Illinois State Journal advertisement for Harvard Park lots, 1915 (Courtesy State Journal-Register)
The person who named Harvard Park, one of Springfield’s largest early subdivisions, won $100 in a contest sponsored by the Springfield Improvement Association. He or she – the winner, one of 570 entrants, asked to remain anonymous – promptly donated the prize to two local orphanages, the Home for the Friendless and the Episcopalian-operated Orphanage of the Holy Child.
The winner’s legacy lives on, and not only in the subdivision name. As the Illinois State Journal reported when the winning name was announced in April 1906:
To carry out the college name scheme, the owners of the addition have decided to call the main boulevard that will extend through the tract Yale boulevard. The four principal streets will be called Monticello, Cornell, Princeton and Wellesley avenues.
Where “Monticello” came from wasn’t explained, but the rest of Harvard Park’s streets, including an east-west boulevard, Bryn Mawr, also bear the names of top Eastern colleges.
Harvard Park officially dates itself from 1908, when its first section was annexed to the city of Springfield. However, lots went on sale two years earlier, following a protracted Springfield City Council debate over the Springfield Consolidated Railway company’s rights to extend its street car routes to the area.
Yale and Bryn Mawr boulevards bisect Harvard Park (SCHS photo)
Developers explicitly designed the area to accommodate both homes and factories. Industries, from a brush manufacturer to a farm implement factory, were built on the edges of the residential area, which eventually grew to take in about 300 acres and 850 homes. The neighborhood’s boundaries are from Sixth to 11th streets and Ash Street to Stanford Avenue, although Harvard Park’s earliest marketing also boasted of its proximity to Bunn Park, across 11th Street from the subdivision.
Those early ads also emphasize that Harvard Park was “carefully restricted.” Exactly what those restrictions were was not described, although other subdivisions built about the same time were more candid. Capital Park (between North Grand Avenue and Washington street east of Wesley Street), for instance, was planned in 1909. Developers there said Capital Park restrictions included a “building limit – no shacks – a building line and no saloons.”
However, the “restricted” wording in Harvard Park ads also may have been code for the fact that lots originally were open only to whites. As Fever River Research noted in its 2018 report, National Register of Historic Places Thematic Survey of Springfield’s African-American Community, And the Central East Neighborhood, Springfield, Illinois:
(I)n an era of heightened Jim Crow policies, several factors were used by some of Springfield’s white developers and residents to keep the community’s more affluent neighborhoods segregated, and for whites only. One of these was the use of protective covenants. Such covenants were integrated into the sales contracts for such new developments as Harvard Park … and the deed restricted property from being sold to black residents, effectively preventing them from moving into the newly developed neighborhoods.
Some of the earliest industries in or near Harvard Park included Gibson Wagon Gear and the Harvard Brush Co. The Fred R. Coats Co., which made watch parts and other precision equipment, relocated from downtown Springfield to 11th and Ash streets in 1906 and then to 2220 Yale Blvd., in the heart of Harvard Park, in 1936. The Springfield Consolidated Railway Co., the city street car line, also moved its car barns to Harvard Park in 1908.
Gibson Wagon Gear, one of Harvard Park’s first factories, in 1907. (Courtesy SJ-R)
The same year brought the neighborhood its biggest early manufacturer: William Fetzer & Co., which, following energetic recruiting by Springfield promoters, transferred its operations and 150 jobs to Harvard Park from Middletown, Ohio. The Fetzer plant made grain drills, seeding machines, transplanters, potato planters and similar equipment.
Springfield’s incentives to Fetzer included three free acres in Harvard Park. Subdivision developers pledged $5,000 and local business groups $10,000 more to pay for construction of Fetzer’s assembly plant. The factory was built on Stanford west of 11th Street.
Fetzer outlined the city’s other attractions in an interview with the Illinois State Register.
Among the advantages which influence Mr. Fetzer to come to Springfield were:
First – The supply and cheapness of fuel.
Second – The richness of this agricultural section – the Corn Belt of which Springfield is the Brilliant buckle.
Third – Transportation advantages and ability to ship direct to the dealer.
The factory in Harvard park will be located on the belt line which the Chicago & Alton has given Mr. Fetzer assurances will be built in the very near future.
The building to be erected will be 560 feet long and constructed either of brick or concrete.
Fetzer became one of the neighborhood’s most prominent boosters. He was quoted in a 1909 newspaper advertisement:
I might properly say that our company has made a very great mistake if we didn’t find in HARVARD PARK the best factory location in America, and I haven’t believed yet that we have made any mistake in coming to SPRINGFIELD. (Capitalization in original.)
William Fetzer & Co. shut down in 1918, and the Fetzer plant was taken over by Monarch Tractor Co. in 1926. Allis-Chalmers bought out Monarch two years later, and A-C (later Fiatallis) remained Springfield’s preeminent heavy industry for nearly 60 years.
