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History, Hymns and Holly tour to show off historic buildings

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By Samantha Sommer, Staff Writer 6:56 PM Saturday, December 4, 2010

SPRINGFIELD — All three stops on this year’s History, Hymns and Holly walking tour illustrate different aspects of preservation.

The Seventh Day Adventist Church — once the local synagogue — is a good example of adaptive reuse. First Baptist Church reflects a congregation that has made a commitment to stay in the urban core of its community.

And the former South High School is an iconic structure that needs to be saved, said Kevin Rose, chairman of the Springfield Preservation Alliance’s education committee.

“That building is one of the most important buildings for our identity,” he said. “It says Springfield.”

The tour is from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 11, starting at First Baptist. It includes musical performances at each stop, and hot cocoa and snacks.

Tickets cost $10 or $8 for alliance members. They are available online at restorespringfield.org or at Fred E. Peters & Sons.

The nearly 100-year-old school on South Limestone Street with its distinctive dome closed a few years ago when the new high school opened and Rose said it is ideally suited for reuse.

Including South on the tour is a way to keep it in the public eye, Rose said.

“It allows people to get in and see this building, appreciate it and hopefully understand it in a different way,” he said.

The school district is working hard to find users and might have some occupants that could use nearly half of the space in the next six months or so, said Pete Noonan of Midland Properties.

In his opinion, not every old building in Springfield can be saved.

“But this is one that’s probably worth giving it a try,” Noonan said.

The other two stops on the tour are on South Fountain Avenue.

First Baptist is one of the oldest congregations in town, Rose said, and is very involved with the South Fountain community.

“That church means so much to the neighborhood and the revitalization efforts there,” he said.

Seventh Day Adventist was first built as a synagogue in 1917 by local architect Robert C. Gotwald, who also designed the A.B. Graham building.

That transformation shows how buildings can be altered and saved, Rose said.

“We believe that we can adaptively reuse our structures rather than demolishing them and replacing them with something that looks like Bechtle Avenue,” he said.