PRESERVATION AND CONSERVATION ASSOCIATIONVolume 12

The Changing BuiltEnvironment of Ivesdale

A popular view of the rural Midwest isone of unchanging farmsteads and smalltowns. This perception is inaccurate.Small towns, like other components of therural cultural landscape, are dynamic.The built environments of small towns

change in respon~ to changes in the un-derlying culture while, at the same time,continuously developing from it. Ives-dale, located in southwest ChampaignCounty and eastern Piatt County, has andis undergoing this perpetual transforma-tion. This article considers some of the.,rocesses which affect Ivesdale and the

Jevelopment of its built environment.Ivesdale originated along the Wabash

Railroad line to the south of a grove oftrees known as Cherry Grove in 1855. Theoriginal town plat for Ivesdale was filedas "Norrie" on July 1, 1867 by Ephriam A.and Josephine c. Chapin. The town plat,based on the grid system with streets in-tersecting at right angles, imposed ,an in-delible pattern on town morphology. Nor-rie was incorporated on June 12, 1871 andrenamed Ivesdale in March 1872 in honorof R. H. Ives of Providence, Rhode Island,who was a major landowner in thevicinity..William H. Johnson (1823-1898) was

the first settler in the vicinity, building ahome there in 1856. The Wabash Railroad

was the first major employer in the regionand railroad employees were responsiblefor establishing the first components ofthe built environment including a board-ing house and railroad depot in the 1850s.The railroad offered access to rapidly ex-panding 'markets and facilitated Ives-dale's role as an important center of,agricultural trade and services. The rail-road had a profound effect on theJevelopment of the early built environ-ment ofIvesdale and remained the

town's lifeline until the early twentiethcentury. The diminishing role of the rail-road was demonstrated by the suspen-

N ovember-DecemJ>er,1992 Number 6

A southwest view of Ivesdale With St. Joseph's Church and the grain elevator dominating thetown's skyline. Photograph: Joseph J. Gallagher.

sion of passenger services early this cen-turyand the closure, and subsequentdemolition, of the railroad depot.

Many of the first settlers to arrive inIvesdale were generational Irish andcame from La Salle'-Peru, lllinois wherethey had 'been working on the lllinois andMichigan Canal. (The term "generation-al" refers to immigrants and their descen-danfs). Upon their aiTival, the generation-al Irish established businesses in Ivesdale

and became involved in agriculture asowner-operators, tenants, and laborers.Generational Germans began to arrivelater in Ivesdale and assumed occupa-tions similar to their generational Irishcounterparts. Irish and German immigra-tion to Ivesdale peaked in 1900 as did thetotal population of the town.

A church often accompanied im-migrant settlement in the Midwest andserved to strengthen community identity.St. Joseph's Catholic Parish, established in1863 and centered on Ivesdale, became af-fectionately known as "Little Ireland" or"Little Erin" due to the large concentra-tion of generational Irish residents. Eventoc::lay,eighty-seven percent of Ivesdaleresidents consider Ivesdale an lrish-American town. Clues to the ethnic com-position of the Ivesdale population arefound among the surnames of residents,

amid the nomenclature adopted, and incemetery inscriptions.

Even though many of the generationalIrish and German residents sharedEuropean traditions, a common religion,and a similar occupational status, theywere strangers drawn together. Genera-tional Germans initially built a smallCatholic church in Colfax township,north of Ivesdale, in 1879. This churchwas annexed to St. Joseph's Parisharound 1890. However, St. Joseph'sCatholic Church in Ivesdale acted as a

bonding agent in uniting generationalIrish and German Ivesdale residents into

a closely-knit community. The link of notonly a common religion but a commonclergy served to unite these two ethnic '

communities. Activities in religious or-ganizations centered around the churchalso encouraged unity. Despite the con-struction of a new church in Colfax

township in 1912 (St. Boniface's), the1890s proved significant in making thecongregations of both St. Joseph's Churchand St. Boniface's Church territorial. En-

dogamy appears to have been religiousrather than simply ethnic. Even today,fifty-six percent of generational Irish resi-dents identified some German ancestrywhile seventy-three percent of generation-al German residents identified some Irish

lineage.

