05/05/2026
There are times when a building is ready to collapse (or be demolished) and people wonder why “no one” did anything to save it before it was too late. Oftentimes, there was a point where things could have turned out differently, if folks had rallied.
That’s the moment – the point where something must be done – with American Legion Post 69.
Also known as the Goad-Ballinger Legion Post, the downtown Springfield landmark at the corner of Trafficway and Benton had around 1,000 members when it opened in 1930, leaders say. Built down the street as a private house, it was moved to its present spot as a home to the group, which organized after World War I. The journey of a couple blocks took about 17 days.
“Not a pound of the 90 tons of plaster in the house was cracked or broken loose on the trip,” noted S.E. Dobbs, the project’s general contractor, of the movers’ work in the Springfield Daily News in 1930. “In its new location, the building will not be three-sixteenths of an inch out of line at any point. It was a remarkable feat of moving.”
For nearly 100 years, it’s been a unique local landmark and a hub for veteran-related affairs.
During the Great Depression, it was where local vets came to make loan applications on their “adjusted compensation certificates,” which allowed them to draw funds they received for their service. Trainings tied to World War II were held there. United Service Organizations — more commonly known as the USO — sponsored dances at the post. (If you’d like to learn more about its history, check out an article I wrote in 2024 — there's a link in the comments.)
But things aren’t the same as they were back then – whether “then” is 1930 or 25 years ago. A dwindling, aging membership base coupled with parking challenges (more on that in a minute) has led to an uncertain future for the post, I was told on Monday by Steven Wilcox, the post’s adjutant leader.
“I’ve had people tell me, ‘You can’t let that building go.’ I think we would get public support, if it got out,” Wilcox, a U.S. Navy veteran, told me. “It’s not to save the building for us. If they could save the building and we had to move our post somewhere else to have our meetings, we could do it.”
A lot of this comes down to money. The aging building requires significant maintenance in addition to its ongoing expenses for utilities. For years, some funding has come from weekly bingo games, but that’s where the parking challenge comes in. The bottom line: There’s not enough of it, post leaders say.
There was way more than enough parking when the next-door ice park opened in 2001, Wilcox notes. Back then, he says an agreement was made that it would be “first come, first served” for a number of spaces in the lot. And that’s still the case.
“City Code says the American Legion may use up to 80 spaces on Friday and Sunday evenings, on a first-come, first-served basis,” Jenny Fillmer Edwards, public information administrator for the Springfield-Greene County Parks Board, tells me. “During times this parking lot has been staffed by Parks, we have always allowed free American Legion parking, as available.”
That worked fine for a long time, Wilcox notes, but a few years ago things changed. As the ice park grew in popularity, those events left few spots for bingo players to park. “It would be full even by the time our people got here for bingo,” Wilcox says.
At one point, he says they asked if some spots could be reserved for the post and were told that wasn’t possible. From Parks’ perspective, Edwards says their staff have not been aware of issues as of 2022 — when the current Parks superintendent took the job — but that “reserving spots in this parking lot for the American Legion would take significant staff time, and if we were pursuing that, we would have to discuss how to offset that cost.”
Regardless of the details, Wilcox says the parking situation became so difficult that the post decided to end its bingo games altogether – and with them went the post’s income.
But really, that’s just one part of the current reality. Even if things were different and ample parking were available, Wilcox doesn’t know if it would be enough to solve the post’s bigger issues: Namely, a dwindling number of members who don’t have the resources to adequately maintain the building. The 75 or so remaining members need help.
After seeing other historical preservation projects come to fruition locally, Wilcox has hopes that a similar story might happen here. That once the need is known, a benefactor might be inclined to see the post as a project to support with a nonprofit contribution to help.
“We’ve got enough money in savings to keep things going for a little while longer, but eventually we’re going to run out,” Wilcox says. “I was hoping to maybe talk to some different groups, different people; maybe get someone on board to give us a hand.”
