Downtown Plaza History
The Downtown Plaza's location at Neil and Washington Streets is the heart of downtown. The current day driving aisle on the parking lot's eastern side, fronting businesses, used to be Hickory Street. This street featured a series of ‘flatiron-style' buildings along Neil Street. The intersection of Neil, Main, Church, and formerly Hickory Street has been a gathering spot since the founding of Champaign. Patrons would originally bring horses to drink from the well located in One Main Plaza after conducting business. By 1972, these buildings had been razed to accommodate a parking lot, in an effort to attract suburban consumers away from Marketplace Mall and back to downtown. Today, the approximately two-acre site remains a metered, city-owned parking lot, except for a small plaza and outdoor dining space on the southern portion of the site.
The heart of the parking lot, a triangular block was a vibrant part of Downtown Champaign and contained the original home of the Champaign News-Gazette on its southern tip and the Downtown Farmer Market on its northern tip bordering Washington Street. Though both iconic structures, as well as the remainder of the block, were demolished (News-Gazette 1969, Market – 1920s), what is important to remember is that this place was an iconic center of activity in Downtown Champaign. As streetcars waned and the automobile gained prominence, this block was converted to a parking lot to service Sears Roebuck Company, which consequently vacated its space on Hickory Street shortly after the parking lot was created. The historic Orpheum Theatre (now Orpheum Children’s Museum) still exists, as does most of the historic fabric on the east side of the former Hickory Street right-of-way. The southern tip was redeveloped in the early 2000’s where the One Main development exists today.
While Downtown Champaign has seen a renaissance in the last 30 years, it suffered large economic declines in the 1970s-1990s until the City partnered with businesses and non-profits to support the preservation, restoration, and repurposing of historic buildings such as the Orpheum Theatre. The legacy of the built environment and the quality of infill in Downtown Champaign and bordering this site is a testament to the work of the City and its partners in preserving an important place for future generations. A few buildings and site features such as the temperance fountain (well) downtown remain as reminders of the past.
Additional historical resources:
- For historical pictures of this space, see page 10 of the Neil Street Plaza Placemaking Plan.
- The City of Champaign maintains an interactive map of historical aerial photography HERE.
- For history on downtown buildings, see champaignhistory.com.
- The Urbana Free Library's historical photo collection HERE and the Champaign County History Museum HERE.
- City Directories of local businesses throughout the 1900s are stored in searchable formats HERE.
