are preserved in Springfield. An Illinois historic site, the Dana-Thomas House is the most complete of Wright’s surviving early prairie-style homes. Landscape architect Jensen’s 1936 prairie plan for Lincoln Memorial Garden is still maintained today for the pleasure of visitors. The community provides many other diversions. For example, Springfield annually hosts the Illinois State Fair. The Henson Robinson Zoo displays more than 90 species of native and exotic animals.

As it was in Lincoln’s day, Springfield is a place where individuals can make a difference. During the first half of the 20th century, the Spaulding brothers improved the local water system and impacted community water systems throughout the world. In 1991, two young school girls set in motion a successful campaign to raise the awareness of Springfield’s infamous race riots. Finally, Springfield is a place that honors the community’s significant people and events. The sculptures, monuments, and plaques found throughout the city and pictured in this chapter document and celebrate the unique character of Springfield, Illinois.

Many early settlers arrived in the area by following the north–south land route called the Edwards Trace, so named because Ninian Edwards led a force of rangers on the trail prior to the War of 1812. Worn by horses, buffalo hooves, and pioneer wagon wheels, the trail was known to English speaking settlers as early as 1763. A remnant of it was discovered and marked in Springfield’s Center Park in 2002.

After hunter-trader Elisha Kelly discovered the bounties of this area in 1818, he returned to North Carolina and convinced his father and four brothers to settle here. This plaque, just west of Second Street on Jefferson Street, marks the site of the cabin of Elisha’s brother John. Purported to be the first home constructed in Springfield, the building also became the political and judicial center of the new community.

The home of Springfield’s first entrepreneur, Elijah Iles, is the oldest standing house in Springfield. The Greek Revival house was moved to South Fifth Street in 1910 and returned in 1998 to Lincoln’s neighborhood at Seventh and Cook Streets. After extensive renovation by the Iles House Foundation, it now serves as a museum and conference center. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Affixed to a stone beneath the flag pole in front of Springfield High School is the marker that identifies Springfield’s first school. Built in 1821, the school was a 14-by-16-foot cabin of round logs with a single door and rough boards for benches and desks. Admission to the school, which was in use until 1829, ranged from $1.50 to $3 per student for an 11-week term.

Soldiers of two early wars are honored on two plaques on the north wall of the plaza kiosk. Twenty-four names of men who served in the American Revolution and are buried in Sangamon County are listed on the plaque on the right side of the wall (below). The plaque was donated in 1911 by the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution of Sangamon County with three more names added in 1914. On the left side of the wall is a plaque honoring soldiers who died in the War of 1812 and are buried in Sangamon County (left). One hundred and thirty-three names are listed by the Sangamon Chapter of the United States Daughters of 1812.

Thirty-three Springfield residents departed from their hometown on April 15, 1846, for the long trek to California. The ill-fated journey of the Donner party has become an American legend, and their departure is commemorated by this plaque on the north wall of the plaza kiosk. It was presented by the W. Bose Society of the Children of the American Revolution on April 15, 1957.

This plaque hangs on the east wall of the plaza kiosk. Erected in 2000 by the Pokagon Potawatomi Tribal Council, it tells details of the march of 800 Potawatomi Indians through Springfield on September 29, 1838. They were a part of the forced removal from Indiana to what is today Kansas. Descriptions of the event are taken from contemporary journals and recorded on the plaque.

On August 14, 1908, a two-day race riot erupted in Springfield. Lynchings and violent property destruction brought the Illinois militia to the city. Although the riot is considered the event that led to the founding of the NAACP, it was virtually unnoticed until 1991 when two 11-year-old girls brought it to the attention of the city council. After learning of the riots through a history project, Amanda (Londrigan) Staab and Lindsay (Price) Harney (below) petitioned the council for a memorial “so that we can learn from the past.” Today eight markers along the path of destruction tell the story. The first marker is at Seventh and Jefferson Streets, the site of the old county jail, and the eighth marker is on the east wall of the Old Capitol Plaza kiosk (left). (Below, courtesy of Sangamon Valley Collection, Lincoln Library.)

