Neighborhoods--A Time of Transition in Sun Prairie

The second in a series of posts on neighborhood.

The 1993 movie “The Sandlot” was about a group of boys and their escapades over a summer, many involving baseball. Yet, I see another dimension. In that movie, which takes place in 1962, a year more appreciated by my older brothers than I who would have been four years old that summer, one can see a transition in land use taking place. The transition reminds me of the town in which I grew up as it changed from an independent small city to a suburb, which was a common occurrence in post-World War II America. While the main neighborhood in the movie has 1950 style homes, the street pattern remains seemingly on a standard system. But Scotty Smalls’ town still had a traditional downtown. Over intervening decade or two it likely changed as did that in my hometown of Sun Prairie, WI. Scotty and his friends could buy their chew, sweets and baseballs, not unlike what was possible in the old traditional downtown of Sun Prairie. My first post involved neighborhoods as a sense of place, while this post is primarily about the transition in commercial development that took place in the 1960’s into the 1980’s in my hometown, and its potential effects on social capital.

Sun Prairie Main Street, circa 1875.  Notice arrangement of buildings to
the street, and little building articulation

I grew up off of Dewey Street, about three blocks from downtown Sun Prairie. Most of the basic needs of a child, or adult, could pretty well be met within the three or four blocks along main street. I could browse comic books in the dime store owned by Mr. Weisensel, a neighbor, get clothes at one of two clothing stores, or get a doughnut at the local bakery. An older brother would develop his acumen on the billiard table, and heaven knows what else, at the smoke-filled pool hall, next to the bank. My dad’s small sole person law practice would be across the street from the bank, with a jeweler on one side, and a printer and small grocery store to the other. My sister and I would pick raspberries from our large patch and sell them to the grocer. The one liquor store, owned by another neighbor, was in a nearby block, and across the street was the old Langer garage, and a major employer, the Wisconsin Porcelain Company. I never thought before, but a liquor store across from a blue collar factory made a great deal of sense. I can imagine the workers picking up a 12 pack of beer after getting their paycheck.

Grid street pattern

But, my purpose is not to wax nostalgic as much as it is point out change that has occurred within our neighborhoods, communities, and to a large degree, I believe, our social fabric. Within four blocks of my home, I was educated through grade 8, went to church, could have most of my needs and required services met, and be at the swimming pool and corn festival within four to five blocks from my home. This seldom occurs any more today as businesses have moved first to shopping center, originally near the outskirts of town, but now with sprawl surrounding them, and now to the ubiquitous big box locations and power centers. Other than a street name, the same big box locations are replicated throughout the nation. The beauty of the traditional downtown is that it was organic, it was a natural occurrence based on what people thought best. After walking a few blocks to get to downtown, why would one want to walk another block though a parking lot to a store? If you parked, it was on the street, and while you may have to walk a couple hundred feet, it is likely less than you would have at a mega-store parking lot to get to an entrance. Big boxes are surrounded by what developers term outlots, frontage development filled with restaurants and smaller stores. But, unlike a downtown where you would walk between various shops and restaurants, in mall America, you need to basically drive as walking is difficult at best, and even if a sidewalk is provided walking through a parking lot is much like going to the dentist. There is no real sense of individualism or community identity in the locations of our malls or big box stores. They do try, however, with their names of by-gone natural landscapes the large parking lots and stores have long since replaced. The names are often intended to convey a sense of place, a sense of community, but in what is really an ersatz place, a contrived sense of what makes a neighborhood.

Pattern known as Sprawl.  Note the cul-de sacs,lack of connectivity
and one dimensional land use

The change to suburban Sun Prairie started when I was a child, and two events hold in my memory of the change occurring. As a young child it was first noticed when the former pea field behind us was converted to one of the many auto oriented subdivisions which would develop in the city. Without sidewalks, a new development pattern would engulf our natural landscapes. It would typify the notion or sense that walking is not needed. If one wants to go somewhere—drive, and there will be a sea of asphalt to await the Chevy, or Ford. If I had attended public school, the elementary school was perhaps two blocks distant, but it would have been a very long way by street, since the lack of a grid system resulted in a very indirect street pattern from home. Who cares about the disenfranchisement of the young or the elderly? Today the mother and her minivan is a commonly accepted demographic group—hence the birth of the soccer mom.

