Reminisce with Tom and Terry: Main Street in the 1960s

Sunday, October 9th at 2:00 PM, starting at the intersection of Riverside Drive and Main Street in Evansville, Indiana

Please reserve a spot to let us know how many are coming. Click the link following to go to the Museum reservation site, fill in the info, and select Main Street Walking Tour. https://emuseum.org/rsvp

Main Strdeet, Evansville, Indiana c 1965
Main Street from Fourth Street Looking toward the River

Tom Lonnberg and Terry Hughes will lead a guided tour of Main Street as it looked in the 1960s. Starting at the intersection of Riverside Drive and Main Street, the tour will walk the seven blocks to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. We will return via Sycamore.

Tom and Terry will provide a printed pamphlet to illustrate buildings we pass. We invite tour members to share their memories and assist in locating various business along the route. For instance, Terry remembers having his feet X-rayed in the Evansville Store’s shoe department, and Tom remembers Christmas shopping at the Evansville store.

As can be seen in the photo, in the 1960s Main Street was still intact as a four lane street with another lane on each side for parking. Although change was threatening the downtown district in the 1960s, Main Street was still a thriving area. In the picture, we can see Baynham’s (shoes), the Evansville Store (department store), Bon Marche'(department store), Barkers (shoes), the Farmer’s Daughter (restaurant) and WROZ Radio, all businesses gone today from the downtown district.

By the end of the decade, Main Street was its current-day box canyon with the new Civic Center blocking it at Seventh Street, the present day Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. In the next decade the city further choked Main by narrowing it to the serpentine passage it is today. Much of what was is now gone. It can only remain in our memories and photos that have survived. Join us in recreating Main Street in the 1960s. You don’t have to be an older person with memories. Anyone of any age can enjoy the tour. The tour is free and open to the public.

Please reserve a spot to let us know how many are coming. Click to go to the Museum reservation site, fill in the info, and select Main Street Walking Tour. https://emuseum.org/rsvp

Tom Lonnberg is the Chief Curator and Curator of History at the Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science. He is also the Vice President of the Vanderburgh County Historical Society.

Terry Hughes is a retired educator from the EVSC. In retirement he serves as President of the Vanderburgh County Historical Society. He is also on the Board of Directors of the Southwestern Indiana Historical Society.

Wide Open Evansville by R. Erick Jones

Sunday, September 25th at 2:00 PM in the Browning Room of the Evansville-Vanderburgh Public Library, 200 S. E. Martine Luther King Jr. Blvd, Evansville, IN in conjunction with Your Brother’s Bookstore, 504 Main Street Evansville, Indiana.

In the words of the author: My presentation will cover prohibition coming to Indiana, key liquor violators that the feds were looking into, the booze boat incident/whiskey conspiracy, the Courier‘s turning on Bosse. I’ll also talk about Benjamin Bosse’s involvement and how he escaped indictment.

The author’s description of his book:

What began as a genealogy
search grew into an in-depth
investigation of a period in
Evansville history when
Indiana instituted prohibition
while Kentucky, just across the
Ohio River, did not. Evansville
earned a reputation for being
wide open when its Chief of
Police, Edgar Schmitt, was
accused of selling confiscated
liquor from the police station
and using the police boat for
bootlegging.

This authentic account
provides a remarkable insight
into the investigation and trial.
It covers the forgotten details
of the story and reveals things
that were never brought to
light. Finally, you can read the
truth about this historic event
and get answers to key
questions such as who was
involved.

Copies of the book will be available for purchasing and signing.

Author’s Biography

Photo of author R. Erick Jones
Author R. Erick Jones

Erick Jones is the great-grandson
of Evansville, Indiana Police
Captain Andy Friedle, the officer in
charge of the infamous police
“booze boat” which was used for
bootlegging. His debut book, Wide
Open Evansville
, is the result of
several years of research and
reveals the true story of the 1920
whiskey ring conspiracy in
sensational detail. But his family’s
ties to prohibition don’t end there.
He is also the great-grandson of
former Vanderburgh County
sheriff’s deputy Jesse Jones, who
later became a federal prohibition
agent.
Although he currently lives in Ohio,
he has fond memories of spending
summers as a child with his
grandparents in Evansville.

