Porter Visitors' Center (Porter Pool Bathhouse
William A. Porter Memorial Swimming Pool Bathhouse Dedicated in 1930, what is now the home to the Shelby County Tourism & Visitors' Bureau and the Shelby County Chamber of Commerce was built in memory of Enos Porter’s son, William. Best known for manufacturing mirrors, Porter began his business with Frank Rembusch, the owner of the Alhambra and inventor of the mirror cinema screen. After his son’s death, he and his wife gifted $40,000 to the city for the creation of an outdoor pool. The Art Deco bathhouse was designed by D.A. Bohlen and was maintained by the American Legion until 1955, when the Shelbyville Parks and Recreation Department became the supervisors. The pool closed in 1998.
Linden Tree
The Site of the old Linden Tree The linden (basswood) tree once located here was the source of a local legend concerning a Native American tribal chief who lost his seven sons to an invading tribe. Chief Mopiti, the legend goes, would use leaves from a great linden tree that stood outside of his home to brew teas. After the warring tribe left, lightning struck and destroyed this tree. When he returned to the ruins of his home years later, seven shoots were growing from the base of the fallen tree. This was taken as a sign from the Great Spirit that his sons were returned to him as the linden tree that once stood in this spot. The location has served as an early settler’s home, a stagecoach stop, and in 1949, Stone-Fish Chevrolet, who’s motto was “Trade in the shade of the Old Linden Tree.” The location later became Shelby Tire and Auto Care.
Bears of Blue River
Bears of Blue River StatueCompleted and dedicated in 1929, the Bears of Blue River statue was designed and sculpted by Mary Elizabeth Stout after the city was willed $2,000 from Alice Shaw Major. The statue depicts the fictional character Balser Brent from the book The Bears of Blue River, which was written by Charles Major, Alice’s husband. As Stout was living in Paris while making the statue, a French boy served as a model for Balser. It originally stood at Charles Major School on East Franklin Street and was moved to Public Square in 1980.
Alhambra Theatre
Alhambra TheatreThe Alhambra Theatre opened January 1913 and was owned and operated by Frank Rembusch. While the first floor of the theatre was designed specifically for exhibition pictures, the second floor housed the offices for the Mirror Screen Company (also known as the Rembusch Screen Co. and the Motion Picture Screen Co.) which created the first mirror screen. The screen was distributed globally and greatly improved the clarity and quality of the film. Rembusch would later go on to be the president of Motion Picture Congress of America, a group that represented independent film exhibitors and fought against block bookings and rental rates offered by the major producing companies. Rembusch also donated one of the first motion picture projectors used in Indiana to the Smithsonian Institute.
Grover Museum
Grover MuseumIn 1978, Lena Firn Grover willed her and her late husband Louis Grover’s farm to the Shelby County Historical Society, which sold it on November 12, 1979. This money allowed the SCHS to make a bid for the then-defunct B.P.O.E. Lodge on December 17, 1979. On January 10, 1980, the bid was approved and in 1981, the SCHS opened the Grover Museum, named for the late donors. Though the museum opened in 1981, the SCHS was created in 1922 by the social group Club of Clubs.
Strand Theatre
Strand TheatreThe Strand Theater is the oldest operating theater in Shelby County. Construction was started in 1915 and in March, 1916, owner William C. Meloy opened the theatre. The building originally had 800 seats, and showed movies, vaudeville acts, and had an orchestra pit of six to eight musicians. In 1928, the movie began showing “talkies.” Mainstreet Shelbyville took ownership of the building in 2004, after the theatre underwent multiple owners and changes, including the inclusion of two additional movie screens and a named change to Strand Cinema 3. In 2008, ownership was transferred to the Strand Theatre of Shelbyville, Inc., and after renovations were made, the Strand reopened, and the non-profit group continues operating the theatre today.
Shelby County Court House
Shelby County CourthouseBuilt in 1936-1937, the Shelby County Courthouse was constructed partly from funds from the Public Works Administration. The Art-Deco style limestone building originally housed the commissioner’s court, offices for the county treasurer, auditor, assessor, and recorder on the first floor, and the courtrooms and offices for the county clerk and county surveyor on the second floor. The partial third floor housed jury rooms and offices, and the basement contained the record storage vaults and record offices were. The construction cost of the building was $238,868, with the total project cost coming to $253,584. This courthouse is the third courthouse in Shelby County, with the first one built on Public Square and the second courthouse at the current courthouse’s location, with it being built in 1852 and remodeled in 1878.
Sheriff Albert McKorckle
On this spot: Sheriff Albert McCorkle shotOn Saturday, Oct. 9, 1880, Sheriff Albert McCorkle was shot while responding to a riot that began at Hardebeck’s Saloon, at 201 S. Harrison St., on the southwest corner of Harrison and Broadway streets. The riot began when brothers Ed and Gib Kennedy made political remarks which angered some of the saloon’s patrons. McCorkle took the two boys out of the bar as the situation escalated. After leaving Ed Kennedy with someone to escort him home, he began heading north on Broadway Street. The crowd, however, crossed Harrison Street and went after the boy. McCorkle turned back to the boy. The boy, who had panicked during the event, fired his pistol, striking McCorkle. The sheriff was taken to the Flaitz building, on the northeast corner, at 118 S. Harrison St., and later to his home, where he died the next morning.
