At the turn of the 20th century, Rountree was "the southern suburbs" of Springfield.

In 2019, it includes an urban microneighborhood with many places for high-end food and drink.

More development is waiting in the wings.

Hours before Tuesday's stormy weather, an open garage door revealed clutter stacked several feet deep inside a former art gallery at Cherry Street and Pickwick Avenue.

The space, once used by a prolific photographer, currently holds the prep fridge for Skully's Food Truck. From the tiny parking lot outside, the truck sells ramen noodles and rich brown broth — for now.

Across the road from Skully's, a dumpster took up a fat swath of lawn. By way of a construction chute, the bin was hitched to the upper floor of the old Homegrown Food building.

The door and the dumpster marked two signs of change, among many others, for the Cherry-Pickwick intersection.

Located at the northern edge of the Rountree Urban Conservation District, this upmarket gem of a city block once caught the favor of Reese Witherspoon.

South of Cherry Street, Rountree includes about 2,800 people who live in some 1,400 homes, according to city data. Their neighborhood is regulated by a district plan, adopted by Springfield City Council in 1985 and updated most recently in 2018. The idea is to cultivate the greater Rountree neighborhood like a precisely trimmed bonsai tree.

For the small businesses near Cherry and Pickwick, many of them owned by women, Rountree, Elm Street and Walnut Street make for built-in markets of Springfield people who live in relative privilege and comfort — all within walking distance.

And while commerce has been no stranger here for many decades, development is now moving at a faster pace.

Related: Rountree residents hope new, mixed-use development will be a 'prototype' for the future

In 1905, it was 'the southern suburbs'

In the coming months, at least three new small businesses are likely to be added to the Cherry-Pickwick lineup, squeezing into a village-like environment that takes up less than four acres of land.

It's a place layered with Springfield history. At the turn of the 20th century, what's now Rountree was home to Springfield’s Normal School, a forerunner of Missouri State University. At that time, it was thought of as the "southern suburbs" of Springfield. Before that, it was the countryside, hosting the Greene County Poor Farm, according to research by Richard Crabtree, a real-estate agent and local history buff.

Even the two Spanish-style buildings here — one, a disused shell, is on Cherry; the other, a busy hub with a tearoom and a yoga studio, is on Pickwick — have something to say about nostalgia. They both draw on architecture that swept across America from 1890 to 1920, echoing centuries-old California structures built by Franciscan missionaries.

"So we continue to be excited to have the Spanish Mission building restored and activated, and the old gallery building to put to a thriving use," said Laurel Bryant, president of the highly organized and well-connected Rountree Neighborhood Association.

All three of the new ventures coming to this area are so-called "hospitality" concepts: Skully's, which will move indoors and sell off its food truck; The Royal, a small music hall; and Team Taco, which is exactly what it sounds like.

Skully's and The Royal will be neighbors inside the former art gallery on the northwest corner of the intersection. They'll each take up 600 square feet, more or less. Ross Chaffin, whose family recently won city approval to develop a 1.18-acre footprint that includes the gallery building, said the two businesses will share a common entrance and restrooms but have separate spaces and outdoor patios.

The Chaffin project — enthusiastically endorsed by the leaders of the Rountree Neighborhood Association, unlike other projects viewed as potential eyesores and sources of excess traffic — also includes a plan to renovate the dilapidated Spanish Mission building at 1423 E. Cherry St. and properties to the north.

The architecture was what got the Chaffins interested in redeveloping the corner, Chaffin said. "It's definitely unique for Springfield," he told the News-Leader in mid-April. "It has been our primary concern to keep that building as it looks today, without too many changes."

Chaffin said the plan calls for new apartments on the building's upper floor, and he's currently negotiating with "two separate businesses" — both of which would be retail — for the street level.

"As far as tenants downstairs, I don't think I'm quite ready to make a statement," Chaffin said. "We are excited about them as well."

Other announcements are waiting in the wings.

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Amanda Milsap Owen started Homegrown Food in 2010, later selling the business but keeping hold of the real estate at 601 and 607 S. Pickwick.

Homegrown Food was most recently owned by entrepreneur and would-be Democratic politician Rob Bailey, but since he closed down the organic grocery in December, Owen found a new tenant.