Dr. James MacLeod — Lost Evansville: The Transformation of a City, 1945-1975

On Thursday, September 8 at 6 pm, Dr. James MacLeod will present the talk “Lost Evansville: The

Dr. James MacLeod
Dr. Jame
VCHS Logo

Transformation of a City,” 1945-1975 at the Evansville Museum.
From 1945-1975 Evansville, like many other places, underwent an almost complete transformation as the wartime factories were closed or repurposed, iconic companies either closed or moved away, the old downtown was largely replaced by new structures, and road-building projects cut apart traditional neighborhoods. All these issues raised huge challenges and opened opportunities – and they profoundly shaped the city that we see today. There was much that was lost, but this is also a story of what came in its place.
Dr. MacLeod chairs the Department of History, Politics, and Social Change at UE. A graduate of the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of Evansville in World War Two, which was published in 2015, and “The Cartoons of Evansville’s Karl Kae Knecht,” published in February 2017. In 2016 he wrote and co-produced a two-part documentary on Evansville in World War II for WNIN PBS titled Evansville at War. He is currently working on a history of the city for the History Press entitled “Lost Evansville,” to be published Fall 2023.
This event is presented in partnership with the Vanderburgh County Historical Society.
As seating is limited, please make complimentary reservations at https://emuseum.org/rsvp.

Helder / Brandon Residence

Sometime in the late 1870s, Philip C Helder built his large home on the edge of Rowleytown. Rowleytown was a small neighborhood northeast of downtown platted by an Evansville judge Nathan Rowley. Several of the roads have changed names as the area was eventually merged into the city limits. Helder was the one of the partners in Blemker, Tillman, & Co Excelsior Stove Works. The two-story brick home was located at 420 William St, what is now the corner of E Sycamore and Elliott St.

The Helder home (#135) was one of the grander homes in the Rowleytown area from this 1880 map. Hose House No. 9 is in bottom middle (#133)

Around 1889, M C Brandon of Holt and Brandon Ice became the owner of the house, but by 1895 he
built new residence nearer downtown. The home passed through various owners for next several years, but the it was fairly well kept.

The Old Folks Home Association bought the house in 1921 and turned it into the Colored Old Folks Home. It was a home for “aged and needy colored people.” In 1924, a health clinic opened in the home to treat tuberculosis patients.

“Future home of needy colored folk”

In 1929, the property came under the umbrella of what was later Welborn Hospital. Serving African American community, the Walker Annex was run by registered nurses with doctors from the hospital visiting as needed to perform surgeries. It was officially renamed the Welborn-Walker Annex in 1933 and then Welborn Annex in 1944 as the main hospital changed names.

Doctors traveling to Welborn Annex 1947


The Welborn annex closed in 1953 in an effort to desegregate the hospital. The neighborhood was close in proximity to Baptistown and the home continued to cater to the African American population. It was the Bell’s Tourist Home (colored) in 1954 and continued as a hotel through at least 1962.

Aerial view from 1949 shows a densely residential neighborhood that has thinned out over the years. The Welborn-Walker Annex is in blue at center.

As the area became less residential and more industrial the property became run down. In the early 1980s, fixtures including chandeliers and mantels pilfered from property while it sat vacant. Efforts to save building began by Evansville NAACP for its historical significance to black community. The sketch below shows the plans to rehab the home for offices for Six Sons Construction Co.

Proposed new office Center. Artist’s sketch of the building which will be restored as an office for Six Sons Contracting CO

Sadly before the plans could ever materialize the company backed out. The building, which was the last one on the block, caught fire overnight on April 7, 1984. It was badly damaged and torn down shortly afterward.

City firefighters fought a fire in an abandoned historic building at 414 E. Sycamore St early today (Apr 8, 1984)


Evansville’s LGBTQ History 1895-Present

7:00 PM on June 2, 2022. In the Fellowship Hall of First Presbyterian Church at 609 SE Second Street, Evansville, IN

First Presbyterian Church is at the intersection of Second Street and Mulberry in Evansville, Indiana. Click for directions

Kelley Coures
Kelley Coures,
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Join the VCHS in learning about Evansville’s LGBTQ history presented by Kelley Coures. Coures will tell the story of Evansville’s LGBTQ history beginning with local coverage of the trial of Oscar Wilde and ending with the current LGBTQ narrative.

