Category Found Muncie

Westside Park’s playground is being replaced. I still miss the one IT replaced.

Ted Shideler 5 Comments
Read time: 9 min.

Muncie’s Westside Park is getting a new playground1. You might think it’s earned one after the park was completely submerged by hundred-year floodwaters just a few weeks ago, but it’s only been nine years since the current playground was installed2! More time has passed since Westside lost the landmark Miracle & Jamison Mark IV Timberline structure I remember from my youth, and here’s hoping whatever comes next is even half as memorable as the Timberline was.

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This home probably wasn’t Muncie’s old Mound schoolhouse

Ted Shideler 2 Comments
Read time: 7 min.

A house on Wheeling Avenue near the Delaware County Fairgrounds in Muncie has piqued my interest for years. It doesn’t take much imagination to see it as an old schoolhouse, and it sits just a few blocks north of where Center Township’s old District 9 building once stood. Could it be the old structure? I’m not so sure.

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Muncie’s sirens still sounded after the flood

Ted Shideler Leave a comment
Read time: 7 min.

Longtime readers here know that I’m fascinated by tornado sirens. I’ve tracked down all of Muncie’s aging Thunderbolts, the Banshee on top of the old courthouse, and even some of the modern 2001-SRNs scattered around these parts. It’s rare that they actually become newsworthy, but the other day, they did! A little.

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Where them stores at? These have moved on from Muncie Mall

Ted Shideler 10 Comments
Read time: 7 min.

It’s been a while since much demolition was visible at the doomed Muncie Mall, and I’m beginning to get antsy. I emailed its owner to ask when the process might resume and, more importantly, when my stats might start climbing again! Of course, I heard nothing but crickets. Instead of an update, I decided to look at where some of the mall’s old stores have wound up instead. As it turns out, the Muncie Mall diaspora hasn’t scattered very far. In a couple of cases, groups of two or three former tenants are right next to each other!

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Muncie’s hundred-year flood

Ted Shideler 5 Comments
Read time: 9 min.

Maybe you’ve seen it on national news from CBS1 or NBC2, but my hometown of Muncie, Indiana, is dealing with a hundred-year flood right now. The White River through town, the Mississinewa in northern Delaware County, and all their tributaries are cresting near record heights. Businesses have shut down, residents have been evacuated by boat, and with more rain on the horizon through the weekend, it’s hard to tell what might happen next.

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Muncie’s hidden Parker Moore Cemetery

Ted Shideler Leave a comment
Read time: 4 min.

It’s been a while since I last visited an old pioneer cemetery. Not long ago, my Mom and I found ourselves on Muncie’s southeast side. On the way home, we made a quick stop at Parker Moore Cemetery, one of only a handful of historic burial grounds in Delaware County’s Center Township. Thousands of motorists race past it every day on Memorial Drive as they head toward the Muncie Bypass, but I suspect very few ever pull over for a closer look. I’m a contrarian, so of course I had to. 

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Muncie’s JCPenney waits for the wrecking ball

Ted Shideler Leave a comment
Read time: 4 min.

Muncie Mall is coming down. The three-screen cinema is already gone, reduced to a bare concrete pad. Outside the old Sears Auto Center, a mountain of broken concrete hints that the interior of the 129,000-square-foot department store1 has already been gutted. Now, all signs point to JCPenney as the next casualty.

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The fantastic art on a downtown Muncie dental office

Ted Shideler 6 Comments
Read time: 5 min.

When most people think of Muncie, they probably don’t. Still, public art is on wide display here, with works by Daniel Chester French, Cyrus Dallin, and E.M. Viquesney. My favorites are the creations of Richard Kishel. One of his most striking pieces wraps around two sides of the Delaware Dental Solutions building on West Washington Street.

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