In 2001, about two months after I started working at The State Journal-Register, my editor asked me and a few other reporters to work on a package of stories about the struggling, historic Enos Park neighborhood just north of downtown Springfield.

I was the lead reporter and worked for about six months with photographer Kristen Schmid-Schurter documenting the neighborhood, its people, its challenges and its future.

We talked to a lot of residents, determined to preserve their neighborhood from criminals and absentee landlords and make it a safe, attractive place for people to raise families and grow old. We also investigated the number of boarded-up homes in the neighborhood, the police department’s attention to the area, the neighborhood association’s no-holds-barred approach and the history of Enos Park.

The result was a week-long series (Dec. 16-23, 2001) called “The Fight for Enos Park.”

Life in Enos Park / Putting the neighborhood back together

Buddy and Dawn Smith always thought their ideal neighborhood would be a small, modern, middle-class subdivision. Instead, they found their dream home in the heart of Springfield’s Enos Park neighborhood.

“I look over there (at the subdivision) now and I don’t even feel the same way,” Dawn said as she relaxed in her spacious two-story Victorian home in the 1100 block of North Fourth Street. “I look over at those houses and I think, ‘Those aren’t even in the same league as my house.’ ”

Just two blocks from the Smiths, another young Enos Park resident recalls having the same sense of pride in the neighborhood when his family moved into a similar home in 1998.

After three years, though, Dale Logerquist’s enthusiasm ran its course. Tired of fighting off drug dealers and worried about his family’s safety, the Logerquists sold their home in September.

“Raising a kid around here, that is not right,” he said. “If anything happens to my girl, there’s only one person to blame, and that’s me because I stayed in the neighborhood.”

There is a revolution going on in Enos Park, but the battle is not for everyone. Smith and Logerquist are just two of the faces: One has chosen to take on the neighborhood’s enemies; the other has decided enough is enough. There are many others similar to both of them.
Once one of Springfield’s finest neighborhoods, Enos Park, which is bounded by Third and Ninth streets, North Grand Avenue and Carpenter Street, gained a reputation during the past 20 years for crime, deteriorating housing and general urban decay.

It is impossible to define Enos Park according to socio-economic levels, racial makeup, age, architecture or zoning. With more than 1,500 residents, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, it is one of the city’s largest and most diverse neighborhoods.

But things are quietly changing for the better in Enos Park. One might not even notice the improvements. It requires driving through the neighborhood – something many Springfield residents stopped doing years ago – or talking to its residents.

“You’re not going to get mugged in Enos Park,” said resident and landlord Owen Anderson. “Enos Park is nothing like it used to be. It’s a safe place to be. Reputations take a long time to build, and they take a long time to tear down.”

Behind the numbers

Census numbers tell some of the story – and if you go solely by the numbers, Enos Park still looks like a prototypical inner-city neighborhood.

From 1990 to 2000, Enos Park’s population fell by nearly 35 percent. Residents in 1990 numbered 2,414; only 1,578 people were counted there in 2000.

The racial makeup of Enos Park also shifted during the 1990s. In 1990, the census indicated nearly 80 percent of the residents were white. About 19 percent were black. By 2000, the neighborhood was two-thirds white and one-third black, according to census figures. However, those numbers are less conclusive than they appear because the 2000 census, for the first time, allowed citizens to list themselves as more than one race.

In 2000, there were 181 households with children. In only 66 cases were there two adults in the family. The other 115 families were headed by single parents – 93 of them by single mothers.

Much of Enos Park’s population decline was the result of dilapidated houses being boarded up or demolished. In 2000, census enumerators counted 961 housing units in Enos Park, about 20 percent fewer than 1990.

Of the 961 units, 309 were vacant. Homeowners lived in 202 of the occupied houses, while 450 units were rented out.

But Enos Park advocates say the census figures do not reflect the true picture of the neighborhood. Some of those statistics already are out of date – for instance, some of the vacant housing units counted in the census were awaiting demolition for redevelopment projects, such as a condominium project in the 600 block of North Sixth Street and a convenience store in the 400 block of North Grand Avenue East.

More importantly, Enos Park’s boosters say, the numbers do not reflect a change in attitude that picked up steam in the 1990s. They do not show the effects of aggressive neighborhood policing. They do not reflect improvements resulting from increased attention from city public works, building and zoning employees, prodded by a pit-bull neighborhood association. They only indirectly recognize that a few daring investors have put their money into properties that most developers would give up as lost causes.

Most importantly, supporters say, the census cannot measure the spirit of a neighborhood. Enos Park is not yet a success story. Even with the best of luck, there probably will never be a time when the residents of Enos Park can say, with certainty, that their neighborhood has been “saved.” But unlike 10 or 15 years ago, there is growing optimism – cautious optimism – that Enos Park can remain a true neighborhood, instead of a slum, for decades to come.

Taking a stand

“It happened kind of gradually, so nobody really saw it until they woke up and said, ‘My God, this place is a dump,’” John Szerletich, who has lived in Enos Park most of his life, says of the area’s decline. “A lot of people packed up and left. Other people got together and said, ‘Uh-uh. We were here first.’ ”

Residents dug in their heels. They organized the Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association, started a crime watch, began to hound absentee landlords who would not renovate or tear down dilapidated properties and relentlessly pursued city officials to give the neighborhood the tools it needed to mend itself.

Crime still is higher than residents and police would like, though people involved say the nature of area crime has changed from violent offenses to property crimes and ordinance violations. Residents credit an increased police presence, including a neighborhood police officer, with curbing crime.

Many properties remain dilapidated, though the number of boarded-up houses decreased significantly this year, in part due to an initiative by the neighborhood association. Several developers and Enos Park residents have committed themselves to buying and renovating formerly condemned houses.

And, as successful as the neighborhood association is, the number of people involved with it still amounts to only a small fraction of the people who live in the area. That creates an occasional feeling among active residents that others are enjoying the fruits of their labor.

Springfield’s west side expansion also is a source of resentment for Enos Park advocates. Anderson summed up what many believe is keeping the neighborhood from thriving: “It’s cheaper to go to the west side and develop a cornfield than it is to renovate a house in the inner city.”

“There are a certain amount of steps you have to go through to renovate a neighborhood, and we’re not there yet,” said Marilyn Piland, executive director of the Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association. “I’d say we’re midway. We’re not early in the process by any means – not after 10 years. But midway.

“There’s still so much yet to do. There are dramatic improvements in so many things, but there’s still so much yet to do.”

Moving out

Dale Logerquist and his family decided not to wait. Until Sept. 24, Logerquist, his wife, Rebecca, and their 14-year-old daughter, Samantha, lived in the 1100 block of North Third Street.

The Logerquists moved into the Enos Park neighborhood in 1998. After renting on West Monroe Street, purchasing a 3,500-square-foot, two-story home on Third Street seemed like a dream come true.

“We looked at tons of houses when we decided to buy,” Dale said. “This was the perfect size and had a good layout.”

But after three years in Enos Park, Logerquist says crime got to be too much for his family. Car stereos blasted during all hours of the night. Drivers sped up and down the street. He feared for his family’s safety.

Nearby Gehrman Park should have been an asset, but family members hesitated to walk there, not knowing what kind of characters they would encounter at the park or on the way there.

Logerquist learned the house next to his was a drug house. Police raided it during the summer. Pulling over a car that had just left the house, officers found a box inside containing 10 pounds of marijuana.

Once, Logerquist’s younger brother came to visit. Drug dealers ran up to the brother with baseball bats, threatening him because they thought his car looked like the one owned by a man who had stiffed them on a drug deal.

“You know what’s ironic?” Dale asked. “When we lived on West Monroe Street, we were robbed eight times. We’ve only been robbed here once, and that was because I left all the garage doors open one time right after we moved in.”

The Logerquist family wanted out of the Enos Park neighborhood so badly that they were willing to sell their home for less than they put into it. They “lost their shirts” on the deal, Logerquist said, which disappointed him because he and his family loved the old house.

“We had something very special here, and now it’s gone,” he said. “No matter how much you do to the property, you’re never going to get back what you put into it. You could move this house 10 minutes either direction from here and double the price.”

