Geneva reflects on history while planning downtown's future

Geneva's downtown began changing the minute James Herrington bought first settler Daniel Shaw Haight's cabin and land claim in 1835.

It changed as sawmills were built, the railroad came, the county seat was put there, the Little Traveler opened. Houses became businesses, a creamery became a hotel, a gas station became an organic gardening store.

“The Geneva we know today will not be the Geneva of tomorrow. But that's not a bad thing,” Mayor Kevin Burns said at last week's “Brown Bag Lunch” lecture at the Geneva History Center.

“The Past, Present and Future of Downtown Geneva” drew about 30 people, many of them longtime residents who interjected remembrances of stores and people long gone. Besides the mayor, speakers included Jamie Daniel, speaking about the mid-20th century, and the city's community development director, Dick Untch, speaking about the early history and the future of downtown Geneva. The city is working on a master plan to guide development of the downtown and the area by the Metra train station.

Untch said that when he started working for Geneva 12 years ago, what stood out to him was the way the original town was laid out. Its grid system is not the typical Chicago-area grid, he said, with its short blocks and few alleys. Untch also noted that planners in the 1830s made the street rights of way 80 feet wide instead of the usual 66 feet (the length of a surveyor's chain), which adds to its charm today.

“People are struck (and pleased) by the separation distance” of buildings, he said. “That space is what really forms the character of the downtown.”

Untch spoke about how the railroad brought Swedish and Italian immigrants to town.

Daniel a Mississippi native who moved here in 1956 pointed out some things in Geneva's past weren't great. Some examples are the deed on her first house restricted its sale to Caucasians, that old-timers blamed newer residents “south of the tracks” for the demise of independent groceries, and that the ethnic groups didn't like each other.

“It seemed everybody had somebody to look down on,” she said, drawing a knowing laugh.

Daniel went on to describe the downtown area with the grocery, drug and clothing stores that lined State Street, the milliner who made hats to match suits ladies bought at the Little Traveler, and being warned to stay away from Robin's Book Shop on South Third Street because it was thought a Communist cell was operating there.

Burns mentioned the first national retailer in the downtown, a Pizza Hut carryout on South Third in the 1990s.

“You would have thought we released the Ebola virus,” he said of peoples' reaction to the plan.

He spoke of the challenge of keeping the downtown quaint while making changes, such as more parking, that shoppers want. A study several years ago concluded that 70 percent of Geneva's shoppers were from out of town.

Guest Gloria Campbell pointed out the lack of basic necessity stores downtown as one reason for the high number of out of town shoppers.

“(The boutiques) are not the kind of things you go to everyday. There are only so many people we are going to buy gifts for,” said her husband, Colin.

“Rest assured that the heritage we share here, the historical context ... we really need to preserve that character,” Untch said.