I-57 is Biggest of Marion’s Assets
“Interstate Rt. 57 is the biggest asset ever to come to Marion.”
Banker Oscar Schafale’s opinion is shared by others.
Franklyn Moreno, Greater Egypt Regional Planning and Development Commission, said I-57 with its connections to Interstate Rts. 24 and 64 and a proposed Southern Illinois freeway to St. Louis make “everything coming at Marion. It enhances it as being a central location.”
Schafale says it is “not just the gasoline and oil sold” to motorists on I-57 “but they’ve got to eat and sleep too.”
Clearing of right of way for I-57 began in April, 1960, and bits and pieces of the superhighway were opened starting in 1962 and culminating in 1972 with the opening of the last section to complete the road from Cairo to Chicago.
The Travelodge Motel opened in Marion in 1962, the Ramada Inn in 1967 and the Holiday Inn in 1969.
Other motels constructed bring the total rooms in Marion to 460, about 10 times the number after World War II when the Motel Marion, built in 1940, was the first motor hotel in Southern Illinois and the only one in Marion.
Land values in the vicinity of 1-57 at Marion skyrocketed. One property sold three times in one year, more than doubling in price on each sale.
Service stations, truck stops, restaurants and other businesses mushroomed and more are planned.
Greater Egypt planners see Marion expanding along New Rt. 13 west five miles to Rt. 148 with a community developing around the Williamson County Airport.
“Not too many years ago,” Mayor Robert Butler says, “TraveLodge was the furthest business extension and now it’s practically downtown.”
Marion’s present period probably started in 1940 when the Veterans Hospital was built in the city and the Illinois Ordnance Plant was constructed at Crab Orchard Refuge.
After the war, the ordnance plant closed, but it has since become the home of 27 industries and been the incubator of other industries which began there and moved to area towns.
Coal mines continued the activity the war had re-generated and Marion built an active wholesale retail industry.
Veterans Hospital
Of immense value have been the Veterans Hospital, which now employs 279 with an annual payroll of S3.1 million and the southern division offices of the Central Illinois Public Service Co. and General Telephone Co. General Telephone employs 360 persons in Marion with an annual payroll of $2.5 million. CIPS employs 231 In Marion with a payroll of $2.5 million. CIPS occupied a new $650,000 division and Marion building in 1970. General Telephone (GTE) built a new $244,450 Marion exchange in 1958, a $200,000 division office building in 1964 and a $750,000 addition to the Marion exchange and toll center in 1986.
Three more “stabilizers” affect the Marion economy.
State Building
Gov. Richard Ogilvie formally opened a $1,176,005 state regional office building in Marion March 4. The building, one of six in the state, houses 13 governmental departments which serve a 27 county area.
A $45,000 investment by the Marion City Council to buy 13.8 acres at the Veterans Hospital grounds to donate to the state for the building site will be returned many-fold.
Mayor Butler sees in the long run almost every employee at the state building living in Marion to avoid irksome commuting.
Greater Egypt officials say the full impact of the location will not develop until a few years pass. Moreno says businesses dealing with the state agencies will be moving into Marion.
Tom Wimberly of the state Department of Business and Economic Development, says many of the state employees after years of civil service are among the highest paid persons in Marion and department supervisors are in the $18,000 to $24,000 bracket.
That’s “disposable income” and a lot of it is spent in Marion, he says.
Another “stabilizer” was added to the Marion economy with the opening of the $10 million federal penitentiary in 1963.
Since then there have been additions of a $1.2 million metal furniture plant, a $400,000 printing plant and $266,000 honor farm built at the penitentiary.
Although all the jobs and expenditures are not In Marion, the 293 employees and annual payroll of $3,454,000 is an economic asset to the city.
County Seat
Being the Williamson County seat has always been an important economic factor for Marion. Construction of a new $1.3 million courthouse occupied in November has changed the course of the downtown area.
The more than 100 jobs in county offices with an annual county budget of $2,247,887 does not all flow to Marion but it is a solid part of the city’s economy.
Schafale says “Marion has been fortunate geographically” and because of its “good, steady employment.”
Citing the penitentiary, Veterans and Memorial Hospitals, and utility division offices as good stabilizers, he says, “Not only do we have a good economy but we have a stable economy.”