On the sidewalk adjacent to Christ Episcopal Church at 611 East Jackson Street is a tree with a plaque honoring Christian Porter. Porter was killed in the Persian Gulf War in 1991 at the age of 21. He was baptized, attended Sunday school, and served as acolyte at the church. His burial services were also held there. The plaque and tree were donated by Ursuline Academy, his alma mater.

Editorial without Words is a statue of the symbol of the Shriners’ Hospitals. Originally, the image was a photograph taken by Randy Dieter in 1970 at a Shriners’ event in Evansville, Indiana. It has been reproduced in stained-glass windows, mosaics, and pins. The Springfield statue was purchased by George R. and Charlene Kennedy in 2000 and stands in front of the Ansar Shrine Center at 630 South Sixth Street.

The massive statue of Benjamin Franklin (left) sits in the front courtyard of the South Sixth Street building that was once the headquarters of the Franklin Life Insurance Company. The 2007 owners, American International Group, sold the building to the State of Illinois to be used as headquarters for the Illinois State Police. The company donated the statue to the Illinois State Police Heritage Foundation to be incorporated into a state police memorial. The sculptor, James Earle Fraser, is internationally known. Famous works by him include the American Indian sculpture The End of the Trail and the design of the buffalo nickel. Pictured (below) are participants of the dedication ceremony on September 8, 1949: Charles Becker, president of Franklin Life; Ann Castle, descendent of Franklin; vice president Alben Barkley; Gov. Adlai Stevenson; and Fraser. (Below, courtesy of Sangamon Valley Collection, Lincoln Library.)

Howarth Plaza forms a small park in front of the Springfield Municipal Building on South Seventh Street. The plaza is bordered on the south by a 14-foot limestone arch and bronze plaque honoring Nelson Howarth, mayor of Springfield in 1955–1959 and 1963–1971. In his 12 years as mayor, he championed civil rights and impartial law enforcement. Howarth spearheaded several city expansion projects and promoted major initiatives such as the Prairie Capital Convention Center, the Old State Capitol restoration, and the creation of the Lincoln Home National Historic Site. The plaque includes a quote from Vachel Lindsay, poet and Springfield native son: “In this, the city of my discontent . . . we must have many Lincoln-hearted men.” Several other monuments and markers are found on Howarth Plaza.

The Spaulding Fountain on Howarth Plaza was a gift to Springfield by the family of Charles Herbert Spaulding, Springfield native, inventor of the water precipitator, and brother of water commissioner Willis Spaulding. The family gave another fountain in his honor to the University of Illinois at Springfield. The designer of the plaza fountain was Earl “Wally” Henderson, a Springfield architect and city planner.

Camp Care-A-Lot is a non-profit residential camp in Springfield for children from low-or no-income families. The mosaic was designed by the visual art department of the University of Illinois at Springfield, and the tiles were laid by campers and volunteers. The work was a gift to the city of Springfield in honor of Camp Care-A-Lot’s 10th anniversary. Dedicated in 2004, it stands on Howarth Plaza facing Seventh Street.

Embedded in the sidewalk on Seventh Street is this plaque in which the Springfield Lions Club honored the United Nations in 1962. The Springfield Lions Club is a service organization affiliated with Lions Club International, founded in Chicago in 1917. Lions Clubs International helped the United Nations form the Non-Governmental Organizations sections in 1945 and continues to hold consultative status with the United Nations.

In 1988, the Elwood Commandery No. 6, a Masonic organization, originally placed this tribute to Springfield’s fallen police officers and fire fighters on Union Square. When the square was updated to accommodate visitors to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Springfield police and firefighter unions paid to replace the deteriorated plaque, and the memorial was moved to its present location on the Howarth Plaza on Seventh Street.

