Here are some photos from the Nelson Family of the 1975 Mattoon Street Arts Festival (the third one).
Downtown Springfield through Hollywood’s eyes in early 1970’s
14 JunThe movie “The Reincarnation of Peter Proud” was filmed in and around Springfield in the early 1970’s. This was no “Citizen Kane”, but it’s cool to see your city up on the big screen. Someone did a mashup of the scenes of Downtown Springfield and posted it on YouTube — I found this on Tommy Devine’s Valleyist blog:
Last batch of paving and sidewalk photos
14 JunThese are the last of the photos of the street improvements from the 1970’s that I got from the Nelson family, the people who owned 29 (where I now live) and 26 (building demolished, current site of condominiums built in 1982 as an in-fill project) Mattoon Street.
More street improvements early 1970’s
14 JunIn the early 19070’s a group of people from greater Springfield got together to try to preserve the historic Victorian townhouses on Mattoon Street. The street was suffering badly from blight and fires and was a sketchy street filled with boarding houses (where you could rent space by the hour), prostitutes and drugs. Many homes which were built in the late 1870’s to house a single family housed dozens of unrelated people in the 1970’s.
The Quadrangle-Mattoon Historic District was formed in 1971. It was the city’s first Historic District. Without the creation of that historic district and the hard work of several considered private citizens, along with generous government funds to enable capital improvements, the street would not be the gem that it is today. Things like this don’t happen automatically or by chance. It takes planning and public-private partnerships and caring property owners and residents.