I noticed this morning that demolition has started on some of the buildings in the Wilmot Plaza shopping center on the NE corner of Wilmot and Broadway. Included in the demo are the old Firestone Tire, Sprouse-Reitz and Myerson's Dept stores. The shopping center was built in the mid-50's to serve the rapidly expanding urban area east of town. Our family bought a new tract home in Lusk's San Rafael subdivision just north of the shopping center site in the early 50's when Broadway was 2 lane unpaved from Craycroft east. I remember riding our bikes to the Firestone store to fill our tires. And Sprouse-Reitz was always a place to get rid of that allowance that was burning a hole in our pockets. I also remember? getting outfitted for semi-formal affairs at Myerson's. There was also a coffee shop in the corner next door that we would go to occasionally. All that is part of the demolition. The rest of the shopping center buildings were rehabbed a few years ago and are apparently spared from this round of progress.