Historic Sun Prairie City Hall, notice how it gave presence to the corner,
and facades of adjoining structures

The second event was the fire at Schweiger’s Drug store in downtown Sun Prairie in March 1975, which destroyed or affected a number of adjoining businesses. Downtown would never recover as a perfect storm of the fire, aging proprietors, and the advent of the large indoor mall would replace a street on which a child could walk and enjoy a true Maxwell Street Day experience. From a social sense, I think I realized that Sun Prairie was no longer the small town in which I had grown up was when in the 1980’s I went to a hardware store at the Main Shopping Center to pick up some nuts and bolt, and was paying for it by check and was asked for identification. The first time in Sun Prairie that had happened to me. Prior to that I think most persons in town recognized the last name if not from my Dad, than from the traditions passed down from the now legendary antics of my older brothers.

News Article on Schwieger Drug Store Fire, 1975
Source: newspaperarchive.

If my brother who frequented the pool hall got in trouble, someone only need go across the street to visit my dad in his office. If I wanted to purchase some clothes, the proprietor may make a call to my mother to be assured they would meet with her approval. How my older brothers were able to purchase a 24 case of beer and (try to) hide it under a line of pine trees in our yard I don’t know. If you did not know the proprietors, they certainly knew you, as it was apparently not difficult to pick out a Hovel boy. Along with a traditional neighborhood feel, I believe the car culture has also caused us to lose the neighborhood cohesiveness. A child needs to get driven to a mall, or a big box to clothes shop. Lacing the convenience, they also lack the ability to develop independence by doing it themselves. Is it any wonder a term in common use today is “helicopter parent”? Schools, since the 1970’s, are at the periphery on large acreages causing few to walk and most be driven or bussed. Is it any reason why walking and biking to school has significantly decreased from 1969 to 2009? And we have fewer farm households than fifty to sixty years earlier, although we have more exurban and suburban homes. In his book Bowling Alone Robert Putnam notes the decrease in social capital in the nation. TV, he says is partly at fault, but I think part of the cause is in a form of development that makes knowing your merchant more difficult, where big boxes and large parking lots have replaced familiarity and the small town fell prevalent to Scotty Smalls.

Basis of Neighborhood

Communities we often like best are those small ones that have preserved the broad retail and services of their downtowns, they give a comfort, or familiarity, even though they are distant and most often in vacation destinations. Yet we have destroyed these places in our own communities. I suspect that the decrease in social capital may, at least be due in part, to the fact that the manager of the Walmart, Menard’s, or member of a large law firm may well be less connected to the Community than the proprietor of the small store front clothing store, the owner of the Coast-to-Coast hardware store, or the one man law firm practicing law for the homeowners and farmers of the community. These latter merchants and professional businessmen, made up a large part of the social capital of the community whether it be a civic club, a church board, or in a bowling or softball league. These activities formed a crucial backbone to the social capital that Putnam describes. Yes, we have our Optimist and Lion clubs today, but, as Putnam notes, they too are declining. They may always be there, but likely not to the degree they were in the past.

Wisconsin Porcelain Company (appears to be their newer building)

Putnam also notes a change in where people live compared to the earlier times of Scotty Smalls’ age. At that time housing was not near as segregated. For example, the owner of the Wisconsin Porcelain lived in a beautiful wooded lot, but down the street was standard Sun Prairie housing of the 1950’s or earlier. While my small town lawyer father lived on Dewey St, so did two small business owners, and blue collar workers at the porcelain. We did not think in terms of social strata. Children played with each other and became friends, regardless of class or income status. Today we see a continued social demarcation based on house prices and the now ever present McMansions.

A type of McMansion

Sun Prairie has tried to reignite some of the sense of a traditional neighborhoods, of a community that was lost with the advent of our suburban form. The downtown Cannery Square redevelopment of part of the porcelain company, Legion Hall, and Canning Company, to name a few is the intended development to do this. Yet, its effort has not been fully successful. While desiring a traditional urban form, the form it created is not quite right. Its buildings do not form a nice outdoor place for the public sidewalk, some are too articulated, others due to placement. But, our tendency to desire big box retail and malls over small shops has left out a crucial retail component. While important, a successful downtown requires more than eating and drinking establishments, city hall, or the Edward Jones office. After all, the corner taverns are still present in Sun Prairie. Eating is one activity that cannot be outsourced or obtained from the internet, so no wonder it takes on added importance in civic engagement. Interconnectedness too has changed from familiarity and personal greeting to Facebook and other aspects of social media.

Cannery Square in Sun Prairie, WI

As for me, the sandlot we played on was in our large field, part of it a floodplain. Our friends would bike or walk over to join in almost daily games of softball when we were children. We did not have a large fence with a monstrous dog, but we had a line of evergreen trees with a creek beyond. Beyond that creek is that standard suburban subdivision which lacks sidewalks and connectivity to the community. From my point of view, our current form of development is more than a metaphor for the decline in neighborhood and perhaps more importantly in a decline in social capital.


Unless otherwise noted, photos from Google images.