Board of Trade Building
Ancient Board of Trade Building worries fire chief and building inspector.
Springfield Leader & Press, April 3, 1941, page 13.
"This is the front of the old Board of Trade building, last occupied by Sears & Roebuck, who moved several years ago. The city has made repeated efforts to get it repaired or torn down. Divided ownership has made action virtually impossible. Grady Sanford, Springfield business man, owns the largest share. The building is divided by a partition running its length. Sanford owns the two lower floors on the east and a number of heirs to the family estate own the two lower floors on the west. All share ownership of the third story. More than a year ago, the city filed suit in circuit court for 1934 and 1935 taxes against the structure. Original suit was for $434.93 and $451.66 or a total of $1346.78, including interest and penalties. With one percent in penalties added each month, the suit now stands at $1506.20 against the place on its $27,880 assessed valuation. A total of $3,278.69 is due in back taxes. Occasionally, a piece of metal blows off the roof or a window drops out, and pedestrians get a scare. Note the two bared edges of glass on the windows at upper left. They are on the third story, and look uncomfortably like twin guillotines.
"Fire Chief W. R. Price, at right, and building Inspector Ralph Greenwade, at left, inspected the old building on orders from Mayor Harry B. Carr, who had received repeated complaints that it was hazardous. To get this picture, the photographer pointed his camera from the top of a rickety staircase toward a landing that led to the ground floor, toward a litter of old filing sheets and order blanks. ‘Boys come in here at night and play around,’ said the fire chief. ‘They don’t usually have flashlights and light matches to see their way around. If they’d ever drop a lighted match in here---.’ 
"Once it was a flossy folding bed, golden oak finish, the kind you unlimbered when Aunt Minnie stopped for the night [below]. Now it’s a forlorn relic, its springs rusted away, its excelsior mattress stuffing pulled out and strewn about by playful boys. Fire Chief Price shuddered when he saw this. The old building is built right up against its neighbor to the east, and a fire could gut the entire block with the start offered here. 
Note the sign warning that 35 pounds to the square foot is maximum floor capacity. The building inspector said 40 pounds to the foot is the minimum allowable even in residences. The floor gives noticeably as you walk across it, in spots sags as much as two inches below level. Wires and electrical fixtures have been torn out by prowlers and carried away.
"And here is the alley back of the Board of Trade building. A pretty sight, and within two minutes’ walk of the Public Square. Litter half fills the space under the basement grills shown here. Although ground floor doors are nailed shut, easy access to the building is offered by the low-hanging fire escape. Sanford has been requested to repair the building or to tear it down, or face city condemnation proceedings. Unless definite action is taken within a couple of days, Mayor Carr said, he will have the sidewalk in front roped off to prevent injuries from falling glass and masonry. The site would no doubt, make an excellent and profitable parking lot."
The Board of Trade building was located on the Northeast corner of South Campbell and McDaniel Street and was torn down in 1943.
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