317 Main Street (Racine, Wisconsin)

317 Main Street is an address in downtown Racine, Wisconsin, on the east side of Main Street, between 3rd and 4th streets, which is currently the location of Crosswalk Park. Occupied in the 1880s by Charles Roth's Summer Garden, a department store building was constructed on the site in 1899. From the beginning, this building was combined with the neighboring structure at 319 Main Street, and 317-319 Main Street was home to a succession of department stores. The building was most prominently the location of Racine's Sears department store from 1929 to 1965, and it was occupied by the Hoffman Furniture Company from 1967 until it was severely damaged by in 1973, and demolished the following year. The site was then used as a parking lot by the city of Racine until Crosswalk Park was established in 1983.

Early history
In the 1880s, what is now 317 Main Street was occupied by Charles Roth's Summer Garden. Roth purchased the plot, "the brick house just south of Congress hall", from Seneca Raymond in October 1881. The garden was at the southern limit of the area affected by the city's 1882 fire. In November 1898, B. Hinrichs was granted a permit to construct a "handsome little store building" at 317 Main Street. The new building was merged with the existing store building next door at 319 Main Street, and the combined building became known as 317-319 Main Street, which was often shortened to simply "317 Main Street".

The New York Leader department store began moving into the building from its previous location at 421 Main Street in May 1899. New York Leader opened in its new location on September 16, 1899, boasting 36 departments and advertising itself as "Racine's Greatest Bargain Center". New York Leader sold out its stock in March 1903, and reopened an expanded store at the same location as The S. & H. Department Store on April 2. The proprietor, S. Sklute, left the business less than a year and held a "Great Sacrifice Sale" to close the store in March 1904.

By May 1904, B. M. Sharpe & Co., a department store, had opened in the building, and it was still operating in December 1908.

The Boston Store, a department store apparently unrelated to the Milwaukee-based department store chain of the same name, was operating in the building as early as March 1910. The store was still in business in July 1928.

Sears #3680 (1929–1965)
The Sears, Roebuck and Company department store chain opened its first Racine location at 317-319 Main Street, after adding a third story to the building for a total of 15000 sqft of floor area. The store opened on May 18, 1929. The store closed on October 25, 1965, and moved to a new location at 5415 Washington Avenue which opened October 28.

Hoffman Furniture Company (1965-1973)
The vacant building was purchased in July 1967 by the Hoffman Dinette Furniture Company, which was previously located at 226 Main Street. The company also operated Hoffman's Furniture Warehouse at 424 Main Street, which was previously Neisner's variety store #25.

Fire, demolition, and Crosswalk Park (1973–present)
Starting at about 2 a.m. on April 24, 1973, the Hoffman Furniture building suffered a major fire which caused the building's second floor to collapse. An 18-year-old Racine resident was arrested on suspicion of arson, and was also charged with starting two smaller fires downtown during the same night. The burned-out building was acquired by the Downtown Association for $15,000, which turned over the property to the city of Racine in February 1974 to be razed and redeveloped.

The city of Racine decided to demolish the burned building and expand the nearby city parking lot into the property's footprint, and it also acquired and razed the neighboring building at 315 Main Street. The Azarian Wrecking Company submitted the lowest bid to demolish the buildings for $23,880 in May 1974, and the finished lot with eighteen parking spaces opened to cars in late July.

The parking lot was replaced in 1983 by Crosswalk Park, a small city park with a walkway leading to what is now the Lake Avenue parking ramp. The park was dedicated on July 20, 1983. Initially, eight parking spaces from the former parking lot on the site were kept next to the park, but these spaces were removed in 1988 and Crosswalk Park was expanded into that area. In June 2010, the park's concrete pavement was replaced with a new sidewalk made of rubber recycled from tires, said to be the first such installation in the state of Wisconsin.