The Logerquists were willing to sacrifice about 1,000 square feet of living space by moving into a smaller house near Lanphier High School. They had to sell some of their belongings, but Logerquist said it was worth it. For him, peace of mind is more important than having extra room.

“I did not know Springfield well enough when I bought this home,” he said. “I should not have bought this home.

“When we first moved to Enos Park, my daughter and my wife were scared to walk the streets at night. We thought we’d made the biggest mistake of our lives moving in here.”

Perfect location

Buddy and Dawn Smith, on the other hand, are overjoyed by their new home and neighborhood. When the Smiths decided earlier this year to buy a bigger house, they at first set their sights on one of the new small subdivisions in Springfield.

One in particular beckoned to them. It was centrally located to shopping, close to the couple’s state jobs and a safe place for their 8-year-old son, Sean, to play and ride his bike.

But the houses were not as large as the couple had hoped for, and the prices were out of their range. Disappointed, they looked elsewhere.

Their search led them to Enos Park, where spacious old homes are being restored and marketed to young, growing families.

The Smiths liked what they saw in the neighborhood. In early May, they purchased a green, two-story home with 2,300 square feet and four bedrooms.

“I wanted a new house,” Dawn said. “I never gave much thought to old houses, but when I first walked into this house, it just changed my whole outlook.

“It has so much character, inside and outside. New houses really only have character on the outside. It costs a lot of money to put character on the inside. Somebody put a lot of work into this house. You can’t get the same quality in the new houses.”

Dawn, who was raised in Springfield, and Buddy, who is from Decatur, knew about Enos Park’s reputation before they moved in. It gave them pause.

“We knew there was a lot of crime and drug houses over this way. We knew it was run-down,” Dawn said.

“We went to a neighborhood association meeting. A policeman said they were beginning to raid the drug houses,” Buddy said. “They had already raided one house, so we knew it wasn’t just talk. Knowing that something was being done affected our decision to move here.”

Buddy said there has been one shooting incident near his house since the family moved in. It ended peacefully. Regardless, it is better than their old neighborhood, he said.

The Smiths previously lived in the 1500 block of East Cook Street, where gunfire and gang activity are common.

“Our house was shot and our car was shot,” Buddy said. “For us to get Sean out, we had to take him to the park.

“Here, we feel safe letting him ride his bike to the park. This is definitely a step up – in safety and in quality.”

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The Ditiways / ‘We thank the good Lord for what we have’
Sunday, Dec. 16, 2001

Virginia Ditiway prayed hard before she packed up her three children and moved from Chicago to Springfield. She had a chance at a job with better pay and the opportunity to send her kids to better schools.

The family first moved into a Chatham Hills apartment while Ditiway, 37, had a temporary job for the state. When the temp job ran out, she debated what to do.

“I was going to go back to Chicago, but my pastor told me to stay,” said Ditiway, who currently works for the secretary of state. “Within six months, I found my dream home.

“This is a quiet neighborhood,” she said of Enos Park. “I didn’t want to move to the east side because it’s kind of wild. It reminded me too much of Chicago.”

Her home in the 1000 block of North Third Street has plenty of room for her three kids, Demetrius, 15, Thenther, 13, and Monique, 11. It’s a far cry from their surroundings in Chicago, where, for a while, they lived in low-income housing projects.

“We lived in the projects; we’re not of the projects,” Ditiway said, emphasizing the distinction. “The rent was real cheap. It enabled me to get the things I needed for my kids.”

Her children are Ditiway’s top priority. All three attend Grant Middle School, and Ditiway conducts a Sunday School service with them in her home on Sunday mornings.

The family has no car, so they rely on buses and their legs. Recently, they all rode a bus to the Esquire Theater on MacArthur Boulevard.

By the time they emerged from the theater, buses had stopped running, so they walked home.

“It was fun. It was dark and the moon was out. We were so exhausted when we got home,” Ditiway said as her children help tell how they stopped to measure themselves against the statue of Abraham Lincoln on the Statehouse lawn. “We ain’t got no car, but we thank the good Lord for what we have.”

Ditiway likes being able to keep an eye on her kids when they go across the street to play in Enos Park. She attends meetings of the Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association, and in December was elected to its board of directors.

“We need to find out what’s going on in the neighborhood,” she said. “The kids say they’re bored, but I’m really not concerned about them being bored.

“I’d rather they be bored than out on the street.”

—

The DiGiovannas / Family spends lifetime in neighborhood
Sunday, Dec. 16, 2001

Tony DiGiovanna remembers playing in Enos Park as a youngster, long before Memorial Medical Center was built on the western fringe of the neighborhood.

“We lived on First Street, and I went to Douglas School. We used to play kick-the-stick on Miller Street. We used to play marbles over there, too,” Tony recalled.

Tony, 91, and his wife, Bernice, 85, are among the oldest residents in the Enos Park neighborhood. The couple, who celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary Nov. 8, have lived on North Fourth Street since 1980. Tony’s parents lived in the same house, moving there in 1934.

Tony and Bernice met at a dance in a ballroom at the old Orpheum Theater.

“We can’t dance anymore. I’ve got arthritis, and he’s got emphysema,” Bernice said.

Tony disagreed. “Oh, I can dance. I just can’t dance a whole dance,” he said, grinning and demonstrating his moves.

Bernice also grew up near Enos Park, and she remembers it as a peaceful neighborhood full of working-class families.

“There were some pretty well-off people living here, too,” she said, recalling the Hatch estate on Seventh Street.

But Bernice also remembers how life in Enos Park deteriorated not long after she and Tony moved in. Shootings and drugs became common, and she began to lock her doors.

“I wanted to move away from here when I started to see the way it was going,” Bernice said. “Tony wouldn’t do it. He said he was going to stay here until he died. We lived through the worst of it, I guess. We’re not too worried about it now.”

—

Home front / Owners take pride in their property
Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2001
By JAYETTE BOLINSKI, TIM LANDIS and JASON PISCIA

George and Leslie Lay were renting a house in the 900 block of North Sixth Street when an opportunity opened up to buy a home in the same block.

“We prayed about it, because we didn’t want to jump into something,” George Lay said. “Some of our relatives didn’t want us to buy it. They said it would cost a fortune and would require too much work. But having our own house, that speaks for itself. We’ll never have a landlord again.”

The Lays think they got a bargain.

In June, they bought an older three-story home complete with 4,100 square feet of living space, a basement, an attic, a large front porch, three bathrooms, two fireplaces, two staircases, hardwood floors, leaded-glass windows, walnut trim throughout, original light fixtures and a corner lot. The price? $53,000.

The house, which had been four apartments, needs work. The floors have to be refinished, the kitchen needs remodeling and the furnace is on its last legs, but the Lays plan to do much of the work themselves. They hope to finish the job in about five years with the help of friends, family and their sons – Dustin, 12, Gregory, 10, Steven, 9, and Gabriel, 4.

“If it takes me 10 years to do it, who cares? It’s mine,” said George Lay, 38. “We always talked about getting an old house out in the country somewhere. Now we’ve got one in the city.”

The biggest housing problem in Enos Park, residents say, is absentee landlords who allow their properties to become dilapidated. Many will not fix up their properties, but they will not tear them down, either.

One run-down home often breeds others. Once such a blight begins, it nearly is impossible to eliminate, residents say.

“I’ve always said our major problem is our absentee landlords – absolutely the major problem,” said Marilyn Piland, executive director of the Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association. “And landlords who do not exact responsibility from their tenants.”

The neighborhood association is trying to eradicate the blighted housing. Members are working to unboard houses and make contact with landlords who may not realize their properties are a nuisance to the area.

Although the neighborhood association has no firm numbers indicating how many former apartment buildings have been converted to single-family homes, Piland can tick off between 15 and 20 that have been or are in the process of being converted.

The number of boarded-up houses in Enos Park has dropped because of conversion or demolition – several were demolished this fall for construction of a convenience store in the 400 block of North Grand Avenue East – from 43 in January to 27 in November.

Backers of Enos Park redevelopment efforts consider families such as the Lays crucial to restoring the neighborhood. The city of Springfield three years ago even weighed in with home-improvement incentives and mortgage assistance, though demand for the program has been sporadic.

For instance, buyers who can come up with 2 1/2 percent of the purchase price as a down payment can qualify for a matching grant of up to 2 1/2 percent from the city. The city also will pay certain closing costs.

