Month: August 2022

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.