At one time, Columbus Avenue was the heart of Anderson’s factory district. During shift changes, the amount of traffic was unbelievable as some workers headed home and others reported to their place of gainful employment.
It started on the Ohio Avenue end, which was as far north as you could travel in a direct line (the link to Cincinnati Avenue would come later). Pierce Governor was located near the intersection, as was the Golden Crust doughnut shop where people loved to stop in and pick up still-hot doughnuts even before they were delivered to retail outlets.
On down, on the east side, was Stanton Park, once the site of summer outdoor volleyball activity in Anderson. Several other retail stores lined the thoroughfare leading to the headquarters and Plant 1 of Delco Remy, at that time Anderson’s largest employer.
Although its employment base already had shrunk from its glory days of the 1950s and ’60s, Delco still was a powerful presence when my kids were growing up. In fact daughter Ruth had her high school Co-op employment there. Delco Remy, of course, became part of the Delphi Division before General Motors began spinning off its component manufacturing units.
Just north of Delco was Washington Elementary, which in the early 1950s also housed a junior high school. As Anderson school enrollment began a downward spiral, Washington, by then one of Anderson’s older schools and landlocked by the Delco presence, became targeted for closure. The building survived, though, with the formation of Liberty Christian School, which still occupies the structure.
Not so Delco Remy. It has become one of Anderson’s green-pasture brownfields, standing fallow as a silent reminder of the one-time grandeur of the city’s factory district.
A few blocks east of Columbus was National Tile and Manufacturing Co., once a leading U.S. tile manufacturer. Abandoned decades ago, it was occupied until recently as a warehouse for Phillips Industries before it was destroyed by fire.
Mathews Super Market stood at the intersection of 32nd Street and Columbus Avenue. It later expanded to other locations before the owners retired and sold the stores. The location is now a Harvest Market.
Just east of Columbus on 32nd was Anderson Mattress Co., now closed as well.
South on Columbus was the large Nicholson File plant, once one of Anderson’s larger factory operations. It too is gone, but the building still stands, parts of it having been used at various times for warehouse and smaller manufacturing operations.
And south of 53rd Street was one of Anderson’s first discount stores, the city’s first Kmart. The Southdale Shopping Center built up around it, including a Marsh Supermarket and other businesses. That Kmart closed several years ago, but the Marsh (which became a Lo Bill and now a Marsh Hometown) remains to anchor what’s left of a largely deserted Southdale.
The ghost of Anderson’s past is very much alive on Columbus Avenue today.
Jim Bailey’s reflections on Anderson’s past appear on Sunday. His regular column appears on Wednesday. He can be reached by e-mail at jameshenrybailey@earthlink.net.
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Jim Bailey: Columbus Ave. showing age
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