Figures from the Capital Area Association of Realtors show that 44 single-family homes were for sale in Enos Park in mid-October. Prices ranged from $19,900 on the low end to $97,500 for the most expensive property. The median price was $54,950.

A longtime realty agent in the Enos Park neighborhood said city assistance and housing costs are not the only factors that prospective buyers take into account.

“There is just a lot of turnover” in Enos Park, said James McClernon, who has operated McClernon Real Estate in a converted gas station at 1037 N. Fifth St. for numerous years.

McClernon said Enos Park remains a blend – well-kept or remodeled homes often adjoin run-down rental properties or properties where crime is common.

“It seems like there’s a little more demand out there. But there has to be some more stability in the neighborhoods,” he said.

Neighborhood proponents hope construction of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum on the north end of downtown may boost interest in living in Enos Park. Developers also are looking to employees of St. John’s Hospital and Memorial Medical Center, both on the margins of the neighborhood, as a logical source of home buyers.

“The market has begun to improve a little,” said realty broker Fritz Pfister. “I can see nothing but good for that neighborhood once the library and museum is completed.”

Steve Arbuthnot and Patrick Quigley, who coordinate buyer assistance programs for National City Bank, said low-interest loans and down payment assistance have generated interest in Enos Park. Depending on income and a property’s value, in fact, some prospective buyers essentially can buy an Enos Park home for no money down.

But Arbuthnot and Quigley also said the area remains in transition.

“The idea is that we want to encourage families with a little more stability and a higher income profile,” said Arbuthnot, a bank vice president who also is executive director of the National City Community Development Corp. for Illinois.

Indeed, Lay believes his house would be worth $30,000 more had it not been for neglected properties nearby.

“Our appraiser said he couldn’t appraise it where he wanted to,” Lay said. “The boarded-up houses across the road lowered the property value.”

Some boarded-up houses are seeing new life. Investors and neighborhood proponents are buying up the old places and converting them back into single-family dwellings. Fletcher “Bud” Farrar, Owen Anderson and Illinois Investment Group, managed by John Koua, are working toward that goal.

New construction exists in Enos Park as well. Melbourne Place, built by developer Dan Mulcahy at 631-639 N. Sixth St., finally opened earlier this fall. Mulcahy said he has roughly a half-dozen “serious potential buyers” for the 12 units, for which he is asking $93,000 to $97,500 each.

Some of the interest has come from medical residents at the nearby hospitals and Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.

The 1,100-square-foot, two-bedroom townhouse units, which include appliances, are a unique housing alternative in Enos Park. Thanks to a special arrangement with the city of Springfield, lower-income townhouse buyers can receive grants of up to $20,000 to cover down payments and closing costs. (Grant amounts depend on the purchasers’ income levels.)

“We’re trying to blend the historic elegance of the homes of the past that are being rehabbed with the urban upscale living of the present,” Mulcahy said.

The city has other programs at work in Enos Park. One initiative specifically designed for Enos Park is an “equity assurance program,” which provides a floor for a homeowner’s investment. If the neighborhood deteriorates and the value of a house goes down, the owner would be reimbursed 80 percent of the difference between the lower selling price and the original appraised value.

So far, interest in the program, in place since September 1998, has been sparse. Since there is a five-year waiting period for participants to cash in on a lost investment, no one has collected any money through the program.

Though Enos Park residents admit the neighborhood has a bad reputation, some believe real estate agents have done little to help eliminate its image as an undesirable place to live and raise a family.

“I think there’s going to come a time when Realtors aren’t going to redline us anymore,” Anderson said. “They’ll say, ‘I’ve got a real nice Victorian all redone in Enos Park. Want to go see it?’ ”

—

Coming together / Enos Park activists want all races to have role in the neighborhood
Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2001

When Virginia Ditiway and her three children moved into Enos Park, several of their white neighbors on Third Street welcomed them to the neighborhood.

It was an indication, Ditiway says, that there is little, if any, racial tension in the neighborhood.

“A lady who lives across the street came over and welcomed me, and the people who sold us this house have always been very good to us,” said Ditiway, who is African-American. “I’ve never felt unwelcome here.”

Enos Park may well be Springfield’s most racially balanced neighborhood. But the future of the area may depend on whether relations between blacks and whites can get beyond merely passing each other on the street.

As of the 2000 U.S. Census, two-thirds of Enos Park residents were white and about one-third were black. By comparison, in 1990, the census showed the neighborhood to be 80 percent white and nearly 19 percent black.

The neighborhood’s diversity is perhaps best demonstrated by McClernand Elementary School, located at 801 N. Sixth St., in the heart of Enos Park. It is the only public elementary school in Springfield that is naturally racially balanced – none of its students are bused in from other neighborhoods to meet school desegregation guidelines.

However, area residents generally agree that black residents of the neighborhood tend to be poorer than whites, and blacks here predominantly are renters, not homeowners. Although there are a few exceptions – notably housing redeveloper John Koua – blacks also tend to be less active in neighborhood improvement efforts, activists say.

Marilyn Piland, executive director of the Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association, thinks a stable racial mix is crucial to the preservation of Enos Park – mainly because that also would mean a stable economic mix.

“A decrease in white people and an increase in black people, I’d say that’s not good if somebody’s trying to renovate the neighborhood, only because black people, almost always to a person, are poorer,” she said. “There are areas where that’s not true, but in this area, that is true.”

Other white Enos Park residents are candid – as long as they are not quoted by name – in saying they think more blacks mean more crime.

One elderly woman said she believes the neighborhood went downhill after the John Hay Homes was demolished beginning in 1997. The vast majority of residents of the Hay Homes, a 599-unit public housing project, were black.

“A lot of blacks came over from the John Hay Homes,” the woman said. “That’s when the neighborhood started to go. I always worried they’d break in and steal everything.”

Neighborhood police officer Kevin Barrington disagrees. He said blacks did not bring crime to Enos Park. Rather, he attributes the crime in Enos Park not to race, but to being poor.

“The problem you have is that when you get low income into an area, you have dirt bags that want to take advantage of those low-income people – whether it’s selling drugs or just robbing them. There is no one answer to the problem,” he said.

Racially motivated hate crimes are not common in Enos Park, Barrington added.

According to newspaper records, the last hate crime in Enos Park was in June 1999, when a 34-year-old Hispanic man told police he had been attacked by a group of black men that yelled racial slurs at him while he was walking in Enos Park.

Barrington thinks the biggest racial challenge in the neighborhood is getting all residents – especially more black residents – involved in with the neighborhood projects.

“When you go to the spring Festival in the Park, you see a mix-match of everybody, and they’re all getting along,” he said. “I like to see that. It’s nice.

“The only thing that disappoints me is when we have the neighborhood cleanup. I used to wonder why aren’t we having any blacks coming out. That’s because it was just the middle-income people coming out for cleanups.”

Several black families are involved in the neighborhood association – among them Koua, who was born in the Ivory Coast. In addition to his housing rehab work, he is a leader in attempts to revitalize the Enos Park cellular phone patrol.

Koua’s wife, Deborah, said she believes many black Enos Park residents are renters and hesitate to get involved in the association because they do not have a strong sense of ownership in the neighborhood.

But Ditiway, who is on the board of the neighborhood association, said she thinks that is a poor excuse to not get involved.

“Even if they are renting, they should know about the neighborhood,” Ditiway said, adding that when she was a renter in Chicago, she took pains to get involved.

She says the reasons blacks do not get involved in Enos Park are the same reasons more whites are not involved.

“They probably don’t really have the time or make the time,” she said. “Maybe they have something better to do that they don’t want to get involved.”

Activists say they hope to get more residents – of all backgrounds – involved in neighborhood activities.

“We’re just reaching out to all our neighbors,” Piland said. “It doesn’t matter what their color is. We’re just reaching out, period. I don’t think race enters into that at all.”

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Heart and soul / Looking after Enos Park is a ministry for Anderson
Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2001

Owen Anderson is a lot of things to a lot of people – landlord, minister, friend, neighbor, husband, father.

But in Enos Park, 52-year-old “Andy” Anderson is considered a savior. Not only does he restore crumbling century-old homes, he also takes the homeless who flock to this neighborhood off the street, gives them places to live and teaches them how to be productive members of the community.

