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
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.