- Date published
The underground stories of SGF.
A destructive fire, a buried creek, an underground fight club inside an icehouse and plenty of history and urban legends: It’s all in the history of downtown Springfield. Now we’re unearthing some of these lesser-known stories as Renew Jordan Creek gets underway, promising a sparkling creek surrounded by green space that we all can enjoy.
We’ve talked about Brick City 3’s more recent history (with our pals Jeff and Dennis Marlin), but even long-time Springfieldians have a lot to learn about the history of the area from Dr. Mitzi Kirkland-Ives, professor of art history at Missouri State University.
She dug deep, collecting maps and photography to detail the changes over time – and wow. There were tons of changes.
Vampire Tunnel
From the fenced area in Robert W. Plaster Free Enterprise Center’s parking lot (MSU lot 47), you can peek through some slats of wood and catch a glimpse of the underground tunnels.
These structures contain a section of Jordan Creek. In an attempt to contain flood waters in the early 20th century, the section of downtown now known as IDEA Commons was built atop and around them.
What intrigues Kirkland-Ives the most, though?
“I’ve been going down there to take as much photography of the better graffiti,” she said. “This is part of our cultural heritage.”
You can still access the “vampire tunnel” – bet you didn’t know we had one of those – via a parking lot just east of Hotel of Terror. It’s a tunnel that runs underneath Main Street, below parking lot (47) and ends near Hammons Field, stretching about 3/4 mile.
Water flows through the tunnel. Some areas are sunny, while others are dark and dank. The Watershed Committee still offers regular tours.
Vampire tunnel got its name from the “goth kids” that began frequenting the space in the 1980s, said Kirkland-Ives. And there’s even a story of a young woman who claimed she visited there and became a vampire queen.
Unearthing the fight club
The history of this area of downtown was primarily industrial, so photography is scarce, noted Kirkland-Ives. A wagon company, an icehouse, the railroad – it led to shady dealings at times.
In her quest to document the history of the area, Kirkland-Ives found a story detailing a fight club in the basement of one of the buildings in the Brick City complex. It was a “bare knuckles fisticuffs type of thing,” she added.
When the cops tried to raid it, the participants turned off the lights and scurried to the exits. Left in darkness, it took the officers much longer to navigate their way out, leaving them freezing in the 10-degree temperatures. It was an icehouse, used for refrigeration after all.
Now, we’re looking toward a warmer, greener future with fresh water running above ground (and maybe even uncovering a little more history with it).
Thanks to MSU Art & Design, The Springfield Greene County Library, Springfield News-Leader, and the Springfield History Museum on the Square for their contributions and photography.
Revitalization in Action
Artist renderings of Renew Jordan Creek.
At efactory, we always give a little bit of a history lesson when we provide tours of our spaces (we’re proud of the history of entrepreneurship in our community and of the commitment to the revitalization in downtown). So, we’re beyond excited about all that Renew Jordan Creek will do to transform the area.
As earth is turned to unveil what lies beneath, keep tuned into our Renew Jordan Creek page and to our social accounts to find updates to parking and the coolest BTS info.
