Had to go to Richmond, IN this morning and had an hour to spare, so here ya go. Although I'd been to Richmond many times, this was the 1st time I had spent any length of time downtown. I must say there was more people and traffic than I would have bet on and not as many empty store fronts as I would have thought. Also, for a city of 40,000, there was a large quantity of churches.
This thread is not related to my other series currently going on.
From Wikipedia
History
Richmond was settled along the East Fork of the Whitewater River in 1806 by Quaker families from North Carolina. John Smith and David Hoover were among the earliest settlers. Richmond is still home to several Quaker institutions including Friends United Meeting, Earlham College and the Earlham School of Religion.
Richmond is believed to have been the smallest community in the United States with a professional opera company and symphony orchestra. The Whitewater Opera has since closed its doors but the Richmond Symphony Orchestra is a source of community pride. Will Earhart formed the first complete high school orchestra in Richmond in 1899. A later orchestra director, Joseph E. Maddy went on to found what is now known as the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan.
A significant group of artists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries came to be known as the Richmond Group. The list of artists includes John Elwood Bundy, Charles Conner, George Herbert Baker, Maude Kaufman Eggemeyer and John Albert Seaford among others. The Richmond Art Museum has an outstanding collection of regional and American art.[6] Many consider the most significant painting in the collection to be a self portrait of Indiana-born William Merritt Chase.[7]
Richmond was once known as "the lawnmower capital" because of the lawn mowers manufactured there from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century. Manufacturers included Davis, Motomower, Dille-McGuire and F&N. The farm machinery builder Gaar-Scott was based in Richmond.
In the 1920s, Indiana had the strongest Ku Klux Klan organization in the country under Grand Dragons D. C. Stephenson and Walter F. Bossert, with control over the state legislature and an ally in Governor Ed Jackson.[8] At its height, national membership during the second Klan movement reached 1.5 million, with 300,000 from Indiana.[9] Records show that Richmond (home to Whitewater Klan #60) and Wayne County were Klan strongholds, with up to 45 percent of the county's white males having been Klan members.[9][10] In 1923 a reported 30,000 people watched a Klan parade through Richmond streets.[11] Richmondite Robert Lyons was national chief of staff for the Klan.[12] At the same time Gennett Records was recording important black jazz artists,[13] it also produced private-label contract recordings for the Ku Klux Klan.[14] Official racial segregation existed in Richmond as late as 1965 when the city ended its policy of restricting black firefighters to one station and limiting the promotion opportunities of firefighters and police officers.
Beginning in the early 1930s through the 1940s, several automobile designers and manufacturers were located in Richmond. Among the automobiles manufactured there was the "Richmond" which was built by the Wayne Works, the "Rodefeld", the "Davis", the "Pilot", the Westcott and the Crosley.
In the 1950s, Wayne Works became Wayne Corporation, a well-known bus and school bus manufacturer, and relocated to a site adjacent to Interstate 70 in 1967. The company was a leader in school bus safety innovations, but closed in 1992 during a period of school bus manufacturing industry consolidations.
Richmond was known as the Rose City because of the many varieties once grown there by Hill's Roses in several sprawling complexes of greenhouses. The company once had about 34 acres (140,000 m2) under glass. The Richmond Rose Festival honored the rose industry and was a popular summer attraction.
On April 6, 1968, several downtown blocks were destroyed or damaged by a natural gas explosion and fire, killing 41 people and injuring more than 150.[17] Thereafter, the main street through downtown was closed to traffic and the Downtown Promenade was built in 1972 (and later expanded in 1978). The book Death in a Sunny Street is about the event. The five-block pedestrian mall was later torn down and the street reopened to traffic in 1997 as part of an urban revitalization effort.
A Powerball lottery ticket sold in Richmond won approximately $314 million (annuity value) in the August 25, 2007 drawing. In 1998, a group of 13 machine-shop workers from Ohio won Powerball on a ticket that had also been purchased in Richmond. It won $295.7 million (annuity). The two tickets were sold at two different Speedway convenience stores about three miles (5 km) apart; both sets of winners also chose the cash option.
Right on the border of Ohio!
Where us Western Ohioans go to load up for summer holidays!
Oh, and down the street to the Liquor store for some cheaper booze and powerball tickets!
Wayne County Courthouse
Old Train Depot
Old Warehouse turned into a Senior Retirement Living
Old working Warehouse next door to the Senior Bldg.
Old closed hospital
Replaced by this!
Hoped ya liked Richmond, Indiana!
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