Kelley Coures is an Evansville native who earned his BA in economics and history from the University of Southern Indiana. Coures has been Evansville’s Director of Metropolitan Development since 2014. He is also the winner of the 2011 Sadelle Berger Civil Rights Award, and the 2012 winner of the Leadership Evansville Social Service Award. Coures has been an Emeritus member of River City Pride from 2019 to the present.

VCHS AT THE . . .

Noted Historian, James Madison, to Speak in Evansville

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Dr. James “Jim” H. Madison’s most recent book, The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland begins with this sentence: “The Ku Klux Klan was a dark as the night and as American as apple pie.” In his talk—presented in a partnership of the Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science, the Evansville African American Museum, and the Vanderburgh County Historical Society—Madison will attempt to explain that seemingly contradictory statement. He will focus on Indiana’s Klan of the 1920s, its goals and methods, its members and opponents, and its place in in larger contexts down to our own time. This program explores this regrettable and all too often glossed-over history.

Jim Madison is the Thomas and Kathryn Miller Professor Emeritus of History at Indiana University. An award-winning teacher, he is the author of several books, including Eli Lilly: A Life; Slinging Doughnuts for the Boys: An American Woman in World War II; Hoosiers: A New History of Indiana; and A Lynching in the Heartland: Race and Memory in America. The Midwestern History Association recently honored him with the Frederick Jackson Turner Lifetime Achievement Award.

This program is made possible through a grant from Indiana Humanities, in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Time & Date: Thursday, April 21, 6 p.m.

Location: Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science
411 SE Riverside Drive, Evansville IN

For complimentary reservations: Visit https://emuseum.org/rsvp and choose “Dr. James Madison’s Presentation” under “Event Selection”.

National Endowment for the Humanities, Indiana Humanities, Vanderburgh County Historical Society, Evansville African American Museum

Bullets by the Billions: Evansville Ordnance Answers the Call

FJ Reitz Feel the History Class Premieres Its Latest Video

On March 29, 2022 at 6:00 PM, the Vanderburgh County Historical Society (VCHS) is partnering with the Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science (EMAHS) to showcase the Feel the History (FtH) video of Evansville Ordnances’s contribution to Evansville’s war industry in World War II. The premiere will take place in the immersive theater of the EMAHS.

Housed in the former Chrysler plan, Evansville Ordnance became the primary US supplier of 45 caliber bullets, Later, the plant added 30 caliber cartridge production. Evansville Ordnance also undertook the task of refurbishing tanks and trucks for the war effort. The FtH video features two VCHS Board members, Dr. James MacLeod, History Department Chair at UE and Tom Lonnberg, Chief Curator and Curator of History at the Evansville Museum of Arts, History, and Science. The FtH class itself is under the direction of VCHS Board member Jon Carl.

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This premiere will take place in the museum’s immersive theater. Since seating is limited in the immersive theater, advance reservations are required. You may make your reservations by clicking here. On the Event Selection dropdown (lower left corner), choose Feel the History Film. In the event that we reach the limit of the seating capacity, we can add another showing.

VCHS and Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science Joint Projects

Movie

On Saturday December 4, 6:00 PM, at the Evansville Museum, there will be a special screening of the 1953 classic movie From Here to Eternity. Starring Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra, Deborah Kerr, and Donna Reed living in Hawaii in the months leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. This drama romance won eight academy awards including for best motion picture. Retired EVSC film studies teacher Terry Hughes will provide commentary on the film’s place in cinema history. Popcorn will be provided before the movie. Tickets for the show are $10 per person. As seating is limited, please contact the Museum at 812-425-2406 to purchase tickets in advance.

Click the link to purchase tickets online. https://www.gatemastertickets.com/store/webevents.aspx?CompanyID=gm232&catid=10 Click Availability on the top left. Scroll the calendar to December 4th. Select the From Here to Eternity Event.

