Category Indiana

New Castle’s silent Thunderbolt

Ted Shideler 6 Comments
Read time: 5 min.

Just south of Muncie, downtown New Castle is home to some compelling architecture. There’s the 1869 Henry County Courthouse for starters, but the city’s old YMCA -a four-story building erected in 19251 and designed in a restrained Renaissance Revival style- features an enormous bracketed cornice. The cornice does much of the architectural heavy lifting for the structure, but what sits above it is what intrigues me: a Federal Signal Thunderbolt 1000T tornado siren.

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Then and now: Indy’s Lafayette Square Mall

Ted Shideler 6 Comments
Read time: 11 min.

I stopped by the shuttered Lafayette Square Mall in Indianapolis recently to take some photos and explore its last remaining store, Shoppers World. Then, as I was digging through the dusty directories of a fifteen-year-old laptop, I remembered that I’d been there when the mall was still sort of alive! Here are some before-and-after shots from 2018 and 2026.

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Muncie needs a 160-foot Garfield

Ted Shideler 4 Comments
Read time: 7 min.

There comes a time in everyone’s life when they start thinking about what they’ll leave behind. Maybe it’s a family, a business, a body of work, or some lasting contribution to the community they call home. Today, I’m cementing my legacy by conceptualizing a 160-foot Garfield statue that should be erected across the White River in downtown Muncie.

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Indiana’s Dearborn County Home

Ted Shideler 2 Comments
Read time: 5 min.

Whether they’ve been schoolhouses, courthouses, churches, or infirmaries, I’ve seen a lot of old buildings over the years that have smacked me in the face by being far more grand than I expected. Dearborn County’s old County Home, down near Cincinnati, was one of them. I’d seen photos beforehand, but they didn’t prepare me for the real thing: a sprawling red-brick building stretched across a hilltop, framed by enormous old trees and crowned by a white wooden cupola that rises above everything else. What a landmark!

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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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Pour one out for Marion’s Roses?

Ted Shideler 8 Comments
Read time: 5 min.

A Grant County News page on Facebook with 60,000 followers and a 96% recommendation rate says that the Roses discount department store at Marion’s shuttered Five Points Mall has closed for good1. If true, the news follows a lengthy temporary closure as store and mall management dealt with the aging building’s condition. Given the state of Five Points, I can’t say I’m shocked.

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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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The last store at Lafayette Square

Ted Shideler 5 Comments
Read time: 7 min.

My brother and I were greeted by a loud hum when we rolled up to Lafayette Square Mall’s Shoppers World. Two enormous generators sat near the loading docks, while a sign inside said the restrooms were unavailable. Apparently, the last store at Indianapolis’ otherwise-empty mall was running on its own! Surrounded by about 800,000 square feet of vacant retail and fifty acres of parking, it’s crazy that the place remains open.

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Clear Spring Friends

Ted Shideler 2 Comments
Read time: 5 min.

In the summer of 2019, my mom and I used an heirloom as a roadmap. Armed with an 1866 diary written by our ancestor Mary Jane Edwards, we spent several long days traveling to Quaker meetinghouses and their nearby burial grounds. One stop along that trail led us to the old Clear Spring Cemetery in Henry County. It’s a small, unassuming place waiting for someone to slow down and check it out. Those someones were us.

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