Characteristic of high Catholic con-centrations 11)rural areas are settlementcomplexes including parish churches, rec-tories, schools, convents, and meetinghalls (Sopher, 1967:28-29).All these ele-ments' of the religious settlement complexwere established in lvesdale. The firstCatholic church was constructed in 1869;it was converted to a Catholic school

upon the completion of the brick churchbuilding in 1893. The building has sincebeen removed to a farm southeast of Ives-

dale where it operates as a barn. St.Joseph's School, constrllcted in 1949 tothe west of the church, served some of theeducational needs of the communitycentered on Ivesdale and was an impor-

. tant generator of daily traffic. Althoughthe school was closed in 1968 due to a

lack of religious personnel, the buildingnow operates as a community hall. A con-vent composed part of the religious com-plex earlier this century while the persist-ence of the religious built environment ismanifest in the Ancient Order of Hiber-

nian Hall, Knights of Columbus Hall, andpanshrectory. The practice of attendingdaily mass established an important so-

.cial and information network for the com-munity which has been threatened sincethe deato of the town's last resident priestin February 1989. The 1989 restoration ofinterior spaces of St. Joseph's Church wasan attempt, in the words of one of its.con-gregation, "to b#ng new.life to our parish[and] to create interest in our heritage"(Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette,December 24, 1989:A-3). St. Joseph'sCatholic Church was, and continues tobe, an important cultural symbol to resi-dents and visitors alike emphasizing therole of religion not only in the built en-vironment but in the social organizationof IvesdaIe.

Farming in the vicinity of Ivesdale wasinitially based on the concept of the fami-ly farm which espoused four principles:land ownership, adequate farm size, fairprices for produce, and family coopera-tion. The establishment of a grainelevator in Ivesdale in 1865, a farmer'scooperative between February 1892 andAugust 1893, and the current GrandPrairie Cooperative in 1901 helped fosterthis concept and was a testament to th,eimp?rtance of agriculture in the emergingcommunity. More recently, farm con-.solidation and the transformation of thefarm from a family.affair into a businesshas threatened the existence of Ivesdale.

The apparent laCk of increase in farmholdings suggested by land atlases andplat books is contradicted when one con-siders that many farmers increase theirfarming operations by renting farmland.Vogeler (1981:252) estimated that a small

town loses one business for every sixfarm families that become disengagedfrom farming in its hinterland. Moreover,the erosion of the family farm is consis-tent with the development of an in-dividualistic society characterized bymore open social groups, impersonal in-stitutions, a competing value system, andincreasing mobility (Duncan, 1981:50). In-deed, Ivesdale may be experiencing thedecline of cumulative towns where "in-

dividual priorities have not included so-cial investment in community preserva-tion" <JakIeand Wilson,} 992:219).

lvesdale's main commercial activities

were concentrated along the axes of therailroad tracks and Chapin Street-char-acteristic shared by many railroad townsof the Midwest (Harvey, 1983:28).Saloons, such as the Ivesdale Inn onChapin Street, played an importantsocializing role in the life of Ivesdale. Thea1cohollicense/anti-license campaignsdefined political identity and fueled localpglitics at the turn of the century. TheIvesdale Inn continues to be an importantmeeting place for town residents andrural dwellers. The First National Bank ofIvesdale is located on the southwestcorner of the main intersection of Third

and Chapin Streets, and was consideredby many residents to represent the mainarchitecturally significant building in thetown. The bank building was the high-light of commercial architecture amongrailroad towns and was a symbol ofsecurity, strength, and character (Harvey,1983:30). In addition to the bank, the bankbuilding in Ivesdale housed a variety ofother functions over the years including ahardware store, post office, and AncientOrder of Hibernian hall.

Four fires destroyed nineteen buildingsin Ivesdale between 1916 and 1928. Manyof the business premises which weredestroyed or damaged were not replacedor reopened thus proving to be significantturning points.in the development of thebuilt environment. Fires were not the

only means by which Ivesdale's centralplace functions were lost. The adoption ofthe automobile provided the ruraldweller with greater geographic mobility.At the turn of the century, Ivesdale wasstill relatively free from the influence ofthe automobile with only ten cars kept inthe environs of Ivesda1e (Green, 1969:71).Improvements to the rural infrastructuremeant that roads became the newlifeblood of many small Midwesterntowns and rural areas in the early'twen-tieth century. Three gas stations existed inIvesdale earlier this century emphasizingthe increasing ipfluence of theautomobile. Although only the HillardOil Company gas station on the southeast

!I

I ,~.- ~,_.

-.

