Muncie Mall stood for fifty years, but its anchors are quickly being reduced to rubble. With Sears and the cinema already gone, demolition crews turned their attention to J.C. Penney. The old department store stood largely intact when I drove past on Friday afternoon. By Sunday, though, huge sections of it had vanished.
Continue reading “Muncie Mall’s JCP is going and going, but not quite gone”
Yesterday’s annual birthday history trip featured an ambitious itinerary: six county homes scattered across southern Indiana. I expected a long day of backroads, old buildings, and other roadside distractions, but what I didn’t anticipate was spending the first two hours of it in an emergency room, briefly wondering if I’d live to see the rest of my thirty-sixth year.
Continue reading “A scary start to my thirty-sixth year”
Today’s my birthday, and I turn thirty-six. Thirty-five was a disaster, but things finally seem to be heading in the right direction. Here’s hoping they’ll stay that way.
Continue reading “36: once again setting a personal record for consecutive years lived”
Last week, I wrote about my visit to Red-Tail Land Conservancy’s new Hidden Canal Nature Preserve on the east side of Anderson. The group invited me on a hike to explore the work they’d done to restore the property, and I finally got an up-close look at the old Larimore flowing well! Soon, though, I discovered that the well was only part of the story. We had to walk down an abandoned stretch of 10th Street to get to it.
Continue reading “10th Street didn’t always vanish into the woods”
I said goodbye to a member of the family yesterday. After nineteen years, I sold my mom’s Mercedes SLK-230, which we knew as the Speedbug. I’ve parted with plenty of things over the past year, but none were quite as tough to let go of as this little firecracker.
Continue reading “So long, Speedbug”
Did Shoney’s have dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets? Am I mixing it up with Sizzler? Either way, this unassuming bank-slash-hearing-aid-emporium was once home to Muncie’s Shoney’s, a place I remember from childhood even if the details are a little fuzzy. It’s been ages since I last set foot in there, and despite passing it countless times since, I’ve never once been inside under its current guise.
Continue reading “Remember when Shoney’s served Muncie?”
Mom and I were out driving the other day and decided to head past the old Spartanburg High School. What could be better than visiting a spooky old burned-out landmark on Halloween? As we rounded the curve into Spartanburg proper, one thing was missing: the school. All that’s left is the staircase up the hill from Arba Pike.
Continue reading “The ghost of Spartanburg High School has finally vanished”
I’m late to the game here and am not exactly breaking any news, but the old Marsh Supermarket on Nichol Avenue in Anderson finally came back to relevance with its space split between the Needler’s Fresh Market grocery and Benge’s Ace Hardware. The west side of Anderson sorely needed something like this!
Continue reading “A new use for an old Marsh in Anderson”
If you’re aching for the chance to live in a one-room school but the old Lincoln Schoolhouse I wrote about a few weeks ago didn’t trip your trigger, you’re in luck: another schoolhouse long since converted into a house has been listed for sale. It’s the old Keller or Buttermilk School in Madison County’s Lafayette Township.
Continue reading “Another schoolhouse has hit the market”
The rubble from Muncie Mall’s old Sears had hardly settled before Hull Property Group’s demolition crew turned its attention to J.C. Penney. As of yesterday, another longtime anchor is coming down! Here’s a look back at the history of another store that served generations of Muncie shoppers.
Continue reading “No rest for the wreckers: Muncie’s J.C. Penney will soon be coming down”