To accommodate the growing population in Brookings, many new homes, apartment buildings, and businesses are being built and enlarged. The area south of town has seen much growth in recent years. To the north, the SDSU campus has undergone numerous changes in the past 15 years, largely due to its upgraded status as a Division One university.
These changes, however, have resulted in the demolition of a number of older houses and properties. The SDSU expansion, for example, has resulted in the loss of a number of homes in that neighborhood. The house in which Kevin O'Connell and his family lived is now a parking lot. (Shades of
Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell-"They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot"
http://www.metrolyrics.com/big-yellow-taxi-lyrics-joni-mitchell.html)
The expansion of city and county government offices has caused a similar demise of the old neighborhood just south of the former Central Elementary building, which is now the Children's Museum of South Dakota.
During the 1950's, Tom Bozied and I lived two blocks south of the school, separated by one house. I would often go his house (part of a duplex) before school so we could watch "Captain Kangaroo" until about 8:55. Then we would hurry off to our third grade class with Mrs. Peterson (her husband was our Jr. Hi science and shop teacher, who was often referred to as "Uncle Petey"). In the house between us lived an old geezer by the name of Harry Kennard. He did not seem to appreciate our presence. Dr. Seuss must have made a trip through Brookings some time in his life, and used Mr. Kennard as his inspiration for "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas."
In later years, the duplex had become a rental property, mainly used by college students. Perhaps 15-20 years ago, it burned down, likely because of faulty wiring. From my house just across the street, it looked like a big oven that had flames shooting out the windows.
Next door to Tom was the Revell apartments on the corner of 6th avenue and 3rd street, later to become the Hendricks apartments. Mr. Hendricks was a long-time custodian at the high school just a block away. To the west were the Tonsager house (their son Stan was a year ahead of us, while their daughter Stella was a year or two behind us); the Clarence Goodroad house (their daughter married Ralph Myers, more of which will be said later); the Homer Dwiggins house (he was a long-time mayor of Brookings); the Lamster house (their children Linda and Ron were a few years older than we were); and on the corner of 5th avenue and 3rd street was the residence of an older lady. One memory of her house was that she had lilac bushes, which were quite fragrant and beautiful in the spring.
As an aside, Tonsager's had a rather large backyard with a nice apple tree. We held many athletic contests there. In the summer, we often had to stop ball games because someone hit the ball into the apple tree, resulting in a number of bruised apples. We could not let them go to waste, so we took a break and ate them. In the winter, we would shoot many baskets in that backyard, H-O-R-S-E and 21 being some of our favorite games. In the spring, that backyard became our own version of the summer Olympics track and field competition.
To the south of the elderly lady's residence, next to the alley, was the Mittan Ford implement dealership. Previously, it had been the Bishman Studebaker garage. Across the alley was Marshall Produce. Every so often a load of chickens would be delivered here. The were kept in wooden cages, which would occasionally break. The chickens would then start running around. The owners did not seem to be in great hurry to round them up. Rather, they seemed to be pleased that we boys had energy to chase them down. They rewarded us by letting us take them home to our mother, who, being an old farm girl, would butcher them. That was our introduction to one of the idioms of the English language, as we understood what it meant to be running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
Heading back east from Marshall produce, there was an old house that seemed haunted to us. We never did know who lived there, but we were scared to even get near it. If you recall "To Kill a Mockingbird," it was reminiscent of the Radley house. To the east of that haunted house was the Herb and Phyllis Lakman home. Their son Doug was in the class of 1963, while their daughter Patty was a year ahead of us. We lived to the east of the Lakmans, on the corner of sixth avenue and second street, but in between us was a large lot that was our mother's garden. In the summer, before we could go out and play ball, we usually had to do some chores (hoe weeds, pick peas or carrots, etc.) to improve the productivity of the plants growing there. In the 70's, that garden spot became a new house. However, that house was removed last fall.
Ralph Myers, who was mentioned above, had a number of entrepreneurial experiences in Brookings. He had the "Quick Lunch" café, just to the west of Ray's Corner, for a time. He was customer of mine for the
Minneapolis Tribune in the early 60's. When the Mittan Ford implement dealership moved shortly thereafter, Mr. Myers then opened a grocery store in that building. That would have been when we were in the 6th grade. Tom Osterberg, Jerry Moad, and I would often stop there on our way home from school. A few years later, during our sophomore year, he had a pool hall type of business called "The Cue," I believe. It was not the same as the one down in the basement by Quail's and the former Northwest bank on Main. Was the nickname of his business "Ralph's Gyp Joint?" It seems that someone painted that logo on the side of the building, as is was right beside an alley. This building would later house the White Rabbit and the Irish Shanty. Ralph even had his hand in the pizza business. Below is a picture of Ralph and, I believe, Gus Kakonis, who started Pizza King's.
On the block to the north of us, where the current library is, lived Jim Egeberg and his family. That house , along with a few others, was removed when the VFW built there in the late 50's. On the west end of that block was a laundry. Eventually, Clyde Calhoon's law office was located there. Upstairs was an apartment. One of my brothers lived there during our 8th grade year. They had a new-born daughter, for whom I baby-sat quite often. On the north side of that block was the power plant with its big smoke stack. To the east of the power plant was the Elks club, which was mainly a basement type structure. The old Carnegie library was on the corner of 4th street and 6th avenue. Just to the south of the library was a yellow duplex. Did Bill Sherman and his family live there for a while before moving to South Main where Indian Hills now is? Across the ally was a small wooded area where we had our forts and could pretend we were Robin Hood or Daniel Boone. This "forest" would later be uprooted to become a gravel parking lot.
What do these two blocks look like today? About the only places still in their original location are the Elks club, although it is now above ground rather in the basement, and the old Carnegie library, which has now become the Community Cultural Center, somewhat like a miniature art gallery. The Sherman residence was removed to be replaced by a law office, and is now home to Flaskey Chiropractics. The expanded library and its parking lot now occupy the south half of that block. The power plant, too, has been replaced by a parking lot. The four or so houses that used to be there are long gone.
The block to the south, where Tom Bozied and I grew up, has none of the original buildings left. The Marshall produce building was torn down a number of years ago and replaced by a similarly sized office building. The house of the elderly lady with the lilac bushes on the corner was also removed and replaced by The Donut Barn, which itself was later removed. The Goodroad house was moved to the county museum in Volga, as it was one of the oldest houses still in existence in the county. The big apartment building on the corner was also moved to 2nd Street South, where it has been refurbished as an updated apartment complex. Ralph Myers' grocery store became the home to Harold's Printing. That building, too, was torn down a few years ago. Thus, one house and the apartment have been moved. All of the other structures have been torn down. Why?
As mentioned above, government office space is expanding. A few years ago, the city and county undertook a joint project to build a new government center, as the courthouse space was insufficient. This new center was built about where the apartment building, the Tonsager residence, and the duplex had been. The houses to the west and the Harold's Printing building were torn down and/or moved to make way for a parking lot.
Up until a few days ago, our old house on the corner and the Kennard house were still standing. This week, however, they, too, were demolished, as the city had bought the property to, you guessed it, make more parking available for the city-county building. The old block has finally been chipped completely away, and our youthful paradise of a playground has literally been replaced by a parking lot.
