From the Northwest Plaza to the Southway Center and everywhere in between, Muncie is dotted with the usual mix of typical shopping strips and commercial centers. One in particular, though, breaks the mold: White River Plaza. The place stands out not just for its strange design and layout, but for the stories hidden behind its storefronts. Most people probably pass it without a second thought, but the unassuming strip has roots stretching back more than a hundred years! Its past is far more interesting than might be expected.
Although it’s well within Muncie’s city limits today, the plot of land that became home to White River Plaza began its story in a small suburb called Westside. The community was laid out in 1889 by the Delaware County Land Improvement Company1, one of many ventures hoping to capitalize on the city’s rapid growth during the natural gas boom. Just a few years later, the Joseph Bell Stove Works set up shop there after relocating from Wheeling, West Virginia2.
Drawn by cheap fuel and generous local incentives, the stove works wasted no time building a massive brick factory at what’s now the corner of White River Boulevard and South Nichols Avenue. When it opened in 1893, the plant ranked among the largest plants in Indiana’s gas belt3! Fifty men worked there at first, but plans were set to double the workforce as soon as production ramped up4.
Unfortunately, production never ramped up. The property was sold at public auction in 18985, and the company’s entire stock was liquidated at forty cents on the dollar by the E.J. Hickson & Company of 217 East Main Street6. In 1901, Hickson purchased the old Joseph Bell building itself for $8,500 to convert the plant into a facility making iron and brass furniture and bedsteads7.
The Hickson enterprise thrived for several years and employed around 150 workers until disaster struck in 1907. Because the factory sat just outside Muncie’s fire protection boundary, there was no available water when the flames broke out. The massive brick complex was reduced to ruins, and the loss was staggering: between $50,000 and $60,000, or roughly $1.8 million in today’s money. In the aftermath, uncertainty loomed over the site’s future. With operations already expanding at the company’s Pittsburgh plant, no one knew whether the Muncie factory would ever rise from the ashes8.
Fortunately, the Pittsburg-Hickson Company chose not to abandon Muncie. In 1909, the firm announced plans for an even larger factory on the same site9. The story took another turn just a year later, though, when ownership passed to a new venture -the Moore Manufacturing Company- organized by none other than Hickson himself, along with C.G. and J.K. Moore10 of Bellevue, Ohio. Moore Manufacturing continued where Pittsburg-Hickson left off, producing bedsprings, sofa beds, and hideaway beds11.
In 1935, Moore’s offerings expanded to sell porch swings, baby cribs, chairs, and inter-units for mattresses when it purchased the Hager Manufacturing Plant that stood across Nichols Avenue12. As the Moore-Hager Company, the company lasted at its original site until 1960, when J.L. and C.G. Moore decided to retire. Muncie businessman Burle Plank purchased the company and initially vowed to continue its operations13.
Moore-Hager continued running with fifty employees, at least for a time, but much of the sprawling factory on the old Joseph Bell site was quickly converted into Miracle Mart, a 70,000-square-foot self-service discount department store that opened in the southern two-thirds of the Moore-Hager building on August 16, 1961. With forty-five merchandising departments and a staff of nearly 200 people14, the Muncie store joined another outlet in Fort Wayne and several in Michigan and Pennsylvania.
“Cutting this ribbon signifies the beginning of a new era of buying for consumers in Muncie and the surrounding area,” Company Vice President George Desser said at Miracle Mart’s grand opening. “After carefully surveying prospective areas in this part of the state, Muncie was selected as our second location in Indiana. Miracle Mart helps not only the shoppers, but the economic prosperity of Muncie as well15.”
In 1962, the northern section of the old factory found new life when Eavey’s supermarket opened its doors. Still, Miracle Mart’s success was short-lived. Just five years later, in 1967, the company filed for bankruptcy and shut down after a brief going-out-of-business sale16. It only took three months for the space to bustle again, though, as a 62,000-square-foot Cole Department Store opened that boasted ninety-nine departments under one roof17. Unfortunately, Cole’s run was even briefer than Miracle Mart’s. The company went bankrupt after only two years! In 1969, the Val Corporation of nearby New Castle swooped in to purchase the store’s entire inventory18.
Muncie’s Val Department Store was the fifth in a growing chain that also included locations in Connersville, Hartford City, New Castle, and Rushville19. By 1979, the organization had expanded to eighteen stores across Indiana and Ohio! Even success stories have their setbacks, though: after nearly a decade in business, the Muncie store closed its doors when new lease negotiations fell through. “It isn’t because the store hasn’t done well,” assured Henry Ripberger, Val’s vice president. “We’ll be opening a new store in Brownsburg this April20.”