Two gifts to the city of Springfield from the board of directors of the Old Capitol Art Fair stand adjacent to Lincoln Library, Springfield’s public library. Abstract Lincoln (left) was unveiled on November 21, 1976, at the Capitol Avenue entrance of the library. Selected from 22 competitors, the bronze sculpture was an attempt by the artist, Abbott Pattison, to link the historic Abraham Lincoln to the lines and shapes of the contemporary building. Celebration by Eugene Horvath (below) stands on a grassy area just east of the library. The artist was commissioned in 1986 to create the steel structure in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Old Capitol Art Fair.

Flower in a Crannied Wall (above) greets visitors to the Dana-Thomas House at Fourth and Lawrence Streets. The house and its furnishings were designed for Springfield socialite and activist Susan Lawrence Dana by young architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1902–1904. Created by Richard Bock, the terra-cotta statue has Alfred Tennyson’s poem by the same name etched on her back. The poem conveys the reverence for nature that Wright and Tennyson shared. Wright also designed a library in the Lawrence School at 101 East Laurel Street to honor Dana’s father (right). The library is still used by the students in the school. Furnishings in the current library are reproductions. The original Wright-designed furniture has been moved to Dana’s home where Wright’s furniture, light fixtures, and art glass can be seen by visitors on tour. (Above, courtesy of Doug Carr.)

In 1935, a bronze bust of Springfield’s “Prairie Troubadour,” Vachel Lindsay, was placed in a small landscaped memorial at the west end of the Lake Springfield bridge named for the poet (above). After a series of vandalism attacks in the early 1960s, the bust was removed from its outdoor setting and restored to its original condition through the efforts of its sculptor, Adrien A. Voisin of San Francisco, and restorer Gustav Napier. The repaired bust (left) can be viewed by visitors in Lindsay’s birthplace at 603 South Fifth Street. The Lindsay home was originally owned by Clark M. Smith and his wife Ann (younger sister of Mary Todd Lincoln). Lindsay’s parents bought the house in 1878. Many of Lindsay’s artifacts and artworks as well as original fixtures and furnishings are on display in the home. (Above, courtesy of Sangamon Valley Collection, Lincoln Library.)

Since 1929, two sculptured panels by Iowa artist Nellie Walker have flanked the doors of Springfield’s water plant. Originally on the front of the Water Purification Building on the Sangamon River (below), Health and Happiness were moved to the current filter plant on Lake Springfield in the mid-1930s (right). The plaques above the doors read: “Monument to the ability of the people to serve themselves and build for posterity,” by George Johnson. Pictured in front of the “new” water plant is Willis Spaulding, superintendent of the Springfield Water Works from 1909 to 1911 and commissioner of public property from 1911 to 1943. During his tenure, he spearheaded an improved water system, created the publicly owned electric utility and placed it on a paying basis, and led the movement for the creation of Lake Springfield. (Courtesy of Sangamon Valley Collection, Lincoln Library.)

Lincoln Memorial Garden encompasses a 63-acre site on the shores of Lake Springfield. Designed in 1936 by America’s foremost landscape architect Jens Jensen, the garden includes plants that are native to the three states where Lincoln lived (Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois). It is a classic example of Jensen’s prairie-style design work. The indigenous plants are one of his hallmarks as is the natural stone in the eight council rings. His paths meander through arrangements of plants, groves of trees, and open meadows of prairie flowers. A plaque affixed to a stone greets visitors at the garden entrance (above), and another plaque, honoring Harriet Knudson, the member of the Springfield Civic Garden Club who spearheaded this living tribute to Lincoln, is embedded in the sidewalk a few steps beyond (below).

Native and exotic animals are housed in the Henson Robinson Zoo, a 14-acre area on Lake Springfield. The Henson Robinson name has been prominent in Springfield since March 13, 1861, when the first Henson Robinson began selling tin roofing, kettles, and cooking and heating stoves. The Henson Robinson Company continued under the leadership of several Robinson generations and is currently a Springfield heating and cooling establishment. Dedicated in 1970, the zoo was named after the grandson of the original Robinson, Henson C. Robinson, who first sought to bring a zoo to Springfield. Two commemorative sculptures by Jeff Garland stand near the zoo’s central building. To honor the zoo’s 25th anniversary, the Springfield Zoological Society presented the cheetah Kuepa on August 26, 1995 (above). A butterfly with aluminum and Plexiglas wings memorializes Phillip L. Robinson, founder of the zoo (below).