She told the News-Leader Tuesday that entrepreneur Bryce Gott expects to open a food-related concept.

Owen is also responsible for that construction chute. She said newly renovated apartments will go into 607 S. Pickwick Ave., above Homegrown Food and B + B Boulangerie, a niche bakery that operates in back of the building.

'We've never had foot traffic' until now

Of the three ventures confirmed to set up shop at Cherry and Pickwick in the coming months, Skully’s has been around the longest.

Owners Lora and Joe Still aren't sure when they'll start working with the Chaffins on the construction of their indoor space, which will seat 16. So much depends on the weather and the pace at which the city approves permits, they said.

They'll maintain a nod to their food-truck roots by offering a walk-up window on the east-facing Pickwick Avenue side of their shop. They're also excited because they'll be able to not only run lunch and dinner service, but also run food prep, at the same time — an impossible feat in a cramped food truck.

They began their venture in 2016 with a food truck christened Coops Fresh Kitchen, an attempt at selling fried-chicken sandwiches. But the Stills soon dropped the notion in favor of a menu blending Asian and American influences: ramen noodle bowls and stir-fry, along with items like kimchi fries and wings. They've also served non-Asian foods like poutine and crab beignets.

The Stills got started in a hiding-place location tucked amid industrial buildings south of the main Springfield post office on Chestnut Expressway. Then they jumped to the parking lot behind White River Brewing Company, at Commercial Street and Lyon Avenue. In September, they made the move to Cherry and Pickwick.

The Stills admitted that they were nervous about their choice. But they said it turned out to be a good one. Rountree and Rountree-adjacent people keep them busy.

"People in the neighborhood are just out all the time riding their bikes," Lora Still said. "We've never had foot traffic — or car traffic — until we got here."

Bryant, with the neighborhood association, noted that city government is also working on plans for a new crosswalk at the intersection area.

Parking is a constant concern here, as it is in the rest of central Springfield.

Related: Developer wants to build a 'pocket neighborhood' in Rountree. Will council OK a tax break?

Chaffin, the developer, said, "Parking is absolutely in the plans" for his Cherry-Pickwick project. "That being said, the whole development will come in phases."

In other words, the Chaffin property north of the building that will house Skully's will including new parking spaces — but not yet.

'A lifelong dream'

Skully's co-owner Joe Still said he was looking forward to being next door to The Royal music hall, partly because its owner, B.J. Lowrance, doesn't plan to book boring, run-of-the-mill rock bands.

Still said he's known Lowrance for years because Lowrance, formerly on staff at Hörrmann Meat Company, sold him products.

"I guess opening The Royal's been a lifelong dream," Lowrance told the News-Leader Wednesday. "I've been in restaurants, I worked at a wedding venue, I love music. I've been in bands. I managed bands. This is kind of a culmination of all of those things."

He and his girlfriend were sitting at Cherry Picker Package x Fare one day and thought the gallery building across the road was a cool spot with potential, Lowrance said.

Inspired by house concerts, Lowrance envisions booking singer-songwriters or other small acts to play a wide range of music styles for audiences of 30 to 40 people, if he can fit that many in the space. He plans to serve a relatively compact menu of finger foods and drinks.

"There will be a full bar, but it'll be a fairly simple bar," Lowrance said. "We'll have a few cocktails, but I'm not really a cocktail bartender. We'll let Golden Girl (Rum Club) do that."

Lowrance loves Wes Anderson movies, so he named The Royal as a nod to 2001's "The Royal Tenenbaums," and he plans to incorporate Anderson's film aesthetic into the look of The Royal by using pastel colors, clean typefaces and a fox mascot.

About that long-anticipated taco place

Team Taco, which announced it would take over the former Elle's Patisserie building nearly a year ago, is closer to opening.

Bryant, the neighborhood association president, said word on the street is that it will be "a couple of months" until the Team Taco crew, which also own Social on Patton in downtown Springfield, are actually slinging tacos and cocktails.

The future Team Taco building at 1454 E. Cherry St., a half-block east from the Chaffin project, is a former early 20th-century gas station, like other buildings in the area. It had to have a full-service kitchen added so the staff could make tacos.

"Our opening is getting closer," said part owner Brent Sonnemaker in an email to the News-Leader Monday. "At the moment, it's all weather-dependent."