1913 town plat of Ivesdale. Source:Combined1893,1913 and 1929 Atlases of ChampaignCounty, Illinois.

corner of Johnson and Chapin Streets ex-ists to the present day, the automobileretains its importance. Ivesdale residentshave an average of 1.7J automobiles and0.80 truCks or vans per household. .

Competition from surrounding com-mercial centers resulted in some local

businesses failing to remain competitive.With the closure of business premises inIvesdale came a reduction in the numberof people frequenting the town thusthreatening the survival of those remain-ing businesses. The meat-Iocker locatedon the southeast comer of Third-and

Chapin Streets replaced restaurant andgrocery businesses which failed to remaincompetitive. It could be argued that asthe exchange of local services decreasedso did the sense of community. TheAlblinger Brothers Hardware store, estab-lished in 1919 in the bank building an~moved to its current location at 210

Chapin Street in 1949, is the only privatebusiness.to survive from the early twen-tieth century. The most frequented build-ing is the post office where residents go tocollect their mail. A post office hasoperated in Ivesdale since 1866.

Functional decline need not necessarilyimply population decline. Areas ofpopulation growth appear to be con-gruent with areas of greatest urban in-fluence while proximity to large urbancenters simultaneously encourages func-tional decline. Despite an initial declineearly this century, the population of Ives-dale has since remained remarkablystable from 386 in 1930, to 3~0 in 1960,and 339 in 1990. However, one need onlycompare the business district of Ivesdale(bounded by Johnson Street to the north,Fourth Street to the south, Colburn Streetto the west, and Sanford Street to the east)

in 1900 with its thirty-two business andservice premises (Green, 1969:54) to 1990with its ten business and service premisesto demonstrate the functional decline

-vhichhas taken place. Most of thoseremaining businesses in Ivesdale havereported a declining number of patron~ inrecent years.

The era of most house construction was1890-1919 and continued to a lesser de-

gree in the interwar years (1920-1944).Few houses were built between 1945 and1969-a characteristic shared by manyMidwestern small towns where stagnanteconomies, the loss of central place func-tions, and rural depopulatio):\led to adearth in house construction. Therevitalization of house construction ap-pears to represent the introduction of anon-farming population into the ruralcommunity. Only twenty percent of Ives-dale residents owned a farm in 1990

while only nine percent of them gavefarming as their principal occupation.The continued existence of Ivesdale is be-coming increasingly explained by its func-tion as a "bedroom community" forChampaign-Urbana. Ivesdale's role as a"dormitory suburb" is further em-phasized by the average single journeydistance of 25.68 miles travelled to the

work place by residents not engaged infarming activities. The single journey dis-Lancefrom Ivesdale to Champaign-Ur-bana is approximately twenty-four miles.Small towns, such as Ivesdale, provide amiddleground between rural and urbanareas and are becoming highly desirablebuilt environments for would-be urbandwellers.

The utilitarian nature of Ivesdale's builtenvironment did not result in architec-

turally elaborate buildings and, conse-quently, has not encouraged the preserva-tion of its historic buildings. Neverthe-less, the past and present built environ-ment of Ivesdale communicates much in-

formation about the community and itshistory. Processes related to the railroad,the church, farming, and the automobileare just some of the processes changingthe morphology of Ivesdale. The aban-donment and dereliction of commercial

buildihgs has destroyed the contiguousnature of Ivesdale's core built environ-ment. As functional and material decline

continues, so too does the desire, especial-ly among younger members of thepopulation, not to remain part of a declin-ing community. Fundamental to revets-ing'lvesdale's perceived decline is an un-derstanding and appreciation of its cul-turallandscape and a commitment to con-serve its built environment.

References CitedDuncan, James S. 1981. Introduction. In ed.James S. Duncan, Housing and Identity: CrossCultural Perspectives. London: Croom Helm.Green, Ethel. 1969. From These Roots; Han-non-Green Family Tree 1750-1972. Illinois His-torical Survey, University of illinois, Urbana-Champaign.Harvey, Thomas. 1983. "Railroad Towns:Urban Form on the Prairie," Landscape27(3);26-31.

Jakie, John A. and Wilson, David. 1992.Derelict Landscapes:The Wasting of America'sBuilt Environment. Savage, MD: Rowman &Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

, Sopher, David E. 1967. Geographyof Religions.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Vogeler, IngoIf. 1981 The Myth of the FamilyFarm: Agribusiness Dominance of u.s. Agricul-ture. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

This article was written by JosephJ. Gallagher, aCultural Geographerwith The URBANA Group.It is based on researchconducted for his 1991Master's thesis entitled "Irish Immigrant CulturalTransition in the Built Environment of Ivesdale, Il-linois: 1870-1990."

