OPINION|
Carolyn Sherman of Bethesda, Maryland, last week emailed us an old photo of the house that still stands behind what was once the Panera Bread shop at National Avenue and Elm Street.
She sent the photo to colleague Joe Hadsall, who handed it off to me, thinking it might make a good column.
Indeed, teamwork makes the Springfield-Daily-Citizen dream work.
Sherman, 78, was born here in Springfield. Her ancestors once owned the house.
Sherman is confident she has been inside the house, but it would have been as a young child. If so, she has no recollection of it.
The photo she sent us was taken, she believes, in 1918; in the baby carriage, she tells me, is her mother — Helen Marie Winter, who is deceased.
Sherman says the person pushing the carriage is her grandmother — Marie Walker.
The house was once owned by her great-, great-grandparents: Ralph Walker (1832-1907) and Fanny J. Wilson Walker (1825-1920.)
Ralph Walker served three separate terms as mayor of Springfield: 1884-1886 and 1888-1890 and 1900-1902.
Driver crashed into Panera in April 2023
One of the things Carolyn Sherman wanted to know was the age of the residence.
Unfortunately, I could not find the answer.
Online Greene County property records show the house lumped with the nearby Brown Derby at 506 S. National Avenue, as well as the commercial space where Panera Bread was located at 500 S. National Ave.
It was there until April 27. That's when an SUV struck the restaurant at 4:28 p.m. The space is now vacant.
According to Springfield police, a 2015 Mercedes-Benz G55 driven by Davinder Singh, 34, of Springfield, traveling south on National, failed to complete a left turn onto Elm. The SUV drove through a window on the building’s northwest corner and stopped inside the restaurant. No one was seriously hurt.
Police determined the driver was not impaired by alcohol or drugs.
Online property records indicate the structure was built in 1920, but it's unclear what structure the records mean. The space where the Panera Bread was? The adjoining house? The nearby liquor store?
After all, Sherman tells us the photo was taken in front of the house in 1918.
Blue Parrot Tea Room, a cozy place
Sherman recalls that her family operated the Blue Parrot Tea Room in the house during the Great Depression.
I found an Oct. 12, 1934 ad in the Springfield News-Leader announcing the opening of the tea room that day. The invitation was from “Mrs. Rob't H. Walker” and “Mrs. Marie Winter.”
It stated: “Tea and cakes will be served without charge. We desire that you see and enjoy Springfield's newest good place to eat. It is different — a cozy place in the Southeast residential district, where you may enjoy the finest of foods at luncheon and dinner.”
It's hard to imagine a time when the corner of National and Elm was in “southeast” Springfield.
The address in the ad is not on National Avenue, but at 910 E. Elm St. That address no longer exists.
I think the house that still rises above the commercial space where Panera once was was built before 1920.
In fact, I found a Oct. 18, 1908, classified ad in the News-Leader stating:
“FOR RENT: 910 E. Elm St. furnished house for the winter; modern with furnace; small family. Apply corner Elm and boulevard.”
And this following ad appeared 56 years later on April 10, 1964:
“Furnished bedroom, apartment, $67.50 per month. 514 S. National. Efficiency $39 per month. Corner National and Elm. Inquire Thomas Market, 500 S. National.”
Today, the entire structure is zoned commercial. On the ground floor facing Elm is one business, the Barbershop Deluxe.
Former Panera space was once a grocery store
Thomas Market, a grocery store that had an address of 500 S. National Ave. — same as Panera Bread — once was at National and Elm. Thomas Market closed in about 1970.
The property at the southeast corner of National and Elm — the house, the commercial space where Panera was, and the nearby Brown Derby, (which has since closed) — is owned by Nouvelle Realty LLC.
The company has no internet presence, but Missouri Secretary of State's Office records indicate it was formed in 2008 and owned by Jo Ann Junge, sister of Johnny Morris, founder of Bass Pro Shops.
The address for Nouvelle Realty LLC, according to online records, is that of the Brown Derby Wine Center at 2023 S. Glenstone Ave. Brown Derby is owned by the Morris family.
Junge did not respond to a request for comment — or even a slice of detail on the history of the house — despite messages left at the wine center and several emails I sent, including one to an address provided to me by her husband.
This is Pokin Around column No. 150.
