SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI AND SURROUNDINGS • 1889


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(previous page) also a good part of THE FRISCO ADDITION on Commercial Street, just south of the Frisco shops. All of these tracts are well located and represent more or less elaborate and valuable improvements. Most of them belong to the gentlemen named, who are among the foremost workers of the city. Prof. Paul Roulet formerly held the chair of mathematics in Drury College, and only recently retired to undertake with his friend Lambelet, the development of these fine properties. THE HAZELTON ADDITION, eighty acres in extent and lying northeast of the Frisco shops, a very handsome tract, valued at $64,000, has lately been put on the market by Copeland & Bennett, well known land and loan brokers, and is going off to purchasers for settlement, at a good rate. These sterling operators represent unusual activity in building throughout the entire district to the north of the Frisco railway.

Mr. L. C. Lee, who has given much attention to mines and mineral lands, has recently interested a good number of Dakota people in north side property, several of whom invested in the Ozark Heights addition, the sale of which he negotiated and the agency of which he holds. He has been very active and successful in attracting settlers and capital to this portion of the city, and is a strong worker in his chosen field. The forty acre OAK RIDGE ADDITION, a beautiful tract of high rolling, well shaded land, near Doling’s Park, is attracting a good deal of attention among investors and builders, for its favorable location, well graded streets, nearness to the water works, schools and churches, the new street car line, and the number of fine houses under construction on the addition, among them the attractive houses of Messrs. Stephenson & Morse, its spirited and enterprising owners. These gentlemen are genuine town builders, and are doing much to popularize this whole northside district.

Col. Ben. U. Massey has a large and handsome tract near Doling’s Park, which, like Oak Ridge and other additions in this neighborhood embraces rare scenic attractions and other advantages that are likely to give it favor as a residence quarter. J. S. Boreman has in hand WHITEHEAD’S ADDITION and Massey’s and Chamberlain’s additions, embracing about fifteen acres of very attractive ground near Col. Massey’s residence in the east part of the city. He has also the management of WOOD AND WARD’S ADDITION, another fine location on the hill near the gulf shops. These are all good properties for residence purposes, and Mr. Boreman who is an experienced and successful town builder, and a gentleman of decided spirit and enterprise, reports active building work all along his line.

Mr. J. T. Gray, one of the oldest, most reliable and thoroughly posted real estate and loan men of Springfield, whose office on Commercial Street is one of the landmarks of the city, and whose public spirit is proverbial, is part owner of Oak Hill, Prospect Place and Boulevard Additions, all of them finely located and undergoing rapid improvement. Mr. Gray is one of the largest property owners of the city and has unbounded faith in its future.

There are several other additions of which I have no data, and the new plats filed for record in the last two years cover about 1800 acres, furnishing almost AN UNBROKEN CHAIN around the older central portions of the city. None of these new plattings are remote from the commercial centers, but all are WITHIN EASY DISTANCE of the main north and south thoroughfares and railway stations. They are quickly reached by present and projected street car lines on the principal avenues, and fairly represent a growing demand for healthful territorial expansion, and are in no wise the result of unwholesome speculation. In proof of this statement is the fact that all these newly platted additions are fast being improved by beautiful homes that are generally in demand by new comers before completion.

Mr. L. D. Routt, one of the old reliable and enterprising real estate dealers, who has no interest in new additions, says the extension of the building territory is indispensable to the growing demand for cheap homes in new and pleasant quarters.

Col. J. D. Williams, a leading rental agent, gives emphatic expression to the same opinion.

W. J. Boling, a candid and reliable real estate operator, who is not interested in the later plats, and whose opinions are always quotable, says the extensive building operations of the last two years made the extension of cheap residence grounds a positive necessity.

Mr. J. J. Hibler, one of the most enterprising and successful real estate and loan men of the city and a director in several of its leading business and monetary corporations, though not directly concerned in the new additions, says they are clearly needed for residence quarters by the large new population attracted to the city by the establishment of new factories and shops, and its growing importance as a trade and educational center.

F. E. Atwood, a prominent real estate operator of great enterprise, whose large holdings of city realty include none of later additions, says the building operations of the last twenty months impelled the territorial extension, and would have turned almost any other Western city into a hotbed of speculation. He is a level-headed man, and knows what he is talking about.

P. H. Martin, a live, confident Commercial Street real estate broker, who is accredited with a good stock of candor and business forecast, thinks the extensive building operations of the past and present seasons perfectly natural, and indicative of a future advancement that will (next page)


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