September 2017
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SPRINGFIELD BUSINESS JOURNAL PRSRT STD P.O. Box 398 U.S. POSTAGE Springfield, IL 62705 PAID SPRINGFIELD, IL PERMIT NO 209 CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED PAGE 9 PAGE IN AMERICAN LUNG ASSOCIATION LUNG AMERICAN IN SPRINGFIELD GETS BIGGER ROLE BIGGER GETS SPRINGFIELD fresh air fresh A breath of of breath A 2017 SEPTEMBER 2 u September 2017 u Springfield Business Journal Springfield Business Journal and Illinois Realtors present LEGACY AWARDS 2017 To benefit the Historic Preservation Fund, Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln Photo | Patrick Yeagle Preservation grant awarded to Lindsay home The growing CFLL Historic Preservation Fund has awarded $33,000 since 2012 By Fletcher Farrar The Historic Preservation Fund of the there in 1931. tion Fund. dation was awarded $6,000 to restore Community Foundation for the Land of The building is owned by the State of Here are the past grant recipients and the Strawbridge-Shepherd House on the Lincoln has awarded its 2017 grant of Illinois and is open to the public for tours, the projects aided by the fund: University of Illinois Springfield campus. $7,500 to the Vachel Lindsay Association. educational programs and poetry read- 2012 - Downtown Springfield, Inc., The house is listed on the National Regis- The grant, to be presented at the Sept. ings. was awarded $4,000 for a pilot program ter of Historic Places. The grant was used 12 Springfield Business Journal Legacy This is the sixth year the Historic Pres- to develop a way-finding system to better to build a porch on the west side of the Awards program, will be used for exterior ervation Fund has awarded a grant. Cu- link historic sites and properties in the house, with a ramp to allow wheelchair painting of the historic Lindsay home at mulative grant awards from the fund now downtown area of Springfield. access to the building. 603 S. Fifth St., part of a larger proj- total $33,000, which has grown steadily 2013 - The Greater Springfield Cham- 2016 - Enos Park Neighborhood Im- ect that includes restoration of exterior since its humble but hopeful beginning ber of Commerce Foundation received a provement Association received a $7,500 decorations, porches and windows. The in 2008. That year, a group formed in $4,000 grant to develop planning con- grant to restore the façade of the building project will coincide with the 2018 Illinois Springfield to celebrate the 40th anniver- cepts and documents, including artistic at 711 E. Enos, which was built as a gro- Bicentennial. sary of the Old State Capitol renovation. renderings of a pedestrian trail linking cery store at the turn of the 20th centu- The Lindsay home, just south of the The group sold tickets to an event called historic sites and properties from the ry. The building is being rehabbed as a Executive Mansion now undergoing ren- the Old Capitol Community Tribute held on Illinois State Capitol Complex to the Abra- community gathering place, with a rental ovation, was built in the 1840s and was March 25, 2008. After paying the event’s ham Lincoln National Historic Site along apartment on the second floor. u bought in 1853 by Clark Moulton Smith bills, the group had $399.21 left over Jackson Street in Springfield. The project and his wife, Ann Todd, the younger sister and decided to begin a fund at what was is known as the Jackson Street Trail. Fletcher Farrar, editor of the Spring- of Mary Todd Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln then the Sangamon County Community 2014 - The Springfield Art Association field Business Journal, is a member of the was a guest in the home on several Foundation. received $4,000 for the reproduction of advisory board of the Community Founda- occasions. Dr. Vachel Thomas Lindsay and An annual solicitation to Spring- 1850s wallpaper discovered during the tion’s Historic Preservation Fund. To con- his wife, Catharine Frazee, purchased the field-area preservation supporters, plus interior restoration of Edwards Place. The tribute to the fund, contact the Community home in 1878, and Vachel Lindsay was an annual gala, have helped to grow the Lincoln-era historic house museum is Foundation for the Land of Lincoln, 205 born there Nov. 10, 1879. Lindsay, who fund to $92,000, where it stands today. owned and operated by the Springfield Art S. Fifth St., Suite 930, Springfield, 62701. became a celebrated poet, returned with Attendees at the Legacy Awards will be Association. 