In Riverside in 1975, the movers and shakers decided it was a good time for another centennial celebration. This one would be far more ambitious than that of 1936, when Riversiders celebrated the l00th year since the arrival of the Forbes and Laughton families, the first permanent settlers.

Once again, it was time to do something about the famed “Riverside Stores,” a building known later as “the Green Block” and later to us as “The Arcade Building.” This building originally was a part of the Riverside Improvement Company’s plan to “prepare a city and depend upon people to live in it when it was completed.” The initial plans included an all-encompassing building to serve the residents. They named it, “Riverside Stores” and hired architect Frederick Withers to design the building.

Advertising for the project in 1871, the company described the benefits of this investment.

“A handsome block of stores and offices, constructed of red and Milwaukee brick, with cut stone trimmings, has also been built by the Company, which are now occupied as a market, supply store, drugstore, post office, etc., so that all family supplies are readily obtained in good variety and quality, and at reasonable and satisfactory prices. An ice house has been built and is well stocked with diamond pure ice from the Aux Plaines River, which is delivered to customers regularly by ice wagons, at less than city rates.”

So much for the plans of mice and men. Quoting from a news article in this paper’s “Citizen” in 1975, “The building at #1 Riverside Road had undergone much ill-advised tampering and trimming, which resulted in something less than architecturally pleasing to the eye. At that point a relative newcomer to Riverside, Peter Sahlas, purchased the building. Sahlas sandblasted the ill-advised paint that covered the original pressed brick, bringing out the attractive two-color pattern. He attempted to remove the wire-mesh cement covered coating which hid the stained glass and leaded windows over the display windows, and removed the paint and varnish applied to the beautiful wood on the 3rd floor.”

The Arcade Building can be compared to a fate suffered by a once renowned beauty queen who, although adored by many, underwent various makeovers and restorative processes only to find herself worse off than had she done nothing. It’s tough to get old.

Today, the Arcade Building lies moribund. Most of the businesses that cooperated with the 1975 Centennial are no longer with us. Seed money for the Centennial celebration was given by businesses who flew the “centennial banner.” Most are long gone. Riversiders enjoyed shopping places such as The Riverside General Store, Falconer Wheel, Brake and Body Service, the Village Bake Shop, Riverside Landscape and Tree Service, Marty’s Barber Shop, and a store named “Really Wild.” The Tower Gift Shop has been replaced by the Riverside Bank, the Riverside National Bank is now the “First American,” the Riverside Savings and Loan is now the Bank of America.

On Wednesday, July 30, 1975, the Village of North Riverside Trustees met with representatives from Melvin Simon and Associates, developers of the North Riverside Park shopping center, to be located on a 14 acre site scheduled to open in October.

Howard Kane, a spokesman for Simon, said that “customers from the area would benefit from the increased competition of the center, particularly in the area of food shopping.”

Today the only pharmacy in town has been replaced by a condominium. City planners explain that the mega-city is on its way, that small towns are dying. Riverside, once described as an oasis surrounded by a jungle of confusion, needs help. Perhaps Congress could see its way clear to toss some of the dollars they are throwing around to save not only the landmark building, “The Arcade,” but a small town in the middle of America devoted to a quality of life that is fast slipping away.

Time will tell whether the moribund building can be saved. If funds from our taxpayer-funded government are not available, perhaps some august, well-heeled group will come up with a million or so of needed funds to preserve our peaceful village in a forest and our way of life in an “oasis in a sea of confusion.”