Presented in Partnership with the Vanderburgh County Historical Society

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Lecture
On the 80th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor, Tuesday, December 7, Dr. James MacLeod, chair of the history department at the University of Evansville, will present Evansville in the Era of Pearl Harbor at 6:00 p.m. at the Evansville Museum. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the city of Evansville became one of the most important cities in the country, manufacturing hundreds of ships, thousands of fighter planes and literally billions of other items that contributed hugely to the Allies’ victory. In this lecture, illustrated with scores of images, MacLeod explains how all this industry came to be in Evansville, reveals the enormous impact that it had on social, economic, and cultural life, and analyzes how the city dealt with what was a time of astonishing transformation.

Following the program, Pearl Harbor collector Rex Knight will be present in the Museum’s current exhibition Remembering Pearl Harbor to share insight into the items on display.
Rex Knight has been a student of American military history since the age of 10. With more than 50 years of experience studying historical artifacts from the American Revolutionary War to World War II, Knight is an expert in evaluating and identifying historical military memorabilia. Knight has also written historical articles featured in World War II magazine and in 2001 authored the book Riding on Luck: The Saga of the USS Lang DD399. His collection of Pearl Harbor artifacts is among the most extensive and well documented in private hands.

As seating is limited, please make your complimentary reservation by calling the Museum at 812-425-2406.

Presented in Partnership with the Vanderburgh County Historical Society

Final days for Old National

Old National–looking to the future–spurned the NeoClassical building it had built in 1916. Apparently a few decades is about their threshold for newness. In 1967 it began plans for a new bank next door on Main St. They had the old Lincoln Hotel and several other old buildings at the corner of 5th and Main demolished.

The casualties of the 420 Main St building. All were demolished by the end of 1967 and the new Old National began construction after the new year.
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With the site cleared, construction began in earnest in 1968. The Old National building was designed by architect and real estate developer Jack W. Kelley from Tulsa, OK. The 18-story skyscraper was the tallest building in Evansville, though it was officially eclipsed by the silos at Igleheart Bros mill on First Ave.

The bank would move into the new building once completed and the old building was planned to be demolished for enclosed parking. The final complex would take up an entire quarter block and was estimated at $5 million to build. Interesting side note: the tower did include a 13th floor, often skipped in other tall buildings because of the unlucky nature.

The structure took nearly two years to build, and we were lucky to obtain several construction photos from the Clements family. As a worker at Industrial Contractors, he captured a handful of images on July 11, 1968 for his employer. The gallery below shows the tower being erected when it was about three stories tall.

Completed building c1970
The Petroleum Club which occupied the top two floors. It was the place for Evansville’s business leaders

The bank embodied a modernist architecture, but its unwelcoming lower levels had a flare toward brutalism. The monolithic structure failed to stimulate downtown business and in some ways portended the struggles of Main St in the late 90s. Old National Bank moved to its new riverfront building in 2004, and the 420 Building sat mostly vacant.

Proposed remodeling that was planned for Spring 2021 from http://www.5thandmaintower.com/

Tapped for redevelopment (shown above), the cost of renovations proved too costly. Ironically, the old 8-story bank was a more suitable size for Evansville. The new plans for redevelopment call for the pending demolition and several mixed-use buildings none higher than 6 stories.

You can say goodbye to the 420 building this Sunday with its implosion scheduled for 7am. The 5/3 Bank Building will then become the tallest building in town.

VCHS Upcoming Projects

The Vanderburgh County Historical Society Board of Directors has voted to avoid large, in-person, in-door gatherings for the remainder of the year, but we do have several interesting history projects in the works. Plus we have a one-time membership offer. We have reduced membership from $20 a year to $10 a year. The change is already reflected in the PayPal drop down menu to the right.

Please consider becoming a member of VCHS. We use the funds to defray expenses and sponsor larger projects such as the two-hour documentary feature Evansville at War. We also digitized at considerable expense portions of the Bernard Noelting 16mm film collection. We have future projects in the works, projects that will require expenditures. Please help us out by becoming a member. Follow the steps identified in the Join/Donate section to the right. If you don’t use PayPal, we have other methods to join. Click here.

