Somehow it had escaped my notice. I just happened to note sometime recently that the old Eavey’s Supermarket building at 19th and Meridian streets had been torn down when I wasn’t looking.
Eavey’s was THE supermarket when I first moved to Anderson. Everybody who had a car headed south on Meridian, or so it seemed, to get groceries at Eavey’s. Mom and I didn’t have a car at that time, but I can recall on one occasion we actually shopped there, then carted our grocery sacks onto the bus and rode back to our apartment in North Anderson.
Such are the signs of the times. The Eavey’s building, occupied at various times by other chains including Mathews and Pay Less, is not the only landmark no longer standing. Everything changes, including the landscape.
Most notable among landmarks that no longer exist is the group of former Delco Remy plants along the bypass (which is now Scatterfield Road). The big, open brownfield south of the railroad tracks awaits sale to a developer, presumably one that will return Anderson to the salad days when about one-third of the city claimed employment at the auto parts plants that proudly served General Motors. That was then; this is now. Even the last vestige, the Guide plant on Pendleton Avenue that once housed the world’s largest auto parts operation under one roof, is coming down.
Anderson’s downtown, of course, is replete with parking lots and newer structures most of us old timers remember as buildings that added character to the central city.
Citizens Plaza, the half-block park across from the Madison County Government Center (itself a more recent fixture; remember the ornate old courthouse?) is where the Anderson Hotel used to tower over the landscape. And eastward from there were the Good Earth Restaurant, a drugstore and down Main Street a solid block of bars and cigar stores (we shan’t mention backroom establishments that housed illegal games of chance) along with a Chinese laundry.
Even Star China is no more, at least as a housewares store. The old Salvation Army location is no longer there, nor is the building that housed my uncle’s floor covering store, later relocated on East 10th Street. And across the street at 10th and Main was another hotel.
On the east side of Main was the Uptown Bowling Lanes, destroyed by fire in the 1950s, later supplanted by the Town Motel. On down the street was Mayberry’s Grand Hotel with its adjoining café. And the building now occupied by the Anderson Public Library originally was the location for Sears Roebuck & Co.
Meridian Street between Ninth and 11th was once the humming center of shopping activity. Four dime stores operated on both sides of Meridian, the old Woolworth building also falling victim to fire long after its glory days had passed. And the J.C. Penney building, Walgreen’s Drug Store and Hill’s Snappy Service were supplanted by today’s downtown parking garage. And there was always a crowd in Tom Haston’s Barber Shop on 10th Street, where Johnny would give you a shoeshine while you were waiting to get your haircut.
Overlooking it all was the WHBU-AM radio tower atop the Union Building (it was known as the Citizens Bank Building in those days), since dismantled and sold, replaced by a smaller tower on Anderson’s south side.
You could find a variety of new cars at dealers along Jackson, Meridian and Central, and Broadway Sales operated a few blocks north on Broadway. And there were several groceries, including Hoosier Market, Standard and Kroger, in or near the downtown area.
Time changed all that, some would say for the better, some worse. But these landmarks now exist only in our memories. Everything changes.
Jim Bailey’s column appears on Sunday. He can be reached by e-mail at jameshenrybailey@earthlink.net.
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JIM BAILEY: Everything changes
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