Old vs. New - Harvard: Residents covet friendly feel
By KURT BEGALKA - kbegalka@nwherald.com
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| Wayne Pankonin, who grew up on a farm in Wauconda, has lived in Harvard since 1949. (Sandy Bressner - sbressner@nwherald.com) |
HARVARD – When Kenneth “Wayne” Pankonin arrived in 1949, Harvard seemed like a town on the move.
It sat along a rail line. Admiral Corp.’s radio assembly plant was thriving, and the downtown – with its brick-paved Ayer Street and bevy of independent businesses – was a center of commerce and entertainment.
Pankonin finds it “amazing” that Harvard has become a “bedroom community,” bereft of a large manufacturer since Motorola shuttered its plant in 2003.
“Harvard was really one of the best shopping areas that there was,” said Pankonin, 85. “There was a Ben Franklin (dime store), National Tea and A&P grocery stores, a children’s store and a women’s clothing shop. There were seven or eight places to buy paint, a lumber yard, three or four drugstores, three auto dealerships, Stafford Shoes, two banks, and then the savings and loan ... and two theaters.”
The Wauconda native and his new bride, Janice, were in Harvard to help run the family business: Sternberg’s department store. Janice’s dad, Paul Sternberg, had bought out the former George I. Walker Co. store at 50 N. Ayer St. a few years before. He hoped Pankonin would take over the business.
“I was born and raised on a farm. I didn’t know anything about retailing,” said Pankonin, who graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in agricultural engineering. “I nearly quit a couple of times that first year, but I stuck it out.”
In 1960, his father-in-law retired, and eight years later Pankonin had managed to pay him off. He owned it free and clear ... sort of. Running a business in a small town demanded lots of time. He was president of the chamber of commerce. He chaired the downtown retail committee, when he wasn’t presiding for Harvard Lions or Masonic lodge meetings.
“On weekends, people would come downtown, standing up and down the street in groups. They would be so busy visiting, they’d lose track of time. About 8:30 p.m., quarter to 9, they realized the stores were going to close, and they’d better hurry up and get their shopping done. We’d work our tails off to 9:30 p.m., quarter to 10, but we appreciated our customers.”
Pankonin said he once fired a young clerk on the spot, after she told a woman the store was closing and she could not buy an item.
“The customer is king,” Pankonin said. “They are the ones that make or break you. You had better treat them right.”
Pankonin closed the store in December 1988, under pressure by a new concept in retailing.
“I really wanted to stay longer, but I saw what was happening. I could see we were losing ground,” Pankonin said. “All of the young people took off for the malls. My son was one of the first ones to go. I used to get really mad at him. I’d tell him, ‘Keep the money at home.’ ”
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| Julie Hamrick and her twin sons Jake (center) and Ray, 12, moved to Harvard from Schaumburg last June. (Sandy Bressner - sbressner@nwherald.com) |
Julie Hamrick, 43, who moved to Harvard in June from a Schaumburg apartment, would like the city better if it were more of a destination.
“There is not as much to offer as Schaumburg. The downtown is kind of lame. It needs something. Where’s the Starbucks?” she said. “They are trying to fix it up a little bit, but we could use more different stores like Woodstock.”
But it had something Woodstock didn’t have – homes she could afford.
“Originally, I was looking in Woodstock, but I found that the houses were a little out of my price range,” Hamrick said. “I can get double the house out here that I would have gotten there.”
And that was huge factor for this first-time homebuyer and single mother. But it certainly was not the only factor. Her twin 12-year-old boys are comfortable at Harvard Junior High, playing football for the Harvard Stingers. She also prefers the drive to work. Hamrick, who manages the deli at the McHenry Jewel, was able to secure a transfer from Rolling Meadows.
“There is less traffic. It’s takes me a half hour, when the weather is good, to get home from McHenry,” she said. “Rolling Meadows is just 8 miles from Schaumburg, but it would take 45 minutes.”
Hamrick said driving the back roads, past cornfields and grazing cows, was relaxing.
“It’s kind of a cozy, a country kind of feel,” she said.
Pankonin agreed. He especially likes that Harvard is centrally located between Madison, Wis., and Milwaukee, as well as Rockford and Chicago.
“I think people want to get out of the city. The things that bother them most is crime and congestion,” he said. “This is a much more relaxed, healthier living climate – especially for kids. They also are looking for the quality of life. I was happy to see the referendum go through for the [grade] school. We certainly need it.”
Pankonin has seen a lot of change over the years. His last wife of 33 years, Bunny, died in November. And, as always, people were kind and supportive.
“People are having a fairly rough time right now, but I believe it will eventually work itself out,” he said, “and the town will blossom.”
