Bygone local landmarks permeate Joseph S. Pete’s “Lost Treasures of Indiana.” The author, a columnist for The Times of Northwest Indiana in Munster, weaves a nostalgic look at past tastes, events, experiences into the 2025 Reedy Press release.
Pete reminisces about Sir Beef’s claim to serve “one of the world’s finest roast beef sandwiches.” The chain closed locally in the 1980s. Pete also touches on Pie Pan, the North Side diner that closed in 2024 that he says could “satisfy your hunger without cleaning out your wallet.”
He reflects on Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden’s decommissioned monkey ship and long-gone Downtown structures such as Assumption Church, “a grand cathedral-like parish with a towering steeple” and Evansville’s first Catholic house of worship. The now-razed Louisville & Nashville Train Depot’s Romanesque architecture gets a word, as does the Evansville Shipyard, the LST-manufacturing hub that “helped win World War II,” Pete writes.
Recalling such meaningful locations is worth the time, Pete says, and Hoosiers should be “better custodians of our past.” Find “Lost Treasures of Indiana” at Barnes & Noble.
