East-Central Indiana got walloped by a hundred-year flood a few weeks ago. Anderson got the brunt of it: neighborhoods were placed under evacuation orders¹ as the White River crested at a staggering 24.93 feet²! I don’t know if any commercial property took the floodwaters harder hit than River Ridge Plaza, just across Scatterfield Road from the abandoned Mounds Mall. Now, news reports suggest that all of its stores -including Roses- may never reopen³. If so, the news comes awfully soon after another Indiana Roses, the one in Marion, closed for good.

Soon after I wrote about the hidden remains of Holiday Inn’s old Great Sign in New Castle, reader decotriumph reminded me that the H&K Motel in Anderson was another old Holiday Inn. I used to pass it every day on the way to work and was aware of its provenance, but I’d never paid attention to the sign out front. D’oh! It, too, is another heavily-modified Great Sign.

Ever stopped in at Frisch’s Big Boy for a Brawny Lad or a nice Swiss Miss? I sure have, at the Anderson, Indiana, location on Broadway Street. Believe it or not, though, Anderson once had three Frisch’s restaurants. One of them even sat right downtown, just across from the Madison County Courthouse. It must have been fun to smash a big burger in the heart of the city.