THE CHANGING LOCATION OF PHYSICIAN OFFICES IN BLOOMINGTON-NORMAL, ILLINOIS: 1870–1988

Three locational patterns of physician offices during the last 120 years are identified in the Bloomington-Normal metropolitan area. Offices first clustered within the CBD at dispersed sites, then concentrated at two sites within the CBD. Most recently, the CBD cluster has essentially dispersed while others have emerged. These stages were responses to changing medical technology and to evolution of the urban area that affected site and area attractiveness, patient access, and need to be near other physicians and medical facilities. The loss of the CBD cluster may not be a unique feature of small SMSAs such as Bloomington-Normal.