217-789-4431. www.CFLL.org. his family to live there in 1929. He died invited to donate to the Historic Preserva- 2015 - The Elijah Iles House Foun- Springfield Business Journal and Illinois Realtors present LEGACY AWARDS 2017 To benefit the Historic Preservation Fund, Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln Tuesday, September 12 5:00 P.M. - Cocktails and Hors D’oeuvres 6:00 P.M. - Awards Ceremony Illinois Realtors | 522 S. Fifth St. | Springfield, Illinois RSVP by Sept. 1 to 217-726-6600 ext. 139 or info @springfieldbusinessjournal.com Admission: Event is free. Guests are asked to make a donation to Historic Preservation Fund, CFLL. Springfield Business Journal u September 2017 u 3 Springfield Business Journal and Illinois Realtors present LEGACY AWARDS 2017 To benefit the Historic Preservation Fund, Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln Photo | Patrick Yeagle Isringhausen Imports co-owner Geoff Isringhausen (left), with son Geoff Isringhausen Jr. (center) and nephew Luke Isringhausen (right), at the showroom in the historic building at Second and Jefferson Streets. 50 YEARS OR FEWER IN BUSINESS Isringhausen Imports By Catherine O’Connor The concept of preserving heritage er of pre-owned BMW, Porshe, Ferrari and quent remodeling and eventual expansion American trail and a well-worn trading through adaptive reuse is not new to Isri- Mercedes imports,” explains Geoff, whose in 2003, adding to their slowly widening route. nghausen Imports’ family business, with its soft-spoken, knowledgeable demeanor per- campus a handful of structures which had In addition, one of Isringhausen’s complex of properties centered on Second sonifies the Isringhausen philosophy. once housed SASCO Autoparts distribution main showrooms situated just across the and Jefferson streets - a place where old The Isringhausen auto business now center, the Springfield Sun Newspaper and a Third Street tracks from the train station, and new blend to form a dynamic synergy. includes retail and wholesale sales of Euro- small radio station. served many decades as an early hub in From their quiet beginning in an pean luxury brands. It involves two gener- Before Isringhausen’s construction Springfield’s turn-of-the-century motor row unassuming 10,000-square-foot ware- ations of the family, along with 90 full-time project was complete, archeologists and industry. In a 1920s photo, the three-story house in the shadows of the former Fiat and 40 part-time employees - many who historical researcher Curtis Mann of Lincoln building, which is still in use, was the home Allis plant at 11th and Stanford streets to have a tenure of more than a decade and Library’s Sangamon Valley Collection of Phil. Stewart and Company, whose sign today’s 300,000-square-foot, multi-building years of community volunteer involvement. jumped at the opportunity to survey the read “Wrecked Cars Completely Rebuilt, complex stretching from First Street to Third According to Isringhausen, the compa- northeast Second Street corner property. Auto Woodwork and Upholstering.” From Street, Isringhausen Imports has built a ny’s big break came when they were select- The site has an important history going back that point, the building would have several legacy on the belief that every person who ed to open the first Saab franchise between generations before Lincoln. other reincarnations, including as a thriving walks through the doors deserves attention, Chicago and St. Louis in 1985. That helped “The area is steeped in a legacy that chicken hatchery in the 1930s and ‘40s. honesty and respect. lend credibility to what was a rather small goes back long before us,” Geoff said as he Paging through scraps of historical Springfield native Geoff Isringhausen business at the time and allowed the Isring- points out a historical marker commemo- news clippings that Isringhausen has saved co-owns the business with Sue Isring- hausen brothers to relocate to Springfield’s rating the spot where the first Sangamon over the years, a State Journal-Register hausen, widow of his late brother, Robert. still lively downtown. A multi-story brick County Courthouse was erected in 1821, at article from 2002 quotes Geoff describing According to Geoff, the business began in building along Third street, which had once the southwest corner of Second and Jeffer- plans to renovate a portion of the SASCO the 1980s in a surprisingly humble way. been the home of the Vredenburgh Lumber son streets. property into an additional showroom to After earning a mechanical engineering company, a Springfield fixture since the According to Mann, this corner was house his fledgling new car business. His degree in the early 1980s from University of Lincoln era, became their new home. at the epicenter of early 19th century words were as true then as they are today, Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Geoff worked During the decades that followed, the commerce and growth in Springfield. At and they sum up the attitude that earned for a refined petroleum pipeline company in economy was slowly ticking up for doctors, that geographic point, four of Springfield’s Isringhausen a Legacy Award. Atlanta, Georgia for two years before joining lawyers and other professionals, creating pioneer families, including Elijah Iles, each “These old buildings are so well built,” his brother at Isringhausen Imports. a market for European import and luxury purchased 80 acres radiating out from the he said, “it often makes more sense to “At that point, Rob was a specialty deal- vehicles.