It is all part of his ministry, he says. Buying, renovating and renting property merely is a way to support the calling.

“This has been a ministry and a business from the start,” Anderson said. “I’ll be here ministering until the Lord says otherwise.”

That is not surprising coming from Anderson, who boldly displays a sign declaring “Jesus is Lord” on the side of the striking row apartments he owns in the 700 block of North Fifth Street.

Anderson bought his first Enos Park property, 922 N. Fifth St., in 1979. He currently owns property throughout the neighborhood, including most of the buildings in the 700 blocks of Fifth and Sixth streets from Miller to Enos streets.

A former union ironworker, Anderson quickly established himself as a dedicated landlord.

He rents only to responsible tenants, most of whom are employed and have stable lives. His buildings are popular with medical students because Enos Park is convenient to hospitals and the medical school.

If tenants do not have much money or have had financial problems in the past, Anderson sometimes arranges to put telephones and utilities in his name, working out his own payment schedules with the tenants.

He has been known to intervene with loan sharks on behalf of his tenants. He gets both parties together, gives the loan shark the money – Anderson refuses to pay interest – and tells the shark that the next time he or she lends money to the tenant, it is a gift.

Although Anderson understands that people have problems, he is a firm businessman.

“He’s got a reputation for being nuts because he doesn’t back down from nothing,” said Anderson’s wife of one year, Karen. “But he’s also kind of the mediator of the neighborhood. When people get crazy, he calms them down.”

Anderson describes himself as “somewhat rebellious and disobedient” in his younger days, but he finds himself backing away from volatile situations more often these days. Turning 50, he said, made him think twice about taking on roughnecks.

“I’ve had guns and knives pulled on me, but I’ve never been hurt,” he said. “My thinking is, if it’s not worth dying for, it’s not worth fighting for.”

These days, as Enos Park has apparently started on an upswing, there are fewer opportunities for Anderson to find himself at odds with drug dealers and criminals. Anderson is particularly proud of his block, which is clean, quiet and for the most part without crime.

“There was a time when you wouldn’t want to walk down the street at night,” he said. “There were some summers when at least every three nights, there’d be gunshots – two different guns shooting at each other.

“Very seldom do we have good people being victimized. It’s people fighting over booze or dope. It’s bad people preying on bad people. You have more chance of having problems at Panther Creek or White Oaks Mall than you do on this block.”

That was not always the case in Enos Park. The Andersons’ home at 717 N. Sixth St. is proof of that.

The two-story blue and pink Victorian, which Anderson bought in 1989, once was a private “social club” – an unlicensed late-night bar – operated by the notorious Davis “Cozy” Cole, Anderson says, reciting stories about the all-night parties, illegal gambling and prostitution that allegedly took place there.

Cole used to deep-fry meat and fish for raucous parties in a room off the back of the home’s kitchen, Anderson said.

“I had to wash that tin ceiling three times to get rid of all the deep-fryer grease,” he said.

Anderson and Karen, a licensed massage therapist, restored and decorated the home, as they do all their properties, with period fixtures and woodwork.

The couple frequently gets permission from contractors to salvage architectural elements from properties that are slated for demolition. Anderson has basements full of items that have been saved, and he often shares them with like-minded Springfield home owners.

Anderson is one of about six founding members of the Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association, which gets much of the credit for the neighborhood’s revival.

“Enos Park started to turn around about a couple years after the association got started,” Anderson said. “When we started those walking patrols, we started really shaking up those dope dealers.”

Anderson was vice president of the association in 2001, and he is in charge of making sure trash gets picked up. In addition, he is president and a founding member of the Springfield Landlords Association. In 1992 he was named the city’s Landlord of the Year.

“We do something from the time we get up until we go to bed,” Anderson said, looking at Karen and laughing. “But that’s not a complaint.”

Karen and Andy celebrated their first wedding anniversary in October. Naturally, they held their wedding reception in Enos Park.

“We thought it was real appropriate to have it there,” Karen said.

Many people from the neighborhood and the Andersons’ apartments were guests. The Andersons regularly have cookouts and parties at their home, to which all of their friends, neighbors and tenants are invited.

Karen, who grew up on the north side of Springfield, calls Enos Park her “old stomping grounds.”

Nevertheless, “The first night I was here by myself, I heard clank-clank-clank outside. It was a guy with a shopping cart. I thought, ‘Oh my God. What have I done?’ I wasn’t frightened, but I wasn’t used to the kind of people who live here.”

But, she says, she cherishes the neighborhood.

“I have just come to love these people,” she said. “Who else is going to love them? Because they’re not lovable. People don’t want to take care of them.”

Some people come to him for a roof over their heads. Sometimes they need a bus ticket. Others simply want him to pray for them.

For those who choose to stay, Anderson puts them up in one of his Enos Park houses. As long as renters stay out of trouble, do not abuse alcohol or drugs and are willing to learn how to work and lead an honest life, he will keep them on.

They look up to him. Some call him Mr. Andy. Others call him Dad.

Robert Augustus has lived in one of the Andersons’ Miller Street apartments for five years. He has several serious health problems and a limited monthly income. Augustus’ utility bills are in Anderson’s name, and Anderson has helped him get together money for prescriptions.

“If it wasn’t for Andy, I wouldn’t make it,” he said. “Andy is a friend.”

—

Return home / Illinois Investment Group brings single-family dwellings back to Park
Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2001

The abundance of abandoned housing in American cities is a rare sight in John Koua’s native Ivory Coast.

“In Africa, the need is just too high,” he said. “Somebody is going to live in that house and keep it up because it’s needed so badly. There’s a shortage.”

Perhaps that understanding is what propelled Koua, 44, and a group of investors to start a development company that has renovated more than a dozen homes in Enos Park, many of which are in the 1000 block of North Fifth Street.

The company, Illinois Investment Group, buys boarded-up houses one at a time and does the renovations as partners are able to invest money. Most of the buildings were homes-turned-apartment-buildings whose interiors had been wrecked by previous tenants. Many had been condemned.

Even Koua’s home was once a dilapidated building in need of much attention.

Koua, and his wife, Deborah, 36, renovated their 1860s home at 1001 N. Fifth St., which sits in the midst of the other renovations undertaken by Koua’s company. The couple has a 15-month-old daughter, Rosemarie.

John and Deborah have before-and-after renovation snapshots taped to the walls in every room. The house had been divided into four apartments. The staircase, they said, really was the only intact original element.

“It was boarded up and hadn’t been lived in for three years,” Deborah said. “But even the first time we came in, we could see that this was a really great space. The house is solid.”

John agreed.

“This is a great neighborhood with all the old houses,” he said. “We figured we could not go anywhere in Springfield and find a brick house with that big of a yard. We make it better for ourselves and also for the company we run.”

The ability to see promise in old structures and a desire to see their own neighborhood flourish led Koua’s company to buy other houses in Enos Park. Because of the financial risk involved with the projects, banks are skittish about making loans, and the company relies on investors to front money for the renovations.

Workers gut the homes and start from scratch, often installing new electric, plumbing and heat fixtures, as well as roofs. They also put in modern kitchens and appliances, but keep historic features such as staircases and fireplaces. Koua oversees much of the renovation work and transactions with prospective buyers.

In all, the group has renovated or will renovate eight houses on North Fifth Street. The house at 920 N. Fifth St. is the most recent addition to the collection. Additionally, the group fixed up one on Eighth Street and two on Seventh Street. It recently purchased one on Fourth Street and renovated it, too.

The ultimate plan is to sell the homes to single-family buyers. The group has sold one so far. Work still is under way on most of the rest.

“We live here. We’re part of this neighborhood,” Koua said. “I hate to see all those boarded-up houses.

“Our house was four apartments. You have five houses with four apartments. That’s 20 apartments in this one small block. We’re converting them back to single-family, which means there will be only five families. That’s more manageable.”

Koua, who moved to the United States in 1980 and earned degrees from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and Sangamon State University, said the company has projects in the works throughout Springfield, though most are concentrated in Enos Park. His background in real estate made for an easy transition into development projects.

