Here is a photo of the demolition in progress at the former county home. (David Burns / C-T photo)

By DARREL RADFORD
Historically Speaking

Two notable demolitions have taken place in New Castle recently – the old Henry County home north of the city on a hill in Memorial Park and the former Kresge’s Department Store in the downtown area. The buildings were vastly different in every way but shared one major thing in common: They each served Henry County residents for many decades.

While there is little debate about the reasons these buildings came down, there is much to glean from their histories. It is an interesting tale of two buildings, one designed to serve the poor and the other “complete in every detail for modern merchandising and offering an almost limitless variety of articles for home, garage, shop and personal use.”

Here is a bit more about each building’s life and the lives touched because of them

County Home

In a story published by The Middletown News last week, veteran journalist Eldon Pitts reported the county home was opened for residents in March 1860. That was just a little over a year before the Civil War started.

Pitts wrote that the building was known earlier as the “county asylum” and “the poor farm.” When built, it was the third such facility for these purposes. The first, a log structure, was built in 1839. Five years later, a more modern brick structure replaced it, but that building was destroyed by fire in 1855.

So the “county home” as it came to be called, was looking over Memorial Park about a year before Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as the 16th president of the United States – and nearly a decade before the current Henry County Courthouse was built.

In his Middletown News story, Pitts described those who made the county home their home.

The Henry County Poor Farm was established in 1839. Records from the institution are housed and can be examined at the HCHS library. Although in poor condition, the extant structure is located at Memorial Park atop the hill where it is said one of the last Indian encampments of this area stood.

“The facility was home for residents who were poor, elderly, physically or mentally ill, or otherwise unable to care for themselves,” Pitts wrote. “Entire families lived there during the early years, according to the late Ulysses (Bud) Bush, a local historian who thoroughly researched the home and documented many of its residents.”

Here are some other interesting facts about the county home Pitts had in his Middletown News article:

n There were still 25 people living in the home as recently as 1976. By July 1987, only four residents remained.

n The Henry County Sheriff’s Department’s criminal investigation division moved into the building in 1987 and stayed until about 2000.

n Randy Neal agreed to raze the building at no charge, which saved the county about $90,000.

Kresge’s

Memories of the old Kresge’s store rose almost as quickly as the debris fell this week in the downtown New Castle demolition process.

Headlines in a May 23, 1935, New Castle newspaper proclaimed the opening of Kresge’s, calling the store “elaborately equipped.”

It was a new kind of department store, the second in the Kresge chain to be called a 5-cent to $1 store rather than a five and dime type business.

“The new unit represents a combination of the Kresge five and ten cent stores and the Kresge 25-cent to $1 stores, which in many cities are operated independently under separate managements,” a New Castle newspaper article reported. “This new combination will offer almost limitless variety.”

While men’s, women’s and children’s clothing could be purchased here, a column by late Henry County historian Herbert Heller said customers were “hungry” for something else in the store.

“A busy part of the Kresge establishment now is the lunch counter, installed a year or so after the building was built,” Heller wrote. “A sandwich counter brought such a ready response from the public that another and larger department was put in to serve meals and short orders.”

Heller also wrote that the Kresge’s toy department was “the largest in the city” and a “popular Christmas spot.”

From 1891 to 1975, the corner of 14th and Broad was buzzing with shoppers. Before Kresge’s took over the location, the Kahn-Heller Building, with its distinctive spire, ruled the retail here. On the night that building opened – Jan. 1, 1891 – a dance was held on the building’s second floor.

Heller wrote that “this dance was one of the social events of the gay nineties” and lingered in the memories of many as the outstanding social event of the 19th century.

The Dollar General Store followed in this location for a few years. Local teens also remember the facility as a gathering place for concerts, skateboarding and Christian fellowship with friends.

Relentless Change

In addition to the county home and Kresge’s building coming down recently, another steep tradition also ended this week with the New Castle school board’s decision to end an 87-year relationship with the North Central Conference.

These are, indeed, changing times. But for those who would share tears over change and cling tightly to their memories, consider the possibilities of new memories to be made by renovation of the Jennings Building, new restaurants planned now with ample parking with the old Kresge’s building gone, new improvements to Memorial Park and new rivalries in sports that parents can afford to share with their student-athletes.

Perhaps many years down the road, local historians will point back to this tumultuous time in the spring of 2013 as a turning point for progress.

Darrel Radford is a board member for The Henry County Historical Society and a staff writer for The Courier-Times. Visit the society’s web page at www.henrycountyhs for more local history. Thanks to Eldon Pitts and The Middletown News for their contributions to this article.