In 1979, the story of the old Moore Manufacturing building took yet another turn when PDP Corporation -a professional data processing firm- purchased the property with plans to relocate its Muncie headquarters into the section once occupied by Eavey’s21. By 1981, under the direction of PDP’s David Robertson, the site had been completely transformed into a retail and business complex called White River Plaza. The newly-minted strip center quickly filled with tenants, from Betty’s Gift Shop and Emergency Physicians of Delaware County to Magical Bear Amusements and Pathologists Associated. Its anchor store, a sprawling 20,000-square-foot Dunham’s Sporting Goods22, came in 1981 and cemented the plaza’s status as a fresh commercial hub along the White River. Eventually, a portion of the building’s western side was remodeled into the White River Plaza Mini Mall.
Over the years, White River Plaza has played host to an ever-changing lineup of tenants. Some were national, many were regional, and most were unique to Muncie. For decades, names like Dunham’s, Dollar General, and Amber’s Beauty School anchored the plaza. These days, though, the center has found a new identity as a haven for local businesses. Set foot on the property and you’ll find a mix of hometown favorites: All Star Sports Cards, Bob’s Comic Castle, the Muncie Book Center, Squared Away Foods, Wizard’s Keep Game & Hobby, and RetroJake’s Video Games. Together, they give White River Plaza a distinct personality that feels less like a corporate strip mall and more like a local landmark that, for all its history, still seems very much alive.
Looking at White River Plaza today, it’s hard to imagine the rise and fall of so many eras layered beneath its unassuming storefronts- especially as the center undergoes renovation today. What began as a 19th-century stove factory on the edge of a booming gas-belt town has, over more than a century, reinvented itself again and again through fire, bankruptcy, rebirth, and retail reinvention. Behind the plaza’s simple signs, brick walls, and glass doors is a century of persistence. White River Plaza may not look as welcoming as some of Muncie’s other retail establishments, but it’s proof that history doesn’t always hide in plain sight. Sometimes, it’s right there behind the storefront windows.
Sources Cited
1 Flook, C. (2024, May 20). Muncie annexed Normal City. The Muncie Star Press. p. A1.
2 The Joseph Bell Stove Works (1892, September 30). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 4.
3 A Great Concern (1893, June 17). The Muncie Daily Herald. p. 3.
4 (See footnote 3).
5 Sale of Bell Stove Works (1898, April 30). The Muncie Morning News. p. 5.
6 Stoves (1899, February 8). The Muncie Morning News. p. 7.
7 Will Start New Factory (1901, November 19). The Muncie Star. p. 2.
8 The Hickson Plant Burns; Loss $60,000 (1907, November 30). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 1.
9 An Extension For Hickson Factory (1909, December 17). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 1.
10 Now Incorporated (1910, January 11). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 8.
11 Album of Yesteryear (1988, January 24). The Muncie Star. p. 47.
12 Hager Plant Is Sold To Moore Company Here (1930, June 17). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 1.
13 Moore-Hager Firm Is Sold to Burle Plank (1960, June 11). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 6.
14 Miracle Mart Opens Operations Here (1961, August 16). Then Muncie Evening Press. p. 18.
15 Ribbon Cut, Opening Miracle Mart (1961, August 17). The Muncie Star. p. 21.
16 Iliff, D. (1967, July 30). Five Amex Governors Must Always Commute. The Muncie Star. p. 27.
17 Cole Store Grand Opening Wednesday (1967, October 8). The Muncie Star Press. p. 11.
18 Val Corp. Buys Cole Dept. Store Stock (1969, August 28). The Muncie Evening press. p. 3.
19 Iliff, D. (1969, August 10). Expanding Retail Projects to Attract Area Shoppers. The Muncie Star. p. 37.
20 Pitts, E. (1979, March 2). Val Is Leaving Muncie; Can’t Negotiate Lease. The Muncie Star Press. p. 16.
21 Bigger, R. (1979, June 8). Data firm purchases Val Department Store. The Muncie Evening Press. p. 18.
22 2100 White River Blvd. (1981, October 13). The Muncie Star Press. p. 15.
Thanks, this was interesting! I remember my last time in the Miracle Mart in Fort Wayne. My mother went to buy an Easy Bake Oven for my sister and left in a huff when informed that the advertised sale price was not until the next day, no exceptions.
Where in Fort Wayne was Miracle Mart?
Near Glenbrook, as I recall, in a building that later became Ayr-Way and then Target.
Ah, ok! I think I’m familiar with it.