Bass Building Demolition

We've previously blogged about the George W. Bass Building, which was irreparably damaged by a tornado on April 8, 2020.  While walking through downtown Mooresville over my lunch break, I noticed that the structure is in the process of being demolished.

Bass Building Demolition Under Way (September 22, 2022)

(Click Photos to Enlarge)

(Photos by William R. Buckley)

 

It has been two-and-a-half years since the building collapsed, and although Mooresville citizens are undoubtedly pleased that the ruins are finally being removed, we are also saddened that another piece of local history is being carted away.  Since the structure couldn't be salvaged, however, removal was the only sensible recourse.

We've heard on the town grapevine that a parking lot will be constructed on the Bass site.  While that's beneficial for downtown businesses and customers, it seems a rather pedestrian use of the land.  But nobody asked my opinion, so I'll just sit quietly in an out-of-the-way corner someplace.

You can read all of our previous blog posts about the Bass Building here.

Farewell, Bass Building.  You gave us 130 years of wonderful history.  George W. Bass, wherever you are, would be proud of that.

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 29, 2022:   A week after taking the photos above, I returned downtown to shoot some additional photos showing the progress of the demolition.  The concrete structure in the middle of the rubble was the Citizens Bank vault when the bank was located here (1931-1966).  Click the images to enlarge.

UPDATE OCTOBER 15, 2022:  The Bass Building is gone.  These photos (below) were taken on Friday, October 14, 2022.  Since it appears that grass seed has been planted (note straw covering), perhaps the land will now be used as a tiny park space, rather than as a parking lot as rumors previously reported.  An outdoor eating area would be nice.

"Utter Devastation Everywhere You Looked"

 

Just published (this past May), The 1965 Palm Sunday Tornadoes in Indiana by Janis Thornton (Charleston, S.C.:  The History Press, 2022) features eyewitness and published accounts, photographs, and official weather reports and records detailing the appalling destruction that claimed some 137 Hoosier lives on April 11, 1965.  If you or your family or friends experienced this horror, this book will stir poignant memories.  It certainly did for me.

 

 MPL Book Trailer 813

I was an eyewitness to some of the devastation, although my immediate family was spared.  I was nearly seven years old the night of the terrible thunderstorms.  About 20 miles south of my hometown, Lafayette, tornadoes tore through the tiny farming community of Odell, where my parents later owned farmland that had been struck by the twisters.  We lived on the south side of Lafayette.   Around 7 p.m. golfball-sized hail struck our house, denting our siding.  Tornado warnings were issued on the radio, so my family fled to our basement, huddling in a corner next to the furnace.  We were fortunate not to have been in the tornadoes' paths, but several extended family members in Howard County were not so lucky.  The tornadoes passed directly through their farms and neighborhoods.

As news of the ravaged communities came in across radio and television, we repeatedly attempted to contact my paternal grandparents, who lived southeast of Greentown where tornadoes had been reported to have tracked.  The telephone lines were down, so the next day we decided to drive our 1963 Dodge motor home to my grandparents' home in case it had been reduced to rubble.

We drove east on State Road 26, encountering a trail of damaged homes and businesses in Rossville and Middlefork.  When we reached Russiaville, the Indiana State Police and the Indiana National Guard had setup roadblocks to  detour vehicular traffic.  Seeing our red-and-white bus suggested that we must have been from the Red Cross, so police and soldiers opened their barracades to allow our vehicle to pass.

As we drove through Russiaville, houses and buildings had been wiped off the face of the earth.  In many cases, nothing was left but foundations or concrete slabs.  Debris was littered everywhere, making it difficult to navigate through town along the roads.  It looked like a war zone.  It was utter devastation everywhere you looked.  The memory of this absolute annihilation has stayed with me for nearly sixty years.

Driving through Kokomo, we checked with an aunt and uncle (and cousins) who lived just west of town.  Their house had had minor damage, and fortunately no one was hurt.  So we proceeded east to Greentown, my father's hometown.  The area south of town was a checkerboard of destruction.  Some homes and businesses were only mildly affected; others were absolutely obliterated.  Eastern High School was ripped apart.

