The City of Springfield is planning for revitalization and redevelopment along West College Street. That includes an historical survey of the neighborhood. I took a walk along College with the team conducting that survey, to learn more.
“These were probably, you know, middle upper to middle class housing back in their day. Look at all the fine architectural details that are still there. So, these houses, you know, will be thoroughly photographed because they're a big part of the story here. Part of the story is that the closer you get to downtown, the older the building stock is, and this is part of it. As you move this way, it gets a little bit younger.”
Cassandra Talley and Katie Smithberger are co-founders and principals at Loggia Preservation, a Michigan based company that’s does work across the nation. As we walked along West College Street in downtown Springfield, they explained what they are looking for as historical surveyors and what their work means.
“A big part of what we are researching is, you know, the history of how this stretch of road evolved,” Talley said. “You know, how it came to be part of Route 66 because there's a whole story there... How it's evolved over time to how it's changed. So, it's looking at the individual properties that we’re surveying. But it's also telling a broader story about the whole neighborhood.”
The West College area has played an ongoing role in Springfield history. It was home to the first cabin built by white settlers to the area. It was also the site of a fort during the Civil War.
College Street’s history as part of Route 66 is most evident now though, with a Route 66 roadside park, and several businesses embracing that history. Most people would also say the area has seen better days. Loggia’s historical survey is part of a larger plan by the city to revitalize West College.
“It's really hard to do good planning if you don't know what you have,” Talley explained. “Part of the whole object of this survey is for us to come in and kind of do a deep dive on the history and then produce a cohesive report that says, you know, this over here is highly historic and here's why. This over here, this part over here maybe is not as historic, or maybe this was open land that was never developed.”
Getting those details right means looking at historical records, but it also means walking the neighborhood, looking at the features and details hiding in plain sight.
Talley points to one building. “This is like fairly easy to tell. This is probably from the teens or the 20s. It's a kind of a classic craftsman style. And you can tell that just based on the exposed rafters is what we call them underneath the eaves.” “And then the wide eaves,” Smithberger adds. “Yes, the wide eaves and the rock face foundation, that's classic tens and 20s, 1910s, 1920s.”
Their work also means meeting the people.
“Me and Katie can walk by these buildings and talk about the history just based on the materiality,” Talley explained. “But if we want to know who lived there and who they were and what they, you know, contributed to the community, that often has to come from interviews or oral histories.”
That includes Aaron Pippen. Owner of “Pips Beardcræft & Barber”. His vintage styled building was formerly Peggy’s Beauty Shop. He flagged us down to give Talley and Smithberger a tour of the building, sharing photo albums and clippings, much of which he said were passed to him from Peggy herself.
Pip has embraced a role in bringing attention to College Street. His business hosts charity bike nights, and he has plans for other ventures in the neighborhood. He has also embraced Route 66 culture and history and sees the value in the historical review. I asked the Loggia team if Pip’s enthusiasm was atypical. They told me that it might be in some cases, but not for Springfield.
“This is the friendliest town I think I've ever been to,” Smithberger said. “And willing to talk... we'll stop somewhere to talk to someone, and we talk to them for a half hour and we get great information and they're willing to share their photos and they're willing to talk to us. And, you know, that doesn't always happen.”
As they put it, the people they’ve talked to want the area to be thriving.
Reaching that goal will ultimately fall to the city and the community.
The report Loggia produces will become a detailed public history document. It will also include recommendations for the city. In many cases, they say communities choose to get neighborhoods listed on the National Register, which can then qualify property owners for some tax incentives. They caution against confusion and say the Register often gets conflated with local historical districts, which enforce design and building guides in designated communities.
The report might also lead to a greater embrace of the area’s history, like placing historical markers or collecting and preserving oral histories.
We can read the recommendations Talley and Smithberger make, when their report is released in April 2027.