This has led to superior per capita income and homes, he says.
The latest figures available, from the 1960 federal census, gave Marion a median family income of $5,104, second only to Carbondale’s $5,662 in the Williamson, Jackson, Perry and Franklin County area. Marion’s figure will rise considerably when the 1970 census figures are available.
“You can buy industry and then they can skip off on you” but the government and utility offices are a stable and growing force, Schafale says.
He sees Marion having “the basic groundwork for what it takes for light to medium industry and business.”
And that seems to be the concept of Marion by most persons.
Officials at the state Department of Business and Economic Development say Marion has definitely developed into a service oriented community without putting forth any concerted effort to attract large industry.
The 1972 Illinois Manufacturers Directory, lists 429 industrial jobs in Marion compared to 2,971 in Herrin.
But, the state economic officials say, service is “not a dirty word. Sometimes a service economy is more stable than an industrial one.”
The state department itself first directed efforts strictly towards acquiring large industries “but we discovered we could develop many, many jobs through little businesses.”
Mayor Robert Butler says, “I’d rather have 10 industries employing a thousand people than one industry employing a thousand.”
Marion’s “home-grown” industries have flourished in recent years and the city appears to be working towards Butler’s ideal.
Giles Armature and Electric Works, founded in 1932 with two employees, now employs 43 men and seven women with a $600,000 payroll. Giles completed a $150,000 plant expansion program in 1960 and a $60,000 office building in 1963.
Fabick Machinery Co., established in 1942 with four employees and a manager now hires 52 persons and has a yearly payroll of more than $500,000.
Fabick purchased the old Marion Airport hangar for its shop in 1957, built a $40,000 office annex in 1964, a $125,000 shop addition in 1966 and a $20,000 tool room for the two shops in December.
Marion Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co, established in 1935, opened a new $2 million plant in July, 1969. The company now employs 80 in Marion. No payroll figure is available.
Other small industries and business have been established or will be in the coming months. They include Illinois Specialties Co., Marion 100 Inc., Van Kraft, Charles Todd Laundry and Hulburt Oil Co.
Shopping Centers
Construction of a second shopping center in Marion began this spring and is expected to be ready for opening of some businesses in the fall. Rumors of a third shopping center have been heard.
Perhaps indicative of the change of fortunes of Marion is the growth of financial institutions.
The Bank of Marion on Dec. 31, 1945, had $5,887,153 in assets. It was the only financial institution in town.
Except for a couple of dips, the bank’s assets increased yearly in a steady fashion until 1967. From that year the assets jumped spectacularly from $14.7 million to $16.1, $17.1, $19.5, $24.7 million on Dec 31 and finally to $26,051,172 in June.
That is more than a quintupling of the bank’s assets since the war and a jump of $9.5 million in the last three and a half years.
Besides that, the Bank of Egypt was opened in November, 1955, with $250,000 in assets and Community Savings and Loan Association opened in February, 1962, with $500,000 in assets.
The Bank of Egypt on June 30 had assets of $16,721,372 and Community Savings assets of $11,980,000.
That is a total of $54,752,544 in assets for the three institutions compared to the $3,887,158 of the one bank at the end of 1945.
Schafale said FDIC figures for Dec 31, 1970 and 1971 show a 26.9 per cent increase in assets for the Bank of Marion. FDIC figures showed 34 Southern Illinois banks had an increase of 13.4 per cent and 1,131 Illinois banks a 10.8 per cent increase.
“Has Marion progressed economically? I should say so,” Schafale says.
Milton Witt, executive secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, says, “I don’t think there is any doubt Marion is at the start of a boom and I don’t think the people of Marion realize it.”
“We can tell from inquiries and people moving here. Hardly a week goes by without somebody wanting to open a business.”
Witt said 70 families moved into Marion the first six months this year. He said families have moved to Marion from 22 states, not counting Illinois, and Australia and India.
A housing boom reflects the influx into Marion.
There were 66 single family homes, four two-family duplexes and five apartments built in 1971. There were 29 houses, six duplexes and seven apartments built in the first six months this year.
Mayor Butler says, “Marion is in the biggest boom in its history.”
(Southern Illinoisan, Sunday, August 6, 1972)