It's the Place to go - Downtown

The Rock River in downtown Janesville
dwm photo
If you grew up in Janesville at any point between 1970 (maybe earlier) and the first decade of this century, you never saw the view at right.

Virtually all of the space between the Court Street bridge (the point of view of the camera) in the first two photos and the Milwaukee Street bridge (center, second photo) was taken up by a large parking lot over the Rock River.

It served the department and dime stores as well as the rest of the businesses.

I remember whenever mom took me downtown, she parked over the river and I hoped we be somewhere near the edge so I could peer between the railings at the water as it flowed below my feet.

If we went to Woolworth's (brick building far right, top right photo), I'd check out the pet area and suggest to mom how much fun it would be to eat at the counter some time.  It may have happened once.

On the east side stood JC Penney and Bostwicks, the two department stores mom shopped the most.

It's where most, if not all, of my clothes came from and I was sure nearly every woman working in either store knew my mom.

Looking upstream to the Milwaukee Street bridge (dwm)
The bridge/parking lot was removed earlier this summer as the city revitalizes downtown.  Instead of covering the water, the new downtown will show it off.

On the west side, the plan is to create a town square to host festivals and gatherings.

A river walk is planned and I can imagine many residents, especially those who never had the opportunity, wanting to sit and watch the water and world go by.

The four year project started with removing the parking lot.  Sadly, the downtown doesn't need all those old parking spaces anymore.

What it needs is some pizzazz to spark the hardy souls already staking their claim in the heart of the city.

Around that giant elevated parking lot ran "the circuit."  Milwaukee and Court streets ran one way west and east; so the favorite past time for many kids was driving the circuit to see and be seen.

JC Penney was at the far right, then Bostwicks and
a number of specialty shops on Main St. (dwm)
If you know me, you aren't surprised I never "did" the circuit.  Not intentionally, anyway.  When I worked at the radio station downtown, I did have to drive down Milwaukee and back up Court. Cool, huh?

The plans include turning Court into a two-way street to match Milwaukee, which just made the once unthinkable transition.

But the crowning jewel of this project, I believe will be a planned pedestrian bridge joining east and west.  There's going to be a lot of kids just thrilled to hear their parents and grandparents tell them about the days when if you stood in the same place, all you could see were parked cars.

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