Meanwhile, we do have some projects planned that do not involve large indoors gatherings.

Walking Tours

Walking tours are free and open to the public. Reservations are not necessary, but we appreciate notice that you will attend. Email to mailto:vchshistory.org

North Main Street: on Wednesday, September 1, 2021 at 6:00 PM starting at the Zesto on Franklin Street. Joe Engler, creator of historicevansville.com will lead the tour that begins and ends at the Zesto on West Franklin Street. The approximate tour time is 1 hour and 20 minutes

Franklin Street: Then and Now on Sunday, September 19, 2021 at 2:00 PM starting at the West Side Library on Franklin Street. Jon Carl, award winning US History teacher from FJ Reitz High School, and his Feel the History class will conduct the tour.

A Non-Walking Walking Tour of Historic Third and Main on Sunday, October 3, 2021 at 2:00 PM starting at the intersection of Main and Third Streets. Vanderburgh County Historian Stan Schmitt will lead the tour that talks about Evansville’s most historic intersection. The only walking involves moving from one corner to the next. Stan will discuss the platting of the city, the formation of the county, the first three county courthouses and jails, and the historic Washington House (Comfort restaurant). The discussion does include several violent events that took place in the immediate area.

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Oak Hill Cemetery Twilight Tour — benefit for the Adopt an Ash Program attempting to save 23 Ash Trees within Oak Hill Cemetery from the Emerald Ash Borer.

The Twilight Tour will be held on Saturday, October 16th at 5:00pm. Tickets are $15.00 and can be ordered via Pay Pal at vchshistory.org or you can pay in person the night of the event. Sign in tables will be located at the Veterans Plaza just inside the main gate of the cemetery. This tour is the fifth of its kind in the 168 year existence of Oak Hill and will feature LIVE RE-ENACTORS. You can learn more about how you can help in the fight against Emerald Ash Borer in Evansville by visiting evansville.adoptanash.org.
For questions, please email VCHS Board Member and Cemetery Superintendent Chris Cooke at ccooke@evansville.in.gov.

Pay Pal Link:

https://www.paypal.com/webapps/shoppingcart?mfid=1629812744949_a0640ebfb52c5&flowlogging_id=a0640ebfb52c5#/checkout/shoppingCart

Articles in Maturity Journal

The VCHS Board of Directors has a agreed to write an history oriented article each month for Maturity Journal.

• August 2021: Stan Schmitt on 1906 Sunnyside Coal Mining Disaster
• September 2021: Dr, James MacLeod on Karl K. Knecht
• October 2021: Terry Hughes on the 100th Anniversary of the Victory Theater
• November 2021: Tom Lonnberg on Early Downtown Hotels
• December 2021: Steve Appel on Cook’s Park
• January 2022 : Dr. Stella Ress on Four Freedoms Monument
• February 2022: Chris Cooke on Oak Hill Cemetery
• March 2022: Joe Engler on the Coliseum
• April 2022: Amber Gowen – Evansville Nurses during WWI

Maturity Journal is available for free at locations listed on this pdf.

You can subscribe to Maturity Journal by completing this form and sending payment to Maturity Journal.

Potential Maturity Journal publication dates – subject to change depending upon the lengths of articles submitted.

Potential Zoom Presentation

We are developing a Zoom Presentation for October. Board member Dr. James MacLeod, Professor of History and Department Chair at University of Evansville, will present Creating a New City: Evansville in the 1960s. We will send out updates once the plans for this Zoom presentation solidify.

Self-Directed Vanderburgh County Tavern Tour

Don’t forget our online Vanderburgh County Tavern Tour. We originally starting planning the Tavern Tour for the Vanderburgh County Bicentennial, but we ran into issues of transportation and liability. Instead, we wrote the tour as part of the IUPUI’s Discover Indiana project. The tour is self-directed and takes tourists to the site of the former Dogtown Tavern, The Hilltop Inn, the St. Joe Inn, the Nisbet Inn, the Darmstadt Inn, the Hornet’s Nest, and the site of Hagedorn’s Tavern. This tour is available online at Discover Indiana. Visit the taverns that are still open, sample the fare, and have a look at these taverns that once anchored local communities.