This is Commercial Street at sunset. I, like I'm sure a lot of you are, am very attracted to the older architecture in my town. I'm compiling photos from around the Springfield area in hopes of doing a photo book in the near future. You know, not something from a major publisher but one of those web sites that you can do the layout and they send you back a nice book. I've done one so far - a compilation of different subjects- and was very happy with the results.
But anyways, as I was saying, this is Commercial Street at sunset. Obviously Commercial Street is in an older part of Springfield. There's a lot of history on Commercial Street. At one time it was the dividing line between North Springfield and Springfield. This was way before my time though and I don't intend on giving a history lesson about this particular subject just now.
I do remember being dragged by my mother in and out of various stores and agencies back in the 60's and that it was a pretty busy area back then. In the 70's and 80's it's reputation grew as a more shady part of town, getting most of it's publicity for the hole-in-the-wall bars that lined the street and for the unsavory characters that frequented them.
But now thanks to the North Springfield Betterment Association there has been a major overhaul of the area and it is quickly becoming an attractive place to frequent. As a matter of fact, the building in the photo was once a firehouse ( probably had more calls on the block than not ) but now those windows are the view from somebody's loft. Lofts, coffee houses, clothing stores and yes, a bar or two line the street now and people actually come to C-Street as it's more commonly referred to these days, just to roam around and see what there is to "C"!