In the meantime, Team Taco continues doing taco pop-ups such as one for Tie & Timber Beer Co.'s recent first-anniversary celebration.

Will Springfield get more micro-neighborhoods?

Sociologists and journalists often discuss "micro-neighborhoods" as mixed-use areas that sometimes only comprise one or two city blocks. The scientists study them for their effect on relations among different social classes and racial groups, while magazine writers delight in making lists of the coolest ones in a given city or across the world.

Like Cherry and Pickwick's newfound status as a refuge for high-end food and drink, they seem to develop in a place that already has a storied history. In Los Angeles, for example, a GQ writer noted that Fairfax Avenue evolved from being mainly a Jewish community with delis and bakeries to one that included places for street fashion and art.

More: Council approves plan to temporarily halt new developments in Rountree

Similar to Cherry and Pickwick, Kansas City's Martini Corner at 31st and Oak streets is now known for a cluster of high-end bars and restaurants. But as local history blog Midtown KC Post observed, 120 years ago, Martini Corner had "a drugstore, tin shop, meat market and a cabinet shop," along with a home for elderly people run by the Little Sisters of the Poor.

As Springfield's population grows, will there be any other transformations of this kind?

The short answer may be that nobody really knows.

"That's a good question," Chaffin told the News-Leader a few weeks ago. "I think it's to be determined. I think Rountree has created such a special blueprint for walkability in Springfield."

Personally, Chaffin hopes it happens.

Lowrance, Chaffin's tenant for the space that will become The Royal, praised the Cherry-Pickwick business community for its complementary nature, even though so many of the ventures are focused on food and drink.

"No one's really doing quite the same thing," he said.

Bob Hosmer, principal planner with the city of Springfield, has worked with projects including Chaffin's and Tie & Timber Beer Co. and noted that balancing neighborhood excitement with traffic congestion is always a question.

"With places like this, sometimes you have too many people and it clogs the area," he said.

Hosmer added, "We're definitely supportive. We see this as a big benefit for residents to live and work and not have to get in their car. They can bike or walk up there, and not have to use a car or get on the public transit system. From the standpoint of traffic and just good communities, it would be a good benefit."

Cherry & Pickwick: A foodie's timeline

1905

Pickwick Place, as the area was then known, was home to Springfield's Normal School, a forerunner of Missouri State University. An ad in the Nov. 19, 1905 edition of the Springfield Daily Republican calls Pickwick "one of the prettiest of Springfield's residence places, located at the popular southern suburbs where we are selling lots from $200 to $300 each." That's worth about $7,000 in 2019 money.

1989

Randy Ott opens Ott's Pasta Carry Out.

1998

Nancy Kenkel relocates Imo's Pizza from its old Kimbrough Ave. location.

2003

Colleen Smith opens Tea Bar & Bites.

2010

Amanda Milsap Open founds Homegrown Food, which operates off-and-on under different owners through December 2018.

2011

Elle Feldman relocates Elle's Patisserie from its old Republic Road location.

2015

Tom Billionis and Joshua Widner open Cherry Picker Package x Fare.

2016

Katie Kring opens B+B Boulangerie under its original branding, Butcher + Baker.

2018

Elle's Patisserie closes in January as its owner pivots to other business interests.

Jennifer Leonard and Curtis Marshall open Tie & Timber Beer Co. in April.

In June, Brent Sonnemaker and other part owners announce Team Taco will replace Elle's Patisserie.

Joe and Lora Still move their Skully's food truck to Cherry Street in September.

2019

City Council approves the "Chaffin project," a 1.18-acre development including the former Josh Mitchell Art Gallery at 1427 E. Cherry St. and a disused Spanish Mission-style building immediately to the west that is to become retail and apartments.

Sometime later this year, Skully's plans to move into the former Mitchell building alongside The Royal, a "small neighborhood music hall" owned by B.J. Lowrance. The two establishments will have separate spaces but will share a common entrance and restrooms.

Eastward at 1454 E. Cherry St., Team Taco expects to open later this year.

Amanda Milsap Owen also said that a new business expects to open in the former Homegrown Food space. That building's second floor is being renovated for apartments.

SOURCE: News-Leader archives; Bureau of Labor Statistics.