Demolition work begins on Galloway Village site

A wrecking permit was issued yesterday and demolition began today on structures at 3535 S. Lone Pine Ave., just across the street from Sequiota Park.

The demolition work is making way for an unspecified development by Galloway Village LLC, a company owned by Mitch and Amanda Jenkins. The Jenkinses attempted to build a mixed-use multifamily residential and commercial development on the site under their company Elevation Enterprises LLC before voters stopped the effort in a citywide rezoning referendum in 2022.

Mitch Jenkins confirmed plans to redevelop the site in a statement to Springfield Business Journal on May 5. His new development plans are for one parcel of the original four that he sought to develop previously.

The wrecking permit was filed April 29 for the 3535 S. Lone Pine Ave. parcel, which includes the former Treadway’s Store or Sequiota Store building, built in 1929 as a general store and filling station in Galloway Village in the time when the village was independent and before it was annexed into Springfield.

Galloway Village Neighborhood Association members have twice sought designation as a historic site from the city’s Landmarks Board. In the association’s most recent bid for the designation, at a Landmarks Board meeting May 6, the board postponed action to request feedback from the property owners.

Melanie Bach, president of the Galloway Village Neighborhood Association, reached out to SBJ about the start of demolition.

“We posted a warning yesterday so neighbors would be aware,” she said.

The Facebook post encouraged neighborhood residents to take photos of the site while they were able.

Bach noted she was especially sad to see the large magnolia tree felled on the site. She shared a photo from yesterday noting the presence of a single bloom.

“It’s honestly heartbreaking,” she said.

By publication time for this story, demolition work had not begun on the store. However, beside the store, the roof and doors had been removed from a set of Missouri flagstone buildings that were once tourist cabins on the site. A sign announcing the availability of cabins can be seen in a historic postcard picturing Treadway’s Store, also called the Sequiota Store and Lester Birchler’s.

Other work done so far on the site includes the elimination of a landmark magnolia tree, the demolition of a house and the erection of a fence around the property.

The fencing encloses the demolition site and also a flagstone building that was formerly the Sequiota Bike Shop, an eatery and bike rental store frequented by visitors to the park across the street, which opened in 2015 and closed in March 2018, according to past reporting. The former bike shop is not included in the area covered by the demolition permit, though it is owned by the Jenkinses.

Developer Galloway Village LLC has not yet revealed its plans for the site. SBJ reached out to co-owner Mitch Jenkins for comment on today’s demolition work and will update this story with any reply.