Memories flow as Edwardsville residents watch old Rusty’s Restaurant being demolished
The building that housed the legendary Rusty’s Restaurant will be gone by the end of the week.
An excavator is tearing apart the dilapidated building, whose interior contains an original wall from the oldest brick structure in Edwardsville.
Demolition started Tuesday and continued Wednesday at 1201 N. Main St. A steady stream of residents stopped to snap photos and reminisce about the restaurant, which operated for 50 years, from 1958 to 2008.
“I hate to see it go,” said retiree Dave Stunkel, 70. “My grandmother and grandfather used to come here and get hamburgers for 25 cents, and our family had a lot of dinners here. We used to eat here on Easter, and we’d come up on Friday and Saturday nights and hear the bands. It’s real sad. There are a lot of memories.”
About that time, the giant excavator pivoted and aimed its bucket in a different direction.
“Right there was where the dance floor was,” Stunkel said, pointing. “They’re getting ready to tear into it.”
Original structure built in 1819
The original brick structure housed the Pogue Store, built in 1819, according to the City of Edwardsville’s website. At that time, the business district was on the north end of Main.
The building later was enlarged with several additions. Stunkel remembers it being damaged by a couple of fires, but the owners made repairs and kept operating.
In its heyday, Rusty’s was a fine-dining establishment, where people celebrated birthdays and anniversaries and held business meetings and private parties. The bar was a hot spot for Southern Illinois University Edwardsville students late at night.
Cherie Van Camp, who stopped by to take photos Wednesday morning, remembers how Rusty’s was a gathering place on Friday nights for people holding Edwardsville High School reunions on Saturdays.
“I’m 52, and I was born and raised in Edwardsville, and this restaurant has been here as long as I’ve been alive,” she said. “It was my oldest brother’s first job. (Doug Van Camp) would go to tables and make a very fancy dessert called ‘cherries jubilee.’ It was a flaming dessert. He got so good at it, he prepared it on television when ‘The Regis Philbin Show’ was filmed in St. Louis.”
Neighbor welcomes demolition
Another onlooker Wednesday morning was Karen Zimmerman, 61, who is renovating a brick structure across Lincoln Street that she bought five years ago. It was constructed around the same time as the Pogue Store.
Zimmerman welcomes demolition of the Rusty’s building.
“It was time,” she said. “There’s a lot of people who have real good memories, but for the people who own property in the area, it was a derelict building. It had been vacant for 11 years. ... And I have to give the Fowlers credit. They’re going to save as much of the (original) wall as they can, and they’re going to try to memorialize the site in some way.”
Zimmerman was referring to developer Jonathan Fowler, vice president at J.F. Electric, and his wife, Claire, who now own the Rusty’s building.
The Fowlers plan to construct a new 6,000-square-foot restaurant called “Moussalli’s on Main.” They’ve proposed saving bricks from the original wall and using them to erect a monument or marker with a plaque describing the site’s history.
After Rusty’s closed in 2008, Edwardsville officials spent years looking at possible uses for the building before considering the idea of tearing it down.
On May 8, Edwardsville Historic Preservation Commission denied approval for demolition, but the city’s Administrative and Service Committee reversed that decision on May 15 and Edwardsville City Council gave the final OK on May 20, the Edwardsville Intelligencer reported.
“I know it may seem like we’re insensitive to the history and relevance of that site, but we are not,” Jonathan Fowler told ASC members, according to the Intelligencer.
‘We want to be respectful’
The idea of a monument or marker makes Cherie Van Camp feel better about the Rusty’s demolition.
“(The wall) is one of the oldest things in Edwardsville, so it has some historical significance,” she said. “I just hope they honor it and do it justice somehow.”
Walt Williams, the city’s economic development director, also was taking photos at the site Wednesday morning. He isn’t from the Edwardsville area, but he remembers the property being discussed his first day on the job five years ago.
Williams was attending a groundbreaking ceremony at the Mannie Jackson Center for the Humanities, which is across Main Street. A woman told him she was a former waitress at Rusty’s. She hated to see the building in such poor condition and hoped someone would come along and redevelop it.
“We just want to be respectful of the memories, and I think the developer is going to do a good job,” Williams said.
Moussalli’s on Main will be operated by brothers Antoine, Christian and Andre Moussalli. It will be a sister restaurant to Moussalli’s Prime, which will replace the former Andria’s Restaurant on five acres east of Edwardsville. That building also is owned by the Fowlers.
This story was originally published August 28, 2019 at 11:14 AM.
