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.
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