Phillip Crowder, Revolutionary War veteran, is buried on a small plot of land on Chatham Road near Fair Oaks Circle. Born in Virginia in 1759, Crowder volunteered for service at age 16. He moved with his family to Sangamon County at the age of 71 in 1830. Crowder fathered 15 children with his three wives. The plot is maintained by volunteers with support from the city of Leland Grove.

Niccolls Stone Yard by Michael Dunbar stands in a quiet neighborhood in front of 1050 Williams Boulevard. Created in 1977, this welded steel structure is the first large-scale sculpture by the nationally acclaimed artist. The title is in homage to Roscoe Niccolls, a retired stone contractor who rented his shop space to Dunbar for his first studio and became the young artist’s friend and mentor. The piece is privately owned.

The steel sculpture Smokestack Lightning by Michael Dunbar, donated by Evelyn and Dr. Donald Yurdin and their son Bruce, stands in the Garden Courtyard on the lower level of Memorial Medical Center. The donation was in memory of Bruce’s wife, Jill, who died of cancer in 2005. Pictured from left to right are Dr. Donald Yurdin, Evelyn Yurdin, grandson Jack, and son Bruce. (Courtesy of Memorial Medical Center Foundation.)

The Louis Hahn Memorial Bandshell in Douglas Park is the venue for free summer concerts by the Springfield Municipal Band. Publicly funded, the band has been the official musical group of the City of Springfield since 1936. The plaques on the bandshell’s wall of honor recognize individuals who were significant in the history of the band.

On August 26, 1979, Springfield’s Roman Cultural Society presented to the Springfield Park District the ornamental pool and fountains at the Washington Park Horticulture Center. Central to the monument are the five ionic columns that had stood at the main entrance of Springfield’s old Carnegie Library. Through the efforts of a citizens committee spearheaded by Ralph Bowen, the columns were saved when the Carnegie building was razed in 1974 for the new library. Speakers pictured at the dedication ceremony (left) are Fr. Joseph Canella, C.S.V., Ralph Bowen, Springfield Park District representative Patrick Flannigan, and Joe Alessandrini, president of the Roman Cultural Society at the podium. The ceremony was followed by a concert at the Thomas Rees Memorial Carillon. (Left, courtesy of Jo Ann Alessandrini.)

Springfield civic leader Thomas Rees created the Rees Memorial Fund to build a world-class carillon in Washington Park. The result is the 132-foot reinforced white concrete, steel, and brick tower surrounded at its base by a reflecting pool that was dedicated in 1962. The carillon houses 66 cast-bronze bells, which are played in regular concerts and at an international carillon festival each summer.

Henry Kirschner, founder of Springfield’s Town and Country Bank, and Art Squires, founder of Squires Advertising Agency, designed the logo for the bank in 1964. Paul Reimer, artist and bank board member, sculpted the stainless steel figure for the bank headquarters at MacArthur Boulevard and Ash Street in the mid-1970s. The design is intended to symbolize the role of the bank in helping customers grow and reach their goals.

Creating stark contrast, two contemporary sculptures stand in the courtyard of the historic Edwards Place Italianate mansion (built 1833) at 700 North Fourth Street. Both works were designed for the Springfield Art Association, the current owner of the house. True Love (left) was a gift to the organization by the Riemer family in 1997. The galvanized steel structure was created by Paul Riemer at age 72 to honor his wife of over 50 years. Riemer, an iron worker by trade, began his career as an artist when he took a class from the Cooperative Extension Services of the University of Illinois at age 36. John Kearney’s Bicentennial Bison (below) is constructed from welded chrome car bumpers. The sculpture was installed in March 1976, when Kearney was codirector of the Contemporary Workshop in Chicago.

