Main Street, Downers Grove, IL. Taken December 24th, 2016.
This photo series was a bit of a personal one for me. I met my family for a traditional Christmas Eve brunch in the old downtown of Downers Grove, IL and stayed to take in the downtown core with my new Nikon D7200.
My family have been long time residents of Downers Grove with both of my 90-year-old grandparents having lived in the village for almost their entire lives. My Grandfather’s Grandfather emigrated to the village from Alsace, France in the 1870s at the end of the Franco-Prussian War when Alsace was swept up in the reunification of Germany. In 1884, my great-great-grandfather founded a hardware store with partner. The store then passed as a family business to my great-grandfather and finally to my grandfather before finally closing operations in 1995.
I remember playing as a child in the massive service elevator, exploring the basement and wooden attic as five-generations of the family’s kids had done before me. Much changed with the business over the course of its 111 years of existence. Changes that were reflected in the surrounding community.
In the late 19th century, the hardware store’s biggest selling products were coal and horse feed, supporting the village’s farming community. By the mid-twentieth century, the modern interstate system snaking out from the central hub of Chicago had worked its change. Access to the Chicago loop by car pushed the new middle class out to the suburbs. Combined with a post-war building and baby booms, the farming community that was Downers Grove converted into a bedroom community for middle class and white collar workers.
Upon taking over the store in the mid-twentieth century, my grandfather re-focused the store inventory investing in toy, games, and appliances in addition to the hardware and builder materials. My grandfather retired in 1995, closing the business and selling his warehouse to the village of Downers Grove in order to allow for the expansion of the village’s new library. Home Depot and Lowes killed the hardware store, offering selection and prices that the downtown small businesses couldn’t compete with. The commercial centers for the village moved from the old main street core and into the big box chains popping up along the highways running through town.
Although no longer the commercial core of the area, Main Street Downers Grove has seen a revitalization in the twenty-first century. The now-choked interstate highway system that brought access to white collar jobs for suburban workers has become a less attractive method of commuting compared to the commuter rail lines running through the old main street section of town. Commuters and residents seeking post-commute dinning options can take a seat in some of the new restaurants that have opened in the old, elegant buildings on main street. Craftsmen and artists sell on both Etsy and their stores off main street. Boutiques market to a clientele with custom tastes that can’t always be met in the chain store.
As the nature of retail changes from in-store shopping to online convenience, the once powerful big box store chains consolidate and start to show cracks in their once unbeatable financial facades. Once forgotten main street blooms again with a walker-friendly service economy. The store fronts in these photos have seen many changes over their century+ existences, but it is good to see new and brightly colored awnings dappling the street. It is good to see business reinvesting in their interiors with new murals, lighting, and decor. A juxtaposition of new and old, side-by-side for the photographer’s eye, exists now in this main street world.
I don’t know what the future hold for this main street world. A world my grandfather lived and breathed from childhood and through his entire adult life. A world that connects and grounds me back through two centuries of family lineage. A world that has seen both the industrial and technological revolutions. One that has survived to be reborn again and again in each generation, a new form and a new narrative of American history. I would like to think that, three generations from now when I am an old man, I can one day take those in my family who follow me to a space like this and imbue a sense of personal connection to their history. While people and places change, forged upon the crucible of progress, I hope that some elements to this world of main street USA are used to form the DNA of what comes next.