The northern part of Range Line Road in Webb City, Mo., aka Madison Street, aka Route 66, is being dramatically altered because of the City Pointe retail development.
The town needs the tax revenue from the development. But as Joplin Globe columnist Wally Kennedy notes, there also is a palpable sense of something being lost.
Decades ago, motorists would travel through Webb City on Route 66. When they came to Madison Street, they would see a tree-lined street with lovely homes. It made a favorable impression. If Webb City is to give that up, it should get something in return that makes an impression that is equally favorable. The city, as I understand it, is fully aware of that and is doing as much as it can to make that happen.
Still, there is the loss of history and the loss of identity to consider. Larry and Connie Sweet, who live in a white house at 903 S. Madison St., are fully aware of that.
Connie Sweet is hoping someone will buy her 98-year-old home but not tear it down. Her home's classic architecture would lend itself to a wedding chapel, a funeral home, an upscale restaurant or a lawyer's office. But she has no control over what a developer might do. If the house where she has lived for 35 years is to be torn down, she would like to figure out a way to move it.
"We can't sell our houses for residential," she said. "Nobody wants to live on a street that's this busy, with 25,000 cars going by each day. It's not like it was when I moved here."
Most, if not all, of the houses in the district have been rezoned for commercial use. The city did not force that to happen. Most everyone along Madison Street wanted the properties to be rezoned. Several of the houses are rental properties.
"I never dreamed it would happen this fast," Connie Sweet said. "I knew it would happen, but not this fast. This was the prettiest street in Webb City. Times change. As bad as we hate it, times change."
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A longtime reader of The Globe and a reliable source reminded me of this fact in a recent e-mail. She concluded with: "It seems like an interesting touch of history that soon might be gone, the way that scenic neighborhood is disappearing."