The old State Theater is a gem. In almost any small, midwestern city aside from Anderson, Indiana, it likely would have already been reborn! Instead, it sits in the long shadow of the Paramount just to the north, an astounding atmospheric palace that was fully restored three decades ago. Even so, the State’s story and significance are no less vital.
Continue reading “Anderson’s empty State Theater”
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.
Continue reading “Anderson’s downtown Big Boy”
Many of the buildings I highlight here are abandoned. Now and then, though, a second-chance story catches my eye. Ruby’s Cafe & Bakery in downtown Anderson is one of those rare wins: the old 8th Street landmark could have easily faded away! Instead, it buzzes with life.
Continue reading “Holy grounds: Ruby’s Cafe & Bakery in Anderson”
Kroger comes in two flavors here in Muncie: Ruler Foods, a no-frills ALDI competitor, and Pay Less, a full-service alternative. Pay Less began in Anderson in 1947, but Kroger snapped it up in 19991. Muncie was never kind to Kroger, but it re-entered the market with Ruler in 20132. A bigger investment came in 2017, when the company bought two closing Marsh supermarkets and reopened them as Pay Less3. I recently ran into its wandering robot. It was weird!
Continue reading “My first run-in with the Pay Less robot”
Retail trends come and go, but one shift that’s taken particularly deep root around my neck of the woods is the slow death of the local shopping mall. Super-regional destinations like Glenbrook, Castleton, and Southlake continue to survive, but smaller-city malls haven’t been so lucky. I’ve written about a few of those places over the years, but today I’ll turn my attention to Mounds Mall of Anderson.
Continue reading “Mounds Mall: from nearly first to nearly forgotten”
The Toast has been an Anderson, Indiana, institution for seventy-five years. It’s one of those diners everyone seems to know even if they’ve never made it inside. Despite my own long history with the city, I’d somehow managed to miss it! That changed one recent morning when my Mom and I found ourselves in Anderson with breakfast on the brain. We each pulled up a chair, and here’s how it went.
Continue reading “My trip to The Toast”
Imagine it’s the 1960s: you, me, and a handful of our department-store executive friends are scheming up a fast-food joint with a name that’s close to a golden-arched competitor without triggering a lawsuit. Why don’t we call it McBurger? That’s the name McCrory’s rolled out in Anderson and a handful of other cities in 1968. Some still remember it!
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You might not know them by name, but I’m sure you remember pizza robots, those animatronic avatars that danced and sang before a piping-hot pie arrived at your family’s table. They were loud, uncanny, and absolutely unforgettable! Unfortunately, we never had a ShowBiz Pizza where I grew up in Muncie. Just down the road, though, Anderson hosted one of its own for three glorious years in the early 1980s
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Every now and then, I start to feel a little too confident in my grasp of local history- at least right up until a stubborn detail comes along and humbles me. That’s exactly what happened recently while I was digging into the schoolhouses of eastern Madison County, Indiana. One unassuming building in the tiny hamlet of Gilman, in particular, reminded me that even familiar places can still hold a few surprises.
Continue reading “The mysterious Gilman schoolhouse”
America has a reputation for bulldozing the past, but plenty of buildings here get a second act. Some transformations are so seamless you’d never guess what came before, while others keep their history on full display. In North Anderson, a massive storage facility falls into the latter category- the 73,000-square-foot building1 spent thirty-seven years as a Kmart.
Continue reading “Not fooling anyone: this storage facility in Anderson used to be…”