Evansville’s oldest areas, mainly Downtown, are made up of blocks that have undergone a century or more of change. Buildings rise, fall, and rise again. The block now occupied by the Fifth Third Bank Tower is one of those with an interesting past.
On the corner is Comfort by the Cross-Eyed Cricket (formerly Farmers Daughter), which began as the Washington House hotel in the 1850s. Zuki (formerly People’s Bank and Morris Plan) was built in 1949 to replace an earlier bank. Its parking lot was the location of the Carlton Theater, an art deco movie house from 1937. Other commercial buildings, like the Chicago-style Bitterman building now housing Parlor Doughnuts and its cousin next door, round out the Main Street side.
The Sycamore Street side has a sadder history. At the corner of Second and Sycamore stood the immense Businessmen’s Association Building, known later as the Grein building. Its silver cupola gleamed in the midday sun. Constructed of brown stone and red granite, the front entrance was a huge stone. Designed in 1888 by the Reid Brothers architects — known for their work on Evansville’s Willard Library and Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, California — the mammoth six-story structure housed many oil companies and attorneys’ offices. Sold in 1938 to Ann Grein, it then took on that name.
Next door on Second was the Victoria Hotel, a 19th century hostelry noted for hosting many entertainment personalities appearing at the New Grand Opera House (later Grand Theater). The Grand opened in 1889 and was designed by J.B. McElfatrick and Son, the premier theater architectural firm in its day. It featured more than 1,700 seats and had a massive domed ceiling with an incredible chandelier, as well as two balcony levels for patrons. Later the Grand became a nationally known house on the vaudeville circuit, rivaling opera houses in larger cities. Converted to a movie palace in the silent era, then moving to sound pictures after 1929, the Grand was famously mourned in a July 1962 “obituary” written by the late Jeanne Suhrheinrich, the Evansville Courier movie critic who grieved its loss like an old friend.
At the corner on Third and Sycamore stood the majestic Hotel Vendome, at one time a nine-story luxury hotel. Built in 1890 as a five-story structure, in 1906 it was purchased by Frederick Scholz and doubled in size. In 1927, four more floors were added to the Sycamore side, making that half nine stories, one of the tallest in the city at the time. The ballrooms hosted high school proms and weddings, and the dining room saw many corporate dinners and political meetings. It also was a nationally known hotel for business travelers.
For several decades after 1909, a rooftop pavilion overlooked the city where bands played and guests danced under the stars. On this block, in the former Weingarten’s furrier store, sits the headquarters of the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana, which also offers a rooftop deck. Although the music offered is vastly different than the soft strains of the old swing bands, one can still imagine the romance of dancing on the Vendome roof.
The massive presence of these buildings can only exist now in dim memories. (I vaguely remember as a child visiting a dentist in the Grein.) The entire half block was cleared in the early 1970s, and it took 10 more years before another Downtown construction boom resulted in the Fifth Third (formerly Citizens) Bank building and its massive garage. With the 2021 demolition of the former Old National Bank tower a short walk away, it now is the tallest building Downtown.