Deborah, who grew up in northwest Iowa and works as a grant and contract coordinator at University of Illinois at Springfield, sees a lot of potential in Enos Park. She believes the neighborhood has more spunk and character than many popular west-side neighborhoods.

“This neighborhood can only get better from where it was,” she said. “We have a lot of good families moving in. People really know each other here, and I feel like people really work together.

“We’re happy to be here. We don’t want to be out west. It’s nice to have this option.”

—

William Smith / Apartment gives ‘Little Man’ big picture of Enos Park
Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2001

From his 10th-floor apartment at Hildebrandt Hi-Rise, William “Little Man” Smith can see for miles.

He watches leaves change colors in the autumn and drop from the trees that fill the Enos Park neighborhood. He can see the bustle of North Grand Avenue and he can watch as people pass on the sidewalk below.

Plus, he says, the rent is cheap.

Just 5 feet 4 and 110 pounds, Little Man is unemployed and gets by on a Social Security income. His wiry gray beard and thick eyeglasses make him appear older than his 51 years.

“I just thank the good Lord that I’m still here. A lot of people don’t make it when they get to be my age,” he said.

Living at Hildebrandt, 1151 N. Eighth St., makes it easy for him to get to grocery stores, restaurants and other services.

“Everything’s right here at my fingertips. It’s real nice around here,” he said.

Little Man moved to Springfield from Chicago about 30 years ago. His brother, Ronald Smith, lives nearby. Little Man’s finances are handled by Owen Anderson, an Enos Park resident and friend.

Each month on “check day,” Little Man makes the trek to Anderson’s place to pick up his spending money.

“It’s been peace and quite around here for me,” he said, taking a drag off a cigarette.

Taped to the wall behind him is a portrait another Hildebrandt resident drew of Little Man.

“I stay to myself,” he said. “I don’t mess with nobody, and nobody mess with me. People in the world are loony.”

He enjoys Springfield, he says.

“You can have Chicago. I don’t want it,” he said. “You wanna see me, you come here because I ain’t coming up there.”

—

Standing tall: Piland leads the charge for Enos Park
Thursday, Dec. 20, 2001

Marilyn Piland keeps a small reminder propped on a bookcase in her dining room.

“When the job gets you down, just PUSH – Pray Until Something Happens,” it reads.

Pushing and praying are a way of life in the Enos Park Historic Area, where Piland has developed a reputation for getting things done.

“I don’t know what keeps Marilyn going,” said former Enos Park neighborhood police officer Greg Williamson. “She won’t stop until she brings that neighborhood full circle. Can she do it? Yes. She knows what to do.

“You have to have a person like her, or this would have folded up years ago. She’s a backbone to the organization. She’s a leader holding everyone together.”

As executive director of the Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association, Piland takes seriously the responsibility of guiding the area into its next century.

In her mind’s eye, she says, the transient population, vacant and decrepit buildings, drug houses and crumbled sidewalks of Enos Park will disappear. In their place will be nicely painted homes, well-trimmed yards, picturesque landscaping, brand-new curbs and gutters, historic lighting lining the sidewalks and neighbors who walk the streets in the evening, greeting one another by name.

At 71, Piland says she is not sure she will live to see the neighborhood association’s work pay off. But she devotes her days and nights to the neighborhood anyway. Nobody makes her. She does not get paid, and there is no glory in it.

She offers no real explanation for her round-the-clock attention to Enos Park, except to say that she would fall asleep if she ever stops moving.

Owen Anderson, an Enos Park resident and friend of Piland, said she has credibility with Enos Park residents, city officials and others because she stands by her word and never backs down from a fight.

“All these city officials know Marilyn, and they don’t tell her no,” he said with a grin. “They know there’s a fight coming if they say no to Marilyn.”

In the ‘zone’

It is 6 p.m. July 24. The Springfield City Council is discussing changes in zoning regulations.

Zoning issues are a constant source of aggravation for residents of Enos Park, so Piland attends all zoning-related meetings. This night, she is one of the first people to arrive in the council chamber and one of the last to leave. She stakes out a seat in the front row, where she can see, be seen and hear every word that is exchanged.

Of particular interest is a proposal that would prohibit Springfield residents from parking vehicles in their front yards. That is something she hates to see in Enos Park, where image is everything. She has attended all of the meetings leading up to this one.

“Hey kiddo! You gonna do some good tonight?” a man asks Piland as he finds a seat in the row behind her.

“I hope so,” she replies and strikes up a conversation with him.

Piland is there for 21/2 hours before the council gets to “her” issue. After a brief explanation to the audience, the council votes on the matter.

“Yesss . . .” Piland hisses as she watches the votes appear one by one on the electronic board beneath the mayor’s podium. The vote is unanimously in favor of the restriction.

Her first question for the mayor after the vote is simple: “When does it take effect?” Ten days, she is told, which she finds satisfactory.

After the meeting, she climbs into her car, which bears the most obvious sign of her devotion to the neighborhood. The license plate reads ENOS PK 1, right under a “Don’t blame me, I voted for Poshard” bumper sticker in the rear window.

Her modest home in the 800 block of North Eighth Street is her office. A room that probably was meant to be a dining room houses a photocopier, tables, reams of paper, computers, printers, books, filing cabinets and paperwork.

A table in an adjoining room often is a gathering point for neighborhood residents. Several card files sit nearby, giving Piland instant access to the names and phone numbers of residents, city officials, neighborhood association members, landlords, business owners, donors, experts, contractors and police officers.

Need to know who owns the boarded-up property down the street? Not sure who to contact about getting your sidewalk repaired? Want to get involved in the neighborhood? Call Marilyn.

A planner keeps her on time to the dozens of meetings she has scheduled any given week.

She gathers and writes much of the information in the neighborhood’s monthly newsletter, the Enos Park Banner, circulation 1,000. She also lays it out, edits it, prints it and folds it, all from her home office.

She is not sure how to answer when people want to know how many hours she devotes to the neighborhood. Ask her, and she will laugh, bury her head in her arms and then groan.

After a long pause, she will lift her head and answer.

“I’ve always said 80,” she says. “When I do the newsletter, I usually work straight through from Sunday morning until Monday night. I don’t go to bed usually. I run the newsletter all night on Sunday night.”

There have been times when Piland has wanted to quit, but she always changes her mind.

Journey to the Park

Piland moved from Stafford, Kan., a town of about 2,000, to Springfield in 1960. Her position at a newspaper in Stafford was eliminated, and the company offered her a job in either Phoenix or at The State Journal-Register.

“I joined the union in Kansas; the employer tried to force us out,” she says. “I was a printer, setting type. I loved it, too.

“I said, ‘I can’t stand the heat,’ so I came to Springfield, Illinois. Little did I know . . .

“Since I’ve been here I haven’t had enough money to get out of town.”

Her first home in Springfield was on South Eighth Street, but she lost it after her boss cut her hours to four days a week for a year.

“So that’s when I moved to the north end and rented for 14 years until I could buy again. Actually, (the South Eighth Street home) is in kind of a decrepit neighborhood now. At the time I lived there, it was pretty nice. All things work together for good, you know?”

She says she never hesitated about moving to Enos Park.

“I thought it was nice,” she says. “I wasn’t aware of the reputation of the neighborhood. I was just looking for a nice house to rent. I found one; it was a lot smaller than what I was wanting, but it was the right price. I could afford it.”

Piland got involved with the Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association in 1990 after a neighbor, John Szerletich, encouraged her to join.

“Of course, I didn’t have any money to pay any dues, but I could help do the newsletter,” she says.

The following year, she became president of the association. She served in that capacity for four years and then became executive director.

“It just gives us another officer, but it also, in theory, would give me more time to raise money,” Piland says. “But it didn’t really work out that way.

“It was just like, anything that needed to be done, Marilyn will do it because she’s got the time. So that’s the way it ran.”

Piland’s touch

Most agree Enos Park would be in a lot worse shape without Piland’s commitment. She does not seem to understand the word “no,” and she speaks her mind, even if it means stepping on toes or hurting someone’s feelings.

A former editor of The State Journal-Register once banned Piland from the newspaper building after the two had an argument over coverage of Enos Park.

At the October neighborhood association meeting, a near-tears Piland read aloud an anonymous letter that accused her of being rude at a previous meeting and suggested that she is the reason more residents have not joined the association.

