Original Stables in Springfield?

[uptowngirl]

I think I was once told Springfield's original community stables were loacted at the old Rexall building (Carls at Main and 8th. Can anyone confirm this? Perhaps they were somewhere else? There was certainly at least one local stable (horses were needed for all the carriages that were stored in our many, many carriage houses!) and I am wondering if anyone knows this part of Springfield history?

[strider]

Actually I believe they were on the East side closer to 2nd street.  I have been told in the past the H alley layout originally allowed for the stables to be on the center of the blocks on either side of the cross alley. By the time the area was really developed, there no longer a need to everyone to have their own stables.

[uptowngirl]

Stirder, so at one time you believe there were multiple stables, including private stables? That is the first time I heard this and really very interesting! I wish there was an easier way to research and find out this stuff :-)

[strider]

Actually, the area was not very developed until after the fire and by then mass transit was in vogue and stables were not needed very much.  Only a couple were built from what I have been told.

[chris farley]

Uptowngirl there were stables at the SW corner of 8th and Main.  Prior to the street cars being electrified, the tracks were in place and mules pulled the cars.  These mules were housed in the stables where Carls now stands. By 1893 the cars were electrified as far as the Water works, probably because of the Exposition but the mules continued to pull them up to 8th.  By 1897 they were electrified as far as 8th, and the mules were gone and their sheds or buildings became a sort of terminus for passengers catching or leaving the cars. They tended still to be called the old stables.   As far as I know people who had carriages housed their own horses at this time.  If you walk the H alley behind Market on the 200 block you will see the floor and a little of the wall of the place where they used to repair city carriages and vehicles, horses may have been housed there.
I feel it is a misnomer to say the place was not very developed,  the lower portion of Springfield was quite developed prior to the fire, but houses tended to be built on large blocks, sometimes the entire block - the Parkinson house on Hubbard which was moved but, still stands and lost its original date due to this, is such a case.  What happened after the fire is that many houses were built on this type lot, oft with the original being pulled down  and so the area looked "new".

[uptowngirl]

Thank Chris! I thought I had heard about those stables! I will go check out the H alley!

[strider]

Chris is right in that the first few blocks were reasonably well developed with some of the largest and best houses being in the 1st to 3rd street areas.  Most were taken in the name of urban development.  There are still a few pre fire houses left and many are indeed mislabeled as being built after 1901. Many were added onto several times and so the original structure is somewhat buried and hard to see.

The real building spurt in Springfield did not occur until after the fire. If I had to guess, I would say Springfield's density increased at least 10 times in the few years after 1901.

I asked Phil about this before and he thinks there were several other stables built early on, but they were taken with the houses or switched out, so to speak, for garages.  Some have told me in the past that the original layout also had all lots at 125 ish feet and the ends of what are now the deep lots allotted for communal stables but Phil, for one, thinks they were always just deep lots for those who wished private stables.