I found this picture and at first - I was like neat! Ayr-Way's! But then, I started zooming in on the different areas of the picture and that's when I saw all of the other gems.
Starting from left to right.
1) Kmart (probably their garden shop)
2) This looks like a Ponderosa!
3) A church? A cemetery? I don't remember this at all.
4) Burger Chef (I miss the works bar!)
So then, I had to go out to Microsoft Maps and see what the area looks like today.
1) Empty Building - what used to be Ayr-Way's. Sadness. Church and cemetery seems to still be intact.
2) Not Burger Chef. Sadness. Ponderosa? Not sure. Doesn't look like it. Not sure what that other building is. That's what I think had the KMART sign on it in the 1970's picture.
It's just really sad to me that first, downtown was shred to bits and then the south side of town followed suit.
Sigh.
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6 comments:
I think it mostly had to do with the railroads.
The railroad on the south side of downtown was elevated near the turn of the last century, which caused the south side boom.
The north side was elevated in the middle of the century and thus opened up the can of worms that is the north side (Coliseum, Glenbrook, etc).
With no such boundary north, it's been trending that way since - at the expense of the southside and downtown.
In that last picture, that SURE looks like the abandoned TARGET store in the upper part of the picture.
The national City bank is in the middle right, just above S. Anthony Blvd.
On the middle left would have been that Long John Silvers (home to many a robbery).
That new McD's has the lower right spot NOW (formerly a Hardee's), and the empty building on the lower left would be the former K-Mart auto shop.
At least that's what I recall from the last 10 years.
And to add to Scott's comment, the NORTH side is now WAY obverdeveloped and traffic bears that out.
The SOUTH side paid the price of that (excess) with less retail & more crime.
Thanks Win & Paul...for nothing.
B.G.
The church you reference would be Bethlehem Trinity Lutheran Church. I spent many a Sunday morning waking up there.
I worked at that Ponderosa in the mid-80s. By then Ayr-Way was Target, and Burger Chef was Hardees.
It really is sad to go down there now. I vaguely remember when Southtown was NEW--I was very young. I also remember how big the mall seemed when Sears and that whole "new" wing with the food court, etc. was added. Oh boy, now I feel old.
I lived two miles from there from 1970-2005. The most dramatic shift to the area came after the 1983 pullout by International Harvester, imho.
i have to agree with the internation harvester pullout alot of my dads coworkers/friends lived and shopped over there. dad retired a few years before harvester shut down. i remember to this day of going from eating the salad for school lunch to the free lunch line and not having anything and other teenagers just not understanding.
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