After finishing the letter, Piland apologized to the 40 people in attendance, saying she has never meant to hurt anyone’s feelings.

In what could have been an uncomfortable moment, association president Marsha Leckrone and vice president Owen Anderson turned the tables, accepting Piland’s apology and thanking her for her hard work. The air was clear, and it was back to business.

Jack Andrew, an Enos Park resident and former city alderman, has gone head to head with Piland. But, he said, the neighborhood would be a lot different without her.

“Marilyn has kept it all together, and she’s taken a lot of heat,” Andrew says. “If it hadn’t been for her, it probably would have fallen apart by now.”

Although Piland’s stubbornness causes hard feelings from time to time, Williamson, the former neighborhood police officer, says her heart is in the right place.

“When a neighborhood is in the shape this one was in, we have to attack problems,” Williamson says. “That may have caused some hard feelings in the neighborhood. But the mission of everyone is the same.

“She’s not doing anything for herself or for her own benefit. Everything she does is for that mission. If people are upset, it’s a temporary thing. You have to be outgoing, brave and courageous, and you can’t be afraid to step on toes.”

Even those in Springfield who cringe when they see Piland at their doors – several of whom have offices at city hall – admit her never-say-die persistence is a primary reason for Enos Park’s resurgence.

Pat Buckley, an environmental health inspector for the city of Springfield, has known Piland ever since he was assigned to the neighborhood seven years ago.

Piland often contacts him – by phone, by e-mail or by flagging him down in the neighborhood – to alert him to buildings that are in poor shape or to residents who are being a nuisance.

“When she gets something in her mind, she doesn’t back down,” Buckley says. “She holds us to things. It’s good to have a person over there who’s going to devote a large portion of her time to that neighborhood.”

Buckley has seen a lot of changes in Enos Park in seven years.

“Truly, without Marilyn’s drive and passion, I don’t know that this neighborhood would have turned around as much as it has,” he says. “It’s been a 180-degree turn-around. It went from a neighborhood that needed a lot of attention to where, now, it’s improved greatly.

“They are probably one of the strongest neighborhood associations I know of in this city. I’ve had a real good relationship with them.”

Piland will continue to fight for her neighborhood. Williamson believes her contribution may not be fully appreciated.

“Others say, ‘I’m here for a few years.’ How many years can you be devoted to a topic as a volunteer? That shows how important she is,” Williamson says. “She’s never given up. She’s been a mainstay.

“People may not realize it right now, there may be bad feelings from time to time, but Marilyn is an asset to this neighborhood. Once they get done with what their mission is, they’ll look back and they’ll see that she was behind it.”

—

Leading example / Neighborhoods pattern their associations after Enos Park
Thursday, Dec. 20, 2001

Members of the Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association acknowledge that faith has gotten them through more than one bleak situation.

“It’s not in our bylaws, but we’re a faith-based organization,” executive director Marilyn Piland says. “Somehow the money always comes in. We’ve been operating like that for 11 years.”

Her neighbors second that emotion. Faith – in the Enos Park neighborhood and in themselves – is crucial to the group.

When other neighborhood groups look at the Enos Park association, they see strong membership, what seems to be plenty of money, a sharp-looking newsletter and a core of volunteers who act more as family than neighbors.

What they do not see is that the organization struggles to attract new members, it barely has enough money to fix its copy machine and its volunteers sometimes disagree about the group’s direction.

But the group’s unrelenting determination to retain Enos Park’s quality of life keeps it successful.

What started in 1989 as a small band of residents with a mission to curb the crime encroaching on their neighborhood has turned into Springfield’s most successful neighborhood association – and a force to which other neighborhood organizations look for guidance.

In its years of existence, the Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association can be credited with increasing home ownership, reducing violent crime, cleaning up vacant homes, beautifying the area and creating bonds among neighbors that often are lacking in urban neighborhoods.

Enos Park members make it look simple, but things do not come so easily for the association. Stubborn landlords, indifferent tenants, tricky city politics and drug dealers who consider the neighborhood a base of operation all have presented obstacles to the group. As each problem fades, a new challenge takes its place.

“The Enos Park Neighborhood Association is a living, breathing animal. It needs to evolve. It has to grow with the need,” says John Szerletich, a former association president who has lived in the Enos Park area most of his life. “The crime element is down, but you can’t forget it. Look what happened here, you let your guard down, you let it in.”

Szerletich was raised in a house at Fifth and Enterprise streets in the 1970s. He remembers the feel of the neighborhood then.

“You knew your neighbors more. I remember Mrs. Sloe and Mrs. Nelson. If we ever did anything, the last thing you wanted was the neighbor lady calling over and saying, ‘I saw your son doing this,’ ” he says with a laugh.

“It cratered probably in the ’80s – derelict housing, weird characters hanging around.

“I guess if you looked at Enos Park as a clock face, with rock bottom being 6 o’clock, the neighborhood was not at 6 o’clock yet. It was more like 5 o’clock,” Szerletich says.

Finally, residents had enough. A small group started the Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association as an effort to snatch the neighborhood back from criminals and slumlords.

“The original organizers had vision,” Szerletich says. “They said, ‘I don’t see a bunch of run-down houses. I see a bunch of restorable houses.’ ”

Owen Anderson, one of the founding members, recalls the association’s early frustration at asking for help from local officials and getting silence in return.

“You’ve got a drug house next to you. You’ve got a slumlord who owns the place. He promises you the world, but doesn’t do a thing,” Anderson says. “We’re taxpayers. OK. So let’s get as many taxpayers together as we can and put our heads together and try to get some things done.

“To the city back then, Enos Park didn’t even exist.”

Piland, longtime executive director of the neighborhood association, made the difference, Anderson says. She wrote the group’s newsletter and gave the association clout.

“The newsletter, sent to all the politicians in town, gave us credibility,” Anderson says. “She’d go to all the zoning meetings and council meetings. So they got the idea there was a political force in the neighborhood, but it was just a facade then.

“There is now. They gave us a lot more credit than we deserved.”

Many Enos Park residents are low-income renters, and they are tough to entice into the neighborhood association.

“It’s difficult to ask poor people to join or fix up their homes,” says Marsha Leckrone, outgoing president of the neighborhood association. “How can I ask them to plant flowers in their front yards when they can’t even pay their light bill?”

Even so, the Enos Park association is the most active and aggressive neighborhood activist group in Springfield. There are 90 paying members, and the group represents more than 700 families, according to association statistics.

Members meet the second Tuesday of every month, usually at Third Presbyterian Church, 1030 N. Seventh St. Meetings run about two hours and consist of reports from association officers, the neighborhood police officer and others. City council members or legislators might pop in. Representatives of the city public health and public works departments attend almost every meeting.

There frequently is a guest speaker. One month, it may be someone talking about restoring homes or furniture; another month, a police officer may give a personal safety demonstration. In October, a veterinarian dropped in to talk about feral cats.

The meetings, which attract 20 to 30 people, are a chance for new residents to introduce themselves, for people to air complaints and for everyone to exchange ideas for neighborhood events or raising money.

Among the association’s recent efforts is “Paint Away the Blues,” a project in which members, using donated paint and supplies, paint the homes of neighbors who cannot physically or financially do it themselves. The association, through a city Good Neighbors grant, sold flowers and plants in the spring at special prices so Enos Park residents could spruce up their yards.

The association received a $2,500 grant this summer that will enable members to design a walking tour of the neighborhood, complete with markers at historic or interesting homes. It also organizes a home tour every year, which is the association’s major fund-raiser.

In addition to special projects, members continually work to get neighborhood sidewalks repaired, tree limbs picked up, trash and refuse hauled away, houses unboarded and sold, and criminal activity reported.

People in other neighborhood associations have taken note of Enos Park’s tactics. For instance, when the Oak Ridge Neighborhood Association – which speaks for the area just west of Enos Park – decided to compile its bylaws, members made a simple, unanimous decision.

“We just stole them from Enos Park,” says Jane Bucci, vice president of the Oak Ridge association.

The Oak Ridge group organized in February after residents became fed up with what Bucci described as a “raging gang problem.”

