Odd Fellows Buildings (1869-1989) Video

We have another episode of Mooresville Moments, a local history video series.  This installment explores the I.O.O.F. (Independent Order of Odd Fellows) buildings, which were located on the northeast corner of Main and Indiana Streets in downtown Mooresville.

Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) Buildings (1869-1989)

(Mooresville Moments #25)

by Mooresville Public Library

(click video box above to play)

There are always a few images or newspaper clippings that we don't use in the videos--it's a matter of viewing length and viewer attention spans--so we include those materials below.  (See also this blog post.)

Here's an advertisement for Warren Insurance Agency that appeared in the 1980 Mooresville High School yearbook, Wagon Trails (page 146).  Warren was the last business to be located in the first floor remnant of the second I.O.O.F. building, which was demolished in 1989.

 Click Images to Enlarge

The second I.O.O.F. building's demolition began in 1964, with the top floor being removed; the entire second floor was removed, leaving a first-floor "sliver" remaining, so that Citizens Bank could extend its new building's parking lot in 1965-66.  The article headline (below) declares the Odd Fellows building to be 105 years old (in 1964), but that's mistaken.  The second I.O.O.F. building (built 1881) was 83 years old in 1964.  Even if the reporter had been dating to the first I.O.O.F. building (built 1869, burned down in 1881), the age would only have been 95 years old.  The reporter's error arose from the I.O.O.F. capstone (dated 1859), which was installed atop the first Odd Fellows building in 1869, and subsequently placed upon the second Odd Fellows building in 1881.  The capstone commemorated the establishment of Mooresville's I.O.O.F. chapter (Morgan Lodge #211), which was founded on July 7, 1859.  The capstone was being removed during the 1964 upper-story dismantlement, and the reporter had incorrectly assumed that the capstone's 1859 date corresponded with the building's age.

 Mooresville Times

July 23, 1964

After the Odd Fellows capstone was removed in 1964, it was housed at Citizens Bank for a number of years. Some time later, it was kept at the Academy School Museum on North Monroe Street.  Since 2017, the capstone has been part of a wall in Mooresville Bicentennial Park (on the site of the Odd Fellows buildings).

 Mooresville-Decatur Times

October 21, 2017

Here's a 1962 aerial photo showing the Odd Fellows building (boxed in yellow):

East Main Street in Downtown Mooresville

1962 Mooresville High School

Wagon Trails Yearbook

Ernest L. Hadley had this stereo photograph (taken by local photographer J. P. Calvert) showing the fire damage to the first I.O.O.F. building (July, 1881):

 

Longtime Mooresville Historian Wanda Potts wrote about the fire in her 1999 newspaper column.

Mooresville Moments

Mooresville Times

June 23, 1999

  

Pleasant "Pleas" Mills' dry goods store is visible behind the Mooresville High School students celebrating their basketball team's victory over Monrovia High School on February 22, 1922 in the Main-Indiana Street intersection downtown.

 

 (Photo by local photographer Manley Brown)

The End of a Landmark (1881-1989)

On the northeast corner of the intersection of Main and Indiana Streets in downtown Mooresville, Indiana, which was the site of Samuel Moore's general store (1824-1869), was built the first Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) building (1869-1881).  Destroyed by fire in 1881, it was rapidly replaced by the second I.O.O.F. Building, which housed a variety of businesses and organizations over nearly a century, including the I.O.O.F. Morgan Lodge #211 (1869-1960s), Pleas Mills Dry Goods (1890s-1930s), Kroger Grocery (1940s), and Tompkins Jewelry (1950s).  The building's upper storeys were demolished in 1964, then Citizens Bank built its current structure and parking lots (in 1965-1966), but a portion of the first floor was salvaged and continued to host businesses until 1989, when the last of the second I.O.O.F. Building fell to demolition.

Thanks to Jack Broyer, we have photographs of I.O.O.F. Building #2's last day.  (All photos are dated April, 1989).

Warren Insurance was the final occupant of the remnant of the second I.O.O.F. Building.  The remaining structure was demolished in April, 1989.

A front end loader/backhoe brings down the last vestiges of I.O.O.F. Building #2.  Notice the businesses (in April 1989) across North Indiana Street in downtown Mooresville

Citizens Bank was (and still is) located immediately north of the demolished structure (on North Indiana Street in downtown Mooresville)

Note the dedication stone commemorating Samuel Moore's general store, which was the first wood-frame business in Mooresville and was situated at this location (1824-1859).  The stone remains at the site, which today is Hadley mini-park.

A surprisingly tall pile of rubble left by the demolished one-story remnant of the second I.O.O.F. Building



Looking south toward East Main Street in downtown Mooresville.  The building visible across the street was constructed in the 1890s by George W. Bass and was home to Citizens Bank from 1931 to 1966.

The MPL Indiana Room has some digitized materials (click the article below to enlarge) that summarize some of the history of the site.

To learn more about the history of Mooresville's I.O.O.F. chapter (Morgan Lodge #211, organized July 7, 1859), read pages 92-93 of  A Brief History of Mooresville, Indiana, 1824-1974, by Clara Sellars Richardson.