You May Now Redeem Your S & H Green Stamps at George Graham's Store!

                            

  In November of 1916, The George W. Graham Co., at 117-123 N. Washington St., (Cornett’s Furniture Store in 2016) announced that his store had made arrangements with The Sperry and Hutchinson Green Stamps Company to offer cash stamps with every ten 

cent purchase.

  A parlor area upstairs would soon be restocked with all manner of goods for which customers could redeem Green Stamps. I’m sure that many a homemaker in the Crawfordsville area was delighted to know that she could keep saving her Green Stamps and redeem them to get items or, “premiums,” needed for her kitchen, or a nice lamp for the parlor. Many a toaster made its way into local kitchens due to shoppers’ diligence in saving stamps.

Sperry and Hutchinson began selling their Green Stamps to businesses across the country in 1896.  Retailers would give them to shoppers for every ten cent purchase.  This marketing ploy helped to get more shoppers into the stores and to get them to spend more money once they were in the stores and shoppers were happy to receive goods with their stamps, so everyone was happy!

Crawfordsville in 1908--What a Wonderful City!

What a modern and accommodating city Crawfordsville must have been in 1908!

Why, we had eight livery, feed, and sale stables in town, along with a wagon and buggy supplier at 121-123 S. Washington (J.M. Thompson Insurance building).  Four farriers worked here to serve your horses.  The Crawfordsville Ice and Cold Storage on the corner of Franklin and Hocum (?) Streets could deliver ice to your home.  For your smoking needs, five shops sold cigars (most in the LaRose on Main building).  If you needed a trip out of town, you could buy your train tickets at the Big Four Station—corner of Washington and Franklin Street-- or at the Indiana Northern Traction Station  located where Tri-County Bank building is at 224 E. Main Street. If it was Friday night, you could find fun at any of the seven billiard halls in town. 

For other personal needs, there were 29 grocery stores located in Crawfordsville, along with two casket companies on West Main Street.  One was located on the same property  as the former Lew Wallace Inn.

Crawfordsville was quite famous at the time for having two brick factories--The Crawfordsville Shale Brick Co., located one mile north on the Monon line;  and the Poston Paving Brick Company at E. College and Vandalia Streets.                                       

workers at the Poston Brick Factory        

Crawfordsville in 1908 must have been quite a bustling small city.  Wouldn't you love to go back in time and visit some of these old places?

A Vision in White--The Making of the Ben-Hur Building

    It took eight years to get the ball rolling on this magnificent building, but once the decision was made to build it, it only took one year. The Ben-Hur building, dedicated in May of 1912, was originally the home of the Supreme Tribe of Ben-Hur, a social organization that included women. The Tribe sponsored baseball and basketball teams, drill teams, bowling, and other social events.  Insurance was offered to members, and eventually over 130,000 members belonged.

  This building would come to occupy the corner of Main and Water Streets, which had been the site for the original office building for the Tribe.The new building was completed in one year, with no injuries reported, which was an accomplishment for such a large undertaking.

    The original cost was $150,000, which translates to $3,750,000 in 2016. The intention was to make it as fire-proof as possible, so all walls were constructed of concrete reinforced with twisted steel bars--220,757 linear feet of it! That beautiful white terra cotta tile sheathing that we all love? That is composed of 8650 pieces of white tile, and took 2450 barrels of cement to attach.  

    All wooden finishes inside the building were mahogany, including the front and vestibule doors. There were also two elevators installed.

     The contractors made sure to use materials available or made locally when possible, making this truly a home-town building.