“We’re in the same police beat. The cops who work in Enos Park also bring techniques and things that worked over there over here,” Bucci says. “The whole current is heading this way because we’re tied up to Enos Park by geography. We shop at the same stores, drive the same streets and often work in the same places.”

Oak Ridge has received guidance from Enos Park on such activities as distributing a newsletter, organizing block parties, learning to deal with slumlords and having members attend city council and zoning meetings.

Bucci and Bill Engle, past president of the Hawthorne Place Neighborhood Association, agree that one thing all neighborhood associations can learn from Enos Park is the power of working together.

“If you speak with one voice, if you can mobilize enough voters, you’ll get somebody’s attention,” Engle says. “If you’re persistent and vocal, you can get some assistance.”

Patrice Jones, community development specialist for the Illinois Coalition for Community Services, says it is important for neighborhood associations to rely on one another for ideas and support.

“A lot of neighborhood associations fall apart because they don’t want to stay together and organize,” Jones says. “They don’t look at the bigger picture. Enos Park does. They see where the neighborhood is and where they want it to be.

“That’s basically what we want other neighborhood associations to do – just organize and be one voice.”

Now, the Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association’s mission is changing, with more emphasis being put on historic preservation and restoration.

The group has received a conditional nonprofit status from the Internal Revenue Service, which could increase donations and allow the association to apply for more grants.

The decision is considered a coup because the IRS typically does not award nonprofit status to neighborhood associations.

“They were not going to give it to us as long as we just were going to restore the quality of life and cut down on the crime and help people,” Piland says. “That’s not good enough.

“Our 501c3 (classification) is provisional for three years. At the end of that time, they will re-evaluate, and if we’ve done what we said we were going to do, which is to focus on the historic part, then we will get it permanently.”

Still, Szerletich is not sure the neighborhood association will ever be able to say its work is done.

“People get this image of what they think Enos Park is, and they can’t shake it,” he says. “The difference is you have a significant number of people in this area who are going to do something about it.”

—

Dollars & Sense / Stores make it their business to improve area
Saturday, Dec. 22, 2001

Construction has not started yet on a new convenience store on the north edge of Enos Park, but residents say the prospective business already has had a positive effect.

Where there once were rows of abandoned, dilapidated houses – some of them drug markets – there now is one large, vacant lot.

The site, between Fourth and Fifth streets on North Grand Avenue, will feature a new Qik-n-EZ store that will feature period lighting to suit the historic neighborhood and a police substation.

Buddy Smith, who lives in the 1100 block of North Fourth, says he has seen a noticeable decline in suspicious activity in the neighborhood since the buildings were razed.

“We’re thinking it’s all going to come around, especially with the Qik-n-EZ coming in. We think that may be an ally of ours,” Smith said. “With all those houses torn down, we’re seeing a lot less traffic.

“We used to have a lot of people just walking, just standing around. You never knew where they were going or what they were doing. Now you don’t have that anymore.”

Enos Park is surrounded by commercial development. North Grand Avenue, Carpenter Street and Ninth Street primarily are commercial thoroughfares, while Memorial Medical Center is edging closer to Enos Park’s western border.

The neighborhood and its boundary streets are home to fast-food and sit-down restaurants, antique stores, professional offices, gas stations, a music store, two hospitals, social service agencies, retail shops, an auto supply outlet, a hardware store, grocery stores, law offices and dry cleaners.

Across Fifth Street from the planned Qik-n-EZ is the Near North Crossing shopping center, which contains a grocery store, a dollar store, a rental center, a nail salon and an investment firm.

Near North developer Dan Mulcahy said the center, which opened in 1995, was one of the early cogs in Enos Park’s redevelopment. Mul-cahy now is marketing Melbourne Place, a new townhome project near Sixth and Carpenter streets.

The owners of businesses operating in or near Enos Park say that, while they remain concerned about the future of the neighborhood, they welcome recent improvements in the looks of homes, growth of resident pride and diminished crime.

“Certainly, we want it to be a good place and would like to see as much in terms of development and renewal as possible,” said Mitch Johnson, senior vice president for marketing and planning at Memorial.

“We want people who come to our hospital to feel comfortable traveling through the neighborhood. We have employees who live there, too, who are very committed to the neighborhood and us.”

Memorial submits health articles to the neighborhood newsletter, helps the neighborhood association apply for grants and provides physicals for students at McClernand Elementary School. The hospital this year reduced its donations to the neighborhood association because of budget constraints. But Johnson said that does not diminish the hospital’s interest in seeing the neighborhood flourish.

“It’s in both of our interests that it’s safe and that there isn’t crime,” he said.

For Karen Cearlock, owner of JK Odds and Ends at 1001 N. Ninth St., neighborhood safety might mean the difference between success or failure for her resale shop. The shop, which she started with a friend three years ago, is meant to see her through her retirement years. Cearlock has worked for 14 years in the cafeteria at Jefferson Middle School.

Many of her customers live in Enos Park, Cearlock said, and they are comfortable shopping in the neighborhood.

The store has been burglarized at least three times, Cearlock said, most recently in August when the thieves smashed a front window and stole televisions, VCRs and jewelry.

The only other criminal activity Cearlock has seen involves prostitutes who venture onto her block.

“I don’t let them work this corner during the day,” she said. “I tell them, ‘I’m the only one who does any selling on this corner. I don’t want you around here.’

“The neighborhood’s no worse than anyplace else,” Cearlock said. “The people I’ve met from around here, they’re good people. If you’re good to them, they’ll be good to you.”

Joe O’Neill bought Springfield Signs, 919 E. Enos Ave., in January 2000. The company has existed for more than 100 years, and O’Neill said he was apprehensive about the neighborhood until “I drove around Enos Park and saw some of the renovations and was excited that people were willing to invest their money here.”

He would like to get more customers from Enos Park itself, O’Neill said.

“We do business with Springfield Electric,” he said. “If we need tires changed, we go to Goodyear down the street. If the office wants to order pizza, we get it in the neighborhood.

“I just think local people ought to be able to profit from local people before they go national.”

However, he said, some people who live in Enos Park have given him hope that things will work out for him and the company. In the meantime, he has no plans to move his business.

“When I try to talk to developers about (operating in Enos Park), the non-northsiders tell me, ‘No. Don’t do it.’ They think I’m absolutely nuts,” O’Neill said. “The people in Enos Park who’ve done it give me the opposite response.”

O’Neill said he plans to get involved in the neighborhood association.

“My goal in Enos Park would be to get rid of some of the junky signs,” he said. “And any signs that Enos Park needs for the neighborhood association are going to be free of charge.

“It’s not that we’re rich. But if that will help, it costs a lot less for us to do it than for them to go somewhere else. I’ve seen what they have in their piggy bank.”

—

Edwards Place true work of art in neighborhood
Saturday, Dec. 22, 2001

To get a sense of how the Enos Park neighborhood looked in its prime, one needs to look only as far as Edwards Place – once the estate of a prominent Springfield family and current home of the Springfield Art Association.

“If you do your history, this is what Enos Park used to look like,” said Dean Adkins, executive director of the Springfield Art Association, gesturing to the beautifully maintained Edwards Place home, its spacious yard, grove of trees and brick sidewalks.

The staying power of the Springfield Art Association has survived the ups and downs of life in Enos Park since 1908.

Adkins, who has been in charge of art association operations for about a year, believes the bond between Edwards Place and Enos Park is stronger than ever.

The art association is a member of the Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association and helps the group with grant writing, provides meeting rooms and offers art scholarships to neighborhood children.

In turn, Enos Park residents take part in art activities, help keep the neighborhood clean and see that resources are directed to keeping Edwards Place a popular site for visitors and Springfield residents.

Despite occasional suggestions that the association move to a more upscale neighborhood, the art association is in Enos Park for the long haul.

“The art association’s mission is so tied up in Enos Park that I don’t think you could move it anyplace else,” he said. “We represent 170 years of history in the neighborhood. We feel it’s most important to commit ourselves to Enos Park.”

Built in 1833, Edwards Place is the oldest house on its own grounds in the city. It currently is a historical museum, art gallery, art school and library.

The original six-room house was situated in a 14-acre grove of trees. The home was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Edwards in 1843 and greatly remodeled and enlarged in the 1850s.