Residential Harvard Park was mostly developed before the Great Depression. The Harvard Park Dads Club, founded in the early 1940s, became the neighborhood’s best-known organization after World War II. The club, which, according to a 2008 Illinois Times article, had 500 members in 1950, supported itself with an annual minstrel show.
Youth baseball team sponsored by Harvard Park Dads Club, 1968 (Sangamon Valley Collection)
Its activities included sports programs, dances, holiday giveaways and a variety of community events, especially following construction of the group’s clubhouse at 2525 S. 12th St. – outside the traditional boundaries of Harvard Park – in 1950. (The Springfield Jaycees took over the building in 1982; they donated it to The Outlet, a mentoring program that originated in Jacksonville, in 2015.)
Harvard Park celebrated the 100th anniversary of its annexation in 1908. Interviewed by The State Journal-Register’s Chris Dettro, neighborhood association president Polly Poskin explained Harvard Park’s continuing appeal.
Harvard Park is a replica of growing up in a small town. It’s a neighborly community where we look out for our neighbors, yet there is privacy. There’s lots of camaraderie, and it is reasonable, safe, comfortable living.
Other Harvard Park industries
Springfield was a manufacturing town in the first half of the 20th century, and many of the city’s best-known industries operated in the Harvard Park area. Allis-Chalmers/Fiatallis was the largest, of course, but a few of the others were:
Rayfield Motor Co. (successor to the Springfield Motor Car Co., although few automobiles were produced in the firm’s Harvard Park factory).- Baker Manufacturing (later taken over by Allis-Chalmers).
- Shanklin Manufacturing Co., which specialized in miners’ lamps. Shanklin became the Park Sherman Co., best known for its cigarette lighters and a variety of novelty items.
- John W. Hobbs Corp., automotive accessories.
- Weaver Manufacturing Co., auto garage equipment.
- Fred R. Coats Co., watch parts and precision instruments.
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I know Allis-Chalmers is long gone, and I guess Hobbs too, but do any other original industrial buildings in the area still exist?
Jeff: As far as I know, there still are a few — a couple of repurposed Weaver buildings, the Paris Cleaners property (which is closing now too), and the 1936 Fred. R. Coats plant on Yale Boulevard(take a look at SangamonLink’s entry on that company). I think one last Fiatallis building is still standing on Stevenson Drive as well. But I don’t think there’s much else. Thanks for reading, and thanks for the comment.
Hobbs was demolished in late 2014 or early 2015. A Dollar General now stands at the northeast corner of 11th & Ash Sts. while the rest of Hobbs’ footprint remains vacant. Interestingly enough, The Keg, at the northwest corner of 11th and Ash, is for sale as of 9/18/19.
The State Fire Marshall occupies the last remaining Fiat Allis building at 11th and Stevenson. There are two other buildings, one is directly east of Paris Cleaners and 1016 E. Ash Street, which has housed a carpet store (DuPont Bros, 1978), Pearless (not sure what this was, but it was 1967) and was also Starr Brothers Distributors for Falstaff beer. Comparing photos from yesterday and 2019, the building has been altered from its days as a beer distributor to a car repair shop as it stands today.
Thanks for the info, Liz, and thanks very much for inspiring the entry.
You’re welcome :)
First off, the DG is on the northwest corner and The Keg is on the northeast corner of 11th & Ash. Directions are obviously not my strong suit.
The building directly west (not east) of Paris is now home (at least partially) to Illinois State Museum’s Research & Collections Center. I haven’t been able to track down what it was in a former life, however.
Starr Brothers was at 1016 E. Ash as far back as 1939. I have a couple receipts from that year. A case of Falstaff was $2. One is here:
https://imgur.com/JjNAwZd
Starr Brother’s was at the East Ash location until at least 1954. They also distributed Stag in the 1950s and Griesdieck beer and Cask Cold Turkey in the 1970s. By the late 1970s, Starr Brothers had expanded to Carlinville and Lincoln.
a bit of Illinois history from ALPLM Chronicling Illinois website: Monticello College first began as the Monticello Female Seminary in 1838. Founded by Captain Benjamin Godfrey to provide education for women, the school offered two years of classes for attendees based on the idea that “if you educate a man you educate an individual; educate a woman and you educate a whole family.”
Godfrey selected Reverend Theron Baldwin to serve as the first head of the Monticello Female Seminary. In 1867 Harriet Haskell became principal, a position she held until her death in 1907.
On November 4, 1888, a fire broke out in the building and consumed the entire structure. Ms. Haskell and the school’s Board of Trustees successfully fundraised for a new building and rebuilt the school in two years.
The school’s leadership made the decision to close the school in 1970 with the final class graduating in 1971. Lewis and Clark Community College completed the purchase of the Monticello College campus in 1972.
Fantastic read, as always!