President Signs PreservationLaw Amendments

President Bush has signed the NationalHistoric Preservation Amendments of1992, more popularly known as the"Fowler Bill " after Senator WycheFowler, Jr. [D-Ga.], the bill's principalsponsor in the Senate. The law is the firstsignificant change to the National Preser-vation Act since 1980.

The new law does sev€ral things toreinforce historic preservation activity.The legislation authorizes the Secretary'ofthe Interior to delegate greater respon-sibilities to the State Historic PreservationOffices. The law includes provisions thatstrengthen the requirements of Section106, the federal review process for con-sidering adverse impacts of federalprojects on historic resources. For ex-ample, it includes a new provision thatpenalizes the intentional demolition ofhistoric properties to avoid review priorto federal involvement. Other enhance-

ments to the federal preservation pro-gram in the new law include the estab-lishment of a National Center for Preser-

vation Technology and Training and anew historic preservation education andtraining program within the National

Membership Application P.A.C.AMEMBERSHIP CATEGORY:

INDIVIDUAL· Adult $10.00· Student (1/2 time or more) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 5.00· Senior Citizen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 5.00· Family ',' $15.00

NAME

CORPORATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $50.00. ......................

ADDmONAL CONTRIBUTION

· NEWMEMBERSHW· RENEWAL

ADDRESS

Make checks payable to: PACA, Box2555,Station A, Champaign, Illinois 61825

Contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Park Service. The law also clarifies that

preservation grant funds may be used tohelp preserve National Register-listedreligious properties so long as that aid issecular and does not promote religion.

Enactment of the amendments cul-

minates several years of negotiation andwork by the National Conference of StateHistoric Preservation Officers and

numerous other preservation groups.Details on various elements of the newlaw are available from the Preservation

Law Reporter, November 9, 1992.

Save These Dates!

PACA Annual Membership MeetingSunday, February 21

2:00 -4:00 p.m.C-V Station

Kid's Building FairHistoric Preservation Week

Saturday, May 1511:00 -4:00

Statewide Preservation ConferenceJune 3-5

Galena, IL

PACA NewsletterSteven Roemmel, President

Alice Edwards, Vice-President

Susan Appel, Secretary

Pat Jensen, Treasurer

Karen Lang'Kummer, Exec. Director

328-PACA: Telephone & Answering Service

Printed on recycled paper

Statewide Preservation AwardsNominations Needed

The Landmarks Preservation Council of

Illinois is seeking nominations for its 1~93Preservation Awards. The awards honorindividuals and organiiations whoseworks demonstrate a commitment to ex-cellence in historic preservation. LPCIwill present the awards during thestatewide Preservation Conference in

Galena, Illinois, June 4, 1993. Last year,the Leal School architectural tour books

were awarded the Educational ProgramAward.

Award categories include the following:· Preservation Project of the Year· Preservationist of the Year· Distinguished Illinois Preservationist· Bricks and Mortar

· Educational Program· Publication.· Preservation Advocacy· Community Revitalization· Media Coverage· Government Leadership· Business Leadership· Special Recognition

If you wish to nominate a local or statepreservation project contact either PACAor LPCI for a nomination form. Completesubmissions must be postmarked byFebruary 22.

New & Renewing Members

Beth Ann Woodside

Mary & Lachlan F. BlairJim CorleyMr. & Mrs. Charles LangacreMary AItenberndMarsha ToddRobert & Sarah NemethDaniel Folk

Charles E. BelangerJoan & John Severns

Dan & Tori CorkeryJohn C. Puckett

Mary Lee SargentMr. & Mrs. Doug MillsDavid Finet

Jack Waaler FamilyMr. & Mrs. Joseph MarriottMichael Markstahler

Fred & Nancy CoombsMrs. Nurman Barnett

Ruth H. FliegelMr. & Mrs. L. E. DoyleAnn Boswell & Keddy HutsonWilliam D. YoungermanMrs. Elizabeth Alexander

City of UrbanaAlice Edwards

Mrs. John J. DwyerCarl W. Powell

Mrs. Ruth K. YoungermanJoseph J. GallagherJames Russell VakyKathryn Anthony & Barry Riccio

NON-PROFIT

ORG.U.S. POSTAGE

PAlO

CHAMPAIGN,ILPERMIT NO. 133