The house was a center for political gatherings, including elaborate picnics. It also was the setting for a Stephen Douglas rally, and Abraham Lincoln once spoke to a gathering from an upper window.

The first Springfield Art Club meetings took place at Edwards Place in 1908. In 1913, the Art Club became the Springfield Art Association.

For the most part, Adkins said, the art association’s experience in Enos Park has been positive. He especially enjoys seeing curious neighborhood children wander into the art association. But, he admits, Edwards Place often is the target of thieves.

“We do get neighborhood kids who pop in and look at books and things, especially during the summer,” Adkins said. “I’ve seen a lot of people just not know what’s in here or who are afraid to come in here.

“That’s one of the reasons I feel so disheartened when we have thefts. I feel like they’re stealing from themselves. It breaks my heart.”

Aside from thefts, vandals and trespassers often target Edwards Place. Adkins said he sometimes gets to work in the morning to find beer bottles all over the Edwards Place porch. He also said anything that is not nailed down likely will be stolen.

“I’m told the neighborhood is a lot better than it used to be,” Adkins said, citing the body of a murder victim that was dumped in the bushes at Edwards Place in 1993.

“Thefts are intermittent, but it happens enough that it’s an issue,” he said. “We have to have so many security guards and security lights. I wish we didn’t have to have them, but we do.”

Occasionally, older people and others who believe the neighborhood is trouble decline to go to Edwards Place for art openings or receptions, especially after dark, Adkins added.

“The neighborhood’s reputation as a rough neighborhood is exaggerated,” he said. “It’s transitional, but it’s not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. The more families that are cultivated into Enos Park, the better it will get.”

Adkins said he is encouraged by the activity he sees in the neighborhood every day. West of Edwards Place on Fourth Street, several homes are getting new coats of paint, siding, porch repairs and other renovations.

“We have to get more folks to move into the area and invest in the neighborhood,” Adkins said. “If another 10 to 12 families move into the neighborhood and invest themselves, I think the neighborhood will get over that hump, so to speak.”

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Taking shelter / Social service agencies play a role in Enos Park
Saturday, Dec. 22, 2001

A group starts to form on the north side of the Salvation Army building at Sixth and Carpenter streets about 4:30 p.m. during winter evenings. The crowd often grows to as many as 30 homeless men and women by 7 p.m., which is when the agency’s Carpenter Street shelter opens its doors.

With numerous social service agencies operating in Enos Park and on its fringe, many people who are homeless or in need find themselves spending their days in the neighborhood, trekking back and forth between agencies or simply passing the time.

Take Rusty, a 52-year-old man who declined to give his last name. Waiting outside the shelter one evening in November, Rusty recalled growing up in the Enos Park neighborhood. His family lived there when he was young, moved away, then moved back. These days, he has no job and no family with whom he can stay.

He used to be able to spend the night in one of the neighborhood parks, Rusty says, but now police run him off.

“They pretty well keep a close eye on everything. If you’re in the park more than a couple hours, they come and question you,” he said. “I see cops go up and down the street all the time.”

That is what neighborhood organizers want to hear. With social service agencies ranging from homeless shelters and food banks to clinical services operating in or near Enos Park, some residents say the neighborhood is all too accessible to the homeless, alcoholics, drug users and criminals.

But Calvin Jones, a social worker at the Salvation Army, said the number of low-income residents in Enos Park – people attracted by inexpensive rentals – means social service agencies are needed there.

“I wouldn’t say people move over here because of the social service agencies,” Jones said. “Once they move here, the agencies are a benefit. There are social service agencies here that can serve practically their every need.

“We have a great number of working-class, low-income people in our neighborhood here, people who work hard every day and have children and are struggling to meet basic needs, such as insurance, medical care and affordable housing.”

The Salvation Army, for instance, provides counseling, worship services, a winter homeless shelter, food and clothing services, and limited transportation and utility assistance.

“There are people in Enos Park who will never need a food basket from the Salvation Army,” Jones said. “But guess what? Some of these people are only one paycheck away from needing assistance.

“The argument that these agencies attract crime and deteriorate the neighborhood, I stand in disagreement with that. These sort of things happen everywhere. It’s just that some neighborhoods have a higher percentage of low-income people.”

Mental Health Centers of Central Illinois has made its home in Enos Park since the early 1980s. The agency helps clients who are persistently mentally ill and provides emergency mental health services to anyone who needs them.

Marcella Bobinski, director of marketing and planning for the agency, said the Mental Health Centers tries to be a good neighbor to Enos Park residents. Residents return that courtesy, she said.

Agency clinicians go out to visit clients, so the facility does not attract the mentally ill to Enos Park, she said.

“What we think we bring to this neighborhood is stability and excellent upkeep of the building and the grounds,” Bobinski said. “We certainly enjoy Enos Park and are committed to it. A lot of people are doing some wonderful things here.

“We have tried to stay in touch with the community police officer. We’ve worked hard to help him understand what we do so that we can call upon him, and vice versa.

“We like being here. It’s a great place to be.”

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Enos Park works on its image
Sunday, Dec. 23, 2001

Activists hope the image of Enos Park will get a permanent facelift through the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

In September, members of the Illinois Landmarks Preservation Council attended a workshop in Enos Park during which they talked with neighborhood residents about new ways to bring more people into the area.

Some of the preservation enthusiasts suggested Enos Park is more marketable than people in Springfield may realize. Several said they own homes in neighborhoods that need much more work than Enos Park.

“This is gorgeous,” one woman said. “It doesn’t look nearly as bad as people describe it.”

Positive features in Enos Park include population diversity, historic homes, mature trees, nearby parks, a blend of architecture, proximity to services and its location between major tourism draws, participants in the discussions concluded.

Negatives include high traffic volume, poor condition of sidewalks and curbs, boarded-up buildings, zoning problems and people’s perception of the area.

The group offered a variety of suggestions for neighborhood and image improvements. Some already have been tried. Others will be explored by the neighborhood association.

Suggestions included:

• Erecting signs that not only alert visitors they are in Enos Park but also indicate it is under renovation, and marking historically or architecturally significant homes;
• Adding lighting to enhance Enos Park signs and entry points;
• Encouraging staff members from nearby hospitals and offices to walk or exercise in Enos Park;
• Designing a walking tour of the neighborhood;
• Supplying information about Enos Park to area real estate agencies;
• Distributing information about the neighborhood’s history to residents;
• Coordinating yard sales, tool-sharing events, workshops and more cleanup days;
• Contacting home improvement shows about using Enos Park buildings as subjects;
• Cultivating partnerships with Downtown Springfield Inc., the city of Springfield, hospitals, preservation associations and Southern Illinois University;
• Creating a bike trail through Enos Park from downtown Lincoln sites to Lincoln’s Tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery.

Enos Park residents are adamant that there is only one good, direct route from the downtown Lincoln sites, including the presidential library and museum, to Lincoln’s Tomb – and that it runs through Enos Park.

They are banking on city officials pouring money into neighborhood improvements, such as curb and sidewalk repairs, historic lighting and better attention to the area’s appearance.

“They have to put more money in here,” said Marilyn Piland, executive director of the Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association. “I talked with (Downtown Springfield Inc.) for a couple years about getting something done on Ninth Street because that’s a corridor into town.

“I would think the city would be real concerned with that, but they seem to not pay any attention to it at all.”

Norm Sims, the city’s director of planning and economic development, said it is too early to tell if the city will sink any money into Enos Park.

“It’s still some distance out to see what the library is going to generate and what some of those traffic patterns are going be,” Sims said. “I know some folks in the Enos Park area have talked about the possibility of having restaurants, for example.

“It’s hard to judge that because you don’t know to what extent people will be moving from the library to the tomb, for example, and will want to stop at a restaurant in between.”

Dean Adkins, executive director of the Springfield Art Association, housed at the Edwards Place estate in Enos Park, said historic lighting and big brick sidewalks throughout the neighborhood would be wonderful for Enos Park residents, visitors and tourists.

However, he said, the city would have to back the proposal 100 percent.

“Given any inkling that the city would support it, we’ve offered our services in terms of grant-writing abilities,” Adkins said. “The sources of money to do something like that would want to see that the city is absolutely committed to the effort.

“Honestly, who wants to give grant money to something that might not happen?”