The World War I Memorial is found on the southeast corner of First Street and North Grand Avenue. Funded by an anonymous donor, the monument memorializes 113 soldiers from Sangamon County who died from 1917 to 1918 from injuries suffered in “the war to end all wars.” The Arnold Monument Company of Springfield fashioned and engraved the barre granite piece, which was erected in October 2003.

The Illinois State Military Museum at 1301 North MacArthur Boulevard houses a 14-by-6-foot Bronze Wall depicting information about the communities of 14 Illinois armories. Artist David Seagraves created 14 individual panels that interlock to create the larger work. Four panels portraying events in the history of the Illinois Militia and National Guard surround the minuteman at the center of the sculpture. The A-i-A commission was dedicated on May 12, 2005.

When the Springfield City Council decreed in 1855 that burials could no longer be conducted within the city limits, the city purchased land for Oak Ridge Cemetery, and German and Irish Catholics obtained property to create Calvary Cemetery. Calvary Cemetery and Oak Ridge Cemetery are now adjacent to each other. Tragically, documentation of early burials in Calvary Cemetery is limited because most of the cemetery records were destroyed or damaged in a fire at the end of the 19th century. The entrance to the 75-acre Calvary Cemetery, owned and maintained by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, is off of North First Street. An armless angel guarding a tombstone with the inscription of “Mohay” stands near the entrance on the east corner of the cemetery. Her back is toward North First Street and the adjacent Lincoln Park. Local folklore purports that she turns completely around at midnight on Halloween. Many young Springfield residents have conducted midnight vigils, but no one has witnessed the phenomenon.

Haitian-born William Florville is recognized primarily as Abraham Lincoln’s barber and friend. In fact, in addition to cutting the hair of many Springfield citizens, Florville was a wealthy landowner, influential businessman, and civic leader. He is buried in Calvary Cemetery with his son Varveel who served in the Union Army in the Civil War. Florville’s wife Phoebe and two of his other children rest in Oak Ridge Cemetery.

The monument of Harry Woods Phillips in Calvary Cemetery reads: “Died April 6, 1883, Aged 13 years, 2 months, 4 days.” The stone is cut in the style of Edward Levanius whose many symbolic monuments are found in Oak Ridge Cemetery. The stone tree with broken limbs to symbolize a life cut short has a young boy’s hat hanging on the side and a dejected dog clinging to the trunk.

The Railsplitter, a 30-foot figure of young Abraham Lincoln, greets visitors at the entrance of the Illinois State Fairgrounds. Carl Rinnus, a Springfield department store window decorator, created the statue with fiberglass around a wire screen frame. The legs are fabricated around two telephone poles. This Lincoln has been a favorite photograph background for state fair visitors since 1967.

Dedicated in 1981 as an A-i-A commission, Flight Simulations found near Building 29 (the Home Economics Building) on the state fairgrounds, is the first large-scale sculpture of Preston Jackson. A professor at the School of the Chicago Art Institute, the highly respected artist received the Order of Lincoln Medallion in 1998, the state’s highest honor for personal achievement. His work, found throughout Illinois, ranges from abstract to emotionally charged realism.

John Medwedeff, creator of Half Side Jack (below) and The Zephyr (right), forges site-specific public sculptures, sculptural fountains, architectural ironwork, and furniture. The Zephyr (1998) stands at the bottom of the steps leading to the poultry building, and Half Side Jack (1999) arches the top of the steps at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. Both are A-i-A commissions. Medwedeff says, “I am inspired by the botanical, aquatic, and atmospheric phenomena of my familiar landscapes. At the forge I have developed a visual vocabulary of movement and energy with which I explore, through metal, this natural world in relation to the body and to the architecture.”

Two bas-relief images of sheep are attached to the outside walls of the Sheep Pavilion at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. According to a plaque below the sheep, the original building with the sculptures was built in 1912 by Springfield contractor J. F. Duncan. C. V. Lewis of Danville was the building architect. Another plaque commemorates the rebuilding of the Sheep Pavilion in 1990 under the leadership of Gov. James R. Thompson. The sculptures were saved and placed in their current position on the new building. The architect for the 1990 building was Steckel-Parker. The artist is not acknowledged on either plaque.