Vanished
Once upon a time, back in the 19th century, Chico had two downtowns. The one between First and Fifth streets was and still is called downtown. The one bounded by Eighth and Main streets and Broadway and Humboldt and Park avenues was called The Junction. Its businesses — saloons, restaurants, a hotel, a laundry, a grocery store — served travelers of the Humboldt Wagon Road, which connected Chico to Susanville and points east.
This walk around the block starts at the northeast corner of Main and Ninth streets with a reminder that traces of the past have an overwhelming tendency to vanish.
This applies not only to the Junction as a whole, which now has businesses — a natural foods store, a car dealership, a gas station, motels — that serve 21st century needs, but to a location as specific as the south of wall of this corner building.
When I took photos of the block for this blog last summer, the bicycle mural by Scott Teeples was still on the wall, but now it’s been painted over.
Head north along the last stretch of Main that has pedestrian-oriented buildings until you reach Fifth Street and you’ll pass by Jedidiah’s Neighborhood Grill, a new business that moved from Humboldt Avenue a couple of years ago, and Pullins Cyclery, which has been around forever.
Turn right on Eighth. Just beyond the Pullins building is the Little Red Hen Therapeutic Plant Nursery, a business that benefits disabled people. This is a relatively new enterprise, but its plantings, including those in the parkways between the sidewalk and the street, have already turned this part of the block into a green and pleasant land.
Turn right on Wall Street and enjoy the quadrant of this block that has a mixture of houses and businesses. This is a part of Chico I think of as “funky.” In an earlier blog, I tried to describe what I mean by “funky,” but it’s easier for me to say I know it when I see it, and this is it. On the east side of Wall is Satava Art Glass, a business that occupies a house.
Turn right on Ninth. This corner is occupied by Little Red Hen, Too, the growing grounds for the nursery. It reminds me of the title of this blog, which is an outgrowth of my Enterprise-Record column, “But this is Chico.”
At the end of the block, we come full circle (or full square) and stand in front of the corner building with the now-blank wall. The corner business is an antiques store, a reminder that as traces of the past vanish objects that were once necessary may become collectible. This goes for old buildings and neighborhoods as much as for household goods.