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Show THE HERALD, Provo, Utah, Page P6 Sunday, February 16, 1992 Chicago's downtown regainsng the popularity it once enjoy r - On State CHICAGO (AP) once-grethat street, Street, ghosts of a splendid past mingle tyith a drabber present. six grand department ; Where stores once reigned, shoppers find only two among the lingerie shops, discount shoe d restaurants and stores, lots have Vacant pharmacies. rebuilding plans on stayed empty, I at ' cut-ra- nnitllB1'lj.lWH''l"" ! ' to-d- - llll'lmWBIg'-1Ul'-i!ll,HHii- ..! ' li.,iui)f ff fl H iNAISSANCE IS CHOPPiP PR!iCES THIS FRIDAY, SATURDAY & MONDAY n te i f - v fast-foo- hold. Today the street that once was one of America's most fabled shopping districts is struggling to i I il - 1 T Urn-- ' rpgain the shoppers it lost as suburban malls siphoned them off and glamour drifted to another part of ddwntown. .There are signs of hope. State Street captured a handful of new stores last year, a new city library and a university are expected to dfcaw people, and the street is ' . Awr-- ii ArSitf,i'.i1 rM flN' Jp -- re- building a shopping base among downtown workers. many old downtown districts, urban planners say, State Street is being forced to reinvent itself. Every town faces the same sort oT problem; why should Chicago be.any different?" says Gary Reje-btamarketing vice president for the Illinois Retail Merchants Association. But for decades, State Street was ' - :i -- kP If' Lr !?s - n, different. "What made State Street more significant than other downtowns was you had people who would drive in from all over the Midwest Jo shop there," says Larry Bena DePaul University political nett, jcience professor who wrote '.Fragments of Cities: The New Ainerican Downtowns and Neighborhoods," based on studies of iany downtown areas. tFrom 1834, when a settler of jvhat was then called State Road a '.muddy, stretch wandered by fur traders opt of his cabin and killed the last tear seen in the center of town, to lhe 1950s, State Street grew steadily. Less than 30 years after the street was laid out in the 1830s, its klestiny already was clear to retail ibaron Potter Palmer. Seeing the n Ifirst streetcars plying frog-infest- horse-draw- We're Slashing Prices AP Photo Shoppers brave the windy city of Chicago's cold weather to shop at the famed department store of Marshall Field and Company. It is one of the main attractions of Chicago's State Street. In 1949, the specter of decline ing store windows lost some of arose: Chicago's first suburban their allure when potential customshopping center, Park Forest, ers no longer could see them from opened in a cornfield southwest of cars. the city. Nobody liked the mall. The Chicago Tribune called it "a civic emJust two years later, the barrassment," an "aesthetic faiChicago Daily News lure" and "a particularly harsh warned of the threat to State Street disappointment." prosperity. never "It never now-defun- : The strip boomed; the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 hardly is threatening to strangle it. Slums are circling the Loop in areas where homes and customers should be. The suburbs, because of these two things, are growing into a giant competitor. " Mowed its growth, As public transportation expanded after the fire, it made it easier for shoppers from through-hu- t the city to reach the State Street i stores. In 1922, songwriter Fred Fisher pave the street its enduring slogan. The popular booster tune he enned, "Chicago," immortal-zeState Street as "that great treet," where "they do things d (hey don't do on Broadway." During the 1920s, stores along the street were totaling more than $400 million a year in sales, according to periodicals of the time, and providing jobs for 50.000 to 75,000 people. But State Street did become the lowly corner grocery, a place for office workers to fill prescriptions or buy galoshes while waiting for the bus. Many Chicagoans believe the street's glamour finally ar-c- . x v few mn - Riviera Daybed worked, "Traffic body knows that." Daley wants to tear up the mall and reopen the street to autos, but the city needs $30 million to carry out the plan. Jim Anathan, president of Basement Corp., likes State Street just as it is. The store opened there late last year did better than expected, Anathan says. North Michigan Avenue, with its Gucci and Chanel, Burberry's and Henri Bendel, Saks Fifth Ave. and Tiffany and Co., draws more was doomed by a misguided effort to mimic the suburban malls that had drained its business. The plan was conceived as a mall. covered, climate-controlle- d In order to get federal funding, the bus city changed it to an open-ai- r mall that limited traffic to public transportation and pedestrians. Work began in 1974. The street was closed to cars, the sidewalks widened with slippery, gray stone slabs that one reviewer called "unspeakably depressing" when the $17.2 million mall opened in 1980. Some 120 buses an hour one rumble and every 30 seconds fume down the street. With no cars, State Street began to feel empty and dangerous. The glitter But State Street gets more downtown workers, he says. "It's two different markets," Anathan says. "I think there's two different shoppers." The Filene's opening was one of several signs the street may be shaking off its malaise. T.J. Maxx also opened a new State Street store last fall, and Marshall Field's is emerging from a $1 15 million renovation. The city's new Harold Washington Library at the south end of the shopping district also is drawing people. DePaul University is taking over the old Goldblatt's department store building. A new Stouf-fe-r Hotel opened at the north end of the district. The city, unable to get builders to fill in vacant lots along the street, turned one of them into an art fair during the summer open-ai- r and a winter skating rink. The Chicago Theater, built in 1921 but allowed to run down, was reopened in 1986 after a $4 million renovation. Extra faaBcttgSav-g.King, Queen Or Super Single Drawer SALE With worked," Mayor Richard Daley recently said on a WBBM radio talk show. "It's a failure. Every- tourists and suburbanites. .tores. ft) ct "What made State Street more significant than other downtowns was you had people who would drive in from all over the Midwest to shop there." Larry Bennett, professor of political science at DePaul University State Street in 1859, Potter sensed something big could happen and bought up a mile of property. He built the Palmer House hotel and was one of the original partners in ihe Marshall Field's department We're Slashing Prices on WATERBEDS! on DAYBEDS! Honey v 4I M & Walnut Finish A COMPLETE lnJr'l"f JfH". SALE Angel Daybed Pink or white with polydeck. Porcelain Finials extra. sale San Diego Waterbed $119 Polydeck! mrn-mmnm- M uliniMIMII M, , Tiffany Waterbed i Honey & , m,,,. sale Walnut Finish $279 COMPLETE r 1! HK, I i Cambridge Daybed 23 Beautiful Castings Porcelain Finials Laguna Waterbed Honey & Walnut Finish SALE $269 INCLUDED SALE COMPLETE WE'RE SLASHING MATTRESS PRICES: SERTA FIRM TWIN S89e,pc TWIN.... 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