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The pair of
buildings at 425-431 S. 4th Street is of
outstanding significance in interpreting Springfield’s
transportation history as it relates to the early and
overwhelming acceptance of the automobile in the city.
These are the last remaining structures built
specifically as automobile dealerships on Springfield’s
original “automobile row.” They illuminate the history
of the social, physical and cultural changes brought
about in Springfield by the automobile in the first half
of the twentieth century.
425 S. 4th
Street was built circa 1923 for Constant and Groves
Chevrolet Dealership. The building is two stories in
height and faced with a rough textured or “tapestry”
brick common to commercial structures in the second
quarter of the 20th Century. This particular
sub-type of commercial building is in the category of
Broad-front Store or Double Brick-front Store as
described by Jan Jennings and Herbert Gottfried in their
American Vernacular Interior Architecture, 1870-1940.
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