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Side trip: Downtown Greensburg

This is the east side of Greensburg's square, taken from the north. Notice that the first building is marked "I.O.O.F." for the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a national organization that had a very large presence in Greensburg.

Greensburg square

The south side of Main St. (State Road 46) from Franklin St. The fire escape on the front of this building struck me as unusual.

Greensburg square

This is the entry to the building on the left in the previous photo. Levenstein's is still in business selling carpet, but they've moved away from downtown Greensburg.

Levenstein's

The Decatur County Courthouse, in the center of Greensburg's square, has had a tree growing out of its tower since the 1870s. The original tree died many years ago, but other trees have somehow found the tower fertile enough to support them. The current tree is a mulberry. This photo is taken from Main St.

Source:
Greensburg's Famous Tower Tree, The Official Website of Decatur County, Indiana

Decatur County Courthouse

The Swem Block building was interesting to me because of the columns in the top corners. I wonder what the building looks like behind those two facades on the lower level.

Greensburg square

The "Restaurant" sign on this Main St. building had clips for neon, but the tubes were gone.

Greensburg square

The Greensburg Daily News has been published since 1894. Its current building is about a block away, just south of Main on Franklin St. Its old building on the corner of Main and Broadway is, as you can see, obscured by a tree, making a decent photo nearly impossible.

Source:
About us, Greensburg Daily News

Greensburg square

Minear's Department Store has got to be one of the last small, local department stores anywhere. The sign says, "Since 1865." This postcard shows Minear's in its place on the block in 1911. The store was in a different building, but it looks like it was on or near the same spot.

Greensburg square

Seeing the store's name painted in the windows like this (with the merchandise on display behind them) transported me back to a time that has long been gone.

Greensburg square

At the north end of this block stands another Oddfellows building. I'd sure like to know more about the story of the Oddfellows in Greensburg, seeing as they had so much real estate here. You can see this building at the end of the block in the postcard I linked to earlier.

Oddfellows building / G.C. Murphy

The Oddfellows building was, at one time, home to a G. C. Murphy Co., store, a chain of variety stores commonly called "dime stores" or "five-and-ten-cent stores." Both entryways on Broadway St. are tiled like this.

Greensburg square

This building with its interesting little balcony stands on the Washington St. side of the square.

Greensburg square

The 1881 First Presbyterian Church stands northeast of the square. Some older photos of the church arehere.

First Presbyterian Church, Greensburg

On Franklin St., between the church and North St., stands 1846 Lathrop-Shannon house.

Lathrop-Shannon House ca 1846

 

Back to Decatur County

 


Created 10 January 2009. Updated 7 March 2009, 2 January 2012.
Photos subject to the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic license.
Text copyright 2008, 2009 by Jim Grey. (Replace * with @ if you click that link to send me e-mail.)
Maps are screen shots from Google Maps unless otherwise specified. All copyrights acknowledged.