Public Square/Julius Joseph Fountain
Public SquareLaid out in 1823, the Public Square has long been a gathering place for businesspersons, elected officials and community members. Some of the earliest fixtures on the Square were a jail, 1823-1831; an estray pound, 1823-1833; the first courthouse, 1830-1854; and the courthouse annex, 1845-1854. Additionally, the early Square housed a public well, added in 1828, and a market house, added in 1835. By the 1860s, Public Square began taking on its current form, with most of the area being boxed in by two- and three-story buildings. Drinking fountains in the shape of decorative lion’s mouths were in each of the Square’s corners, and the center was used as both a road and a gathering place. In 1900, the area remained an open stretch, but soon gave way to the interurban line running through Harrison Street. Around 1906, the Square was paved, and in 1923, the Julius Joseph Fountain was installed. Parking spaces were situated around the Square next to the sidewalks once automobiles were in use, and traffic went counterclockwise around the Square, as well as through the Square next to the fountain. The interurban line was uninstalled in the 1930s, and in 1946, the center of the Square was closed to traffic and became a parking area. The Bears of Blue River statue was moved to Public Square in 1980, and an improvement project that saw the placement of brick sidewalks, planters for shrubs and flowers, ornamental trees and flowers on the four corners, and black wrought-iron benches was completed.Julius Joseph FountainErected in 1923, the Julius Joseph Fountain was erected through a gift of $5,000 from Julius Joseph. Joseph had immigrated from Germany at an early age and settled in Cincinnati with his brother Jonas. The pair moved to Shelbyville in 1877 and founded a men’s clothing store before moving onto the furniture business, particularly the Hodell Furniture Company. Following his death in 1921, the City Council accepted his gift, and in 1929, shrubbery and later flower beds and flowers were planted around the base of the fountain. The fountain was removed in 1951 but was restored in 1980.
Blessing/Deprez Building
Blessing Opera Hall/ DePrez Hardware StoreErected by John Blessing in 1869, the building housed his hardware store on the first floor and an opera hall on the second floor. In April 1870, black citizens celebrated the adoption of the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution at the opera hall with a program and a lecture that night, following a parade earlier in the day. In 1880, Blessing’s Hardware became the Doble and DePrez Hardware Company, and in 1885, the building became the location for J.G. DePrez Company Hardware. The company continued operating there for the next hundred years, closing in 1986.
Former Ray Hotel/Shelby Hotel
Ray HouseCompleted in 1857, the Ray House was a hotel built by Martin M. Ray, the nephew of Indiana Governor John B. Ray and the father of Shelby Democrat owner and publisher W. Scott Ray. The four-story structure used bricks from the original courthouse and annex that stood on Public Square. The building was razed in1959.
Former Republican Office/Newspaper
Shelby Republican Newspaper The Shelbyville Republican began as a weekly newspaper that started in 1866, with J.M. Cumback serving as the newspaper’s first editor. Although the publication was not initially located at 18 N. Harrison, the newspaper was transferred to the Shelbyville Printing Company in 1884 and around then took up residence at this location. The newspaper was purchased by John Day DePrez in 1938, and was combined with the Shelbyville Democrat in 1947 to make The Shelbyville News.
Home of Thomas Hendricks (Currently SCUFFY)
Home of Thomas HendricksThomas A Hendricks was a member of the Indiana legislature, a delegate to the Second Constitutional Convention in 1850-1851; an Indiana Congressman from 1851- 1855; a United States Senator from 1863-1869; the governor of Indiana from 1873-1877; and Vice-President of the United States in 1885. He lived in this home from 1848-1855.
Trailhead of Shelbyville
The City of ShelbyvilleThe county seat of Shelby County and named after Isaac Shelby, the first governor of Kentucky, Shelbyville was platted in 1822. The land that became Shelbyville was originally owned by John Hendricks, John Walker, and James Davison, who had donated 70 acres for the purpose of making a county seat. The land, which was dense forests, was cleared, and in 1823, the Public Square was laid out.During the late 1800s and early 1900s, the city became a leading producer of furniture. It has been called home by Sandy Allen, who was once the tallest living female in the world; Edna Parker, who was the oldest living person in the world at the age of 115; Charles Major, author of “Bears of Blue River” and “When Knighthood was in Flower”’; Wilbur Shaw, a three-time Indianapolis 500 winner; James Pierce, the fourth actor to portray Tarzan on film; Victor Higgins, a painter; Thomas Hendricks, the 21st Vice President of the United States; James “Bucky” Barnes, a fiction character from Marvel Comics and sidekick to Captain America; and William Garrett, the first African-American basketball player in the Big Ten Conference for Indiana University.