Driving down my grandparents' county road just east of Greentown was a nightmare.  Almost every house or barn was mutilated, and many were simply blown to smithereens.  The house about 200 feet north of my grandparents' farm was so heavily damaged that it was unrecognizable.  My grandparents' home, however, lost only three shingles, and their barn and outbuildings were more or less untouched.  The arbitrariness of the injury seemed capricious, even to my nearly seven-year-old sensibilities.  So many had lost so much.  It was heartwrenching, but I was nonetheless overjoyed that my grandparents had been spared.

Janis Thornton has assembled an impressive collection of stories about this fateful day when so many suffered such unthinkable loss.  We can, however, take this positive message from the events of Palm Sunday 1965:  people came together to help their neighbors, and communities rebuilt and unified, sharing each others' strength.  For those who weren't there, it will be a riveting read; for those who lived it, the book is a testament to the best people have to offer in times of crisis, and it honors the dead, injured, and affected families by preserving an important historical event.  Terrible things can happen in life, but it is reassuring that helping hands arrive when the need is greatest to aid in the recovery.

A 130-Year-Old Landmark in Downtown Mooresville

One of the many tragedies of the tornado that devastated downtown Mooresville, Indiana on April 8, 2020, was the second-story collapse of the Bass Building, constructed circa 1890 on the southeast corner of the intersection of Main and Indiana Streets. (Click images to enlarge.)

The Bass Building at 3 East Main Street
after the 4/8/2020 tornado
(photograph © 2020 by Andy Hendricks)

Structural Support to the Bass Building (July 2020)

(photograph & video by William R. Buckley)

George W. Bass (1842-1924) was a Civil War veteran who moved to Mooresville in 1878. Around 1880 Bass built a single-story, wood-frame building to house his drugstore. We have a photo from about the time Bass opened for business. which shows the original structure, which was "a one-story, Greek Revival, gable-front frame building with Doric columns supporting a portico over the sidewalk," according to architectural historian Joanne Raetz Stuttgen.

(Circa 1880 photograph by J. P. Calvert,
donated to Mooresville Public Library
by Bonita Marley, October 23, 1968)

  (Circa 1885 photograph by J. P. Calvert showing East Main Street--Bass Drugstore is on the right)

 

 George W. Bass' house in Mooresville

(circa 1880 photograph by J. P. Calvert)

Around 1890, George Bass decided to upgrade his wooden structure, replacing it with a two-story brick building that has served the community for 130 years.  It was one of the oldest structures in downtown Mooresville.

The South side of East Main Street in downtown Mooresville

(Bass Drugstore is on the corner) 
(circa 1910 postcard photograph by J. P. Calvert)

1931 Photograph shows the Bass Building (far right)

when it housed Citizens Bank

(courtesy of Citizens Bank)

The Bass Building as it appeared in October 2007

(Photograph by William R. Buckley)

Compare the 1885 picture (below) with the 1920 picture (further below) to see the difference between the single-story and two-story buildings.  Both photos were taken from atop the Methodist Episcopal (M.E.) Church steeple, facing north.  Local photographers J. P. Calvert and Manley Brown took the 1885 and 1920 photos, respectively.

(1885 J. P. Calvert photograph courtesy of the
 Mooresville Times, August 8, 1974)

(Photograph by Manly Brown, 1920)

Let's add a couple of arrows to make the comparison easier.

The second floor consisted of a stage and large meeting room, which was used for town hall meetings, plays and musicals.  It was commonly called the "Mooresville opera house" around the turn of the 20th century.

The basement was the location for many businesses, including a barbershop (1890s-1920), and, most recently, a video store (2000s).

The first floor of the building was divided into two halves, which housed:

• West half:
• Bass Drugstore (1890-1920)
• First National Bank (1920-1927)
• Mooresville State Bank (1927-1930)
•  East half:
• Burch Grocery (1890s-1920)
• George Allison's Grocery (1920-1927)

 

Burch Grocery occupied the east half of

the Bass Building.  Burch used horse-drawn wagons

to delivery groceries
(circa 1908 photograph by J. P. Calvert)

Burch sold out to George Allison in 1920.

Allison operated his grocery there until 1927,

when he moved to South Indiana Street

(circa 1920 photography by Manley Brown)

Interior of George Allison's grocery

(George is standing on the right)

in the east half of the Bass Building

(early 1920s photograph)
 

In 1931, the separating wall was removed, allowing the entire first floor to be used by Citizens Bank, which operated in the Bass Building until 1966, when it was replaced by a clothing store (into the 1970s).

1931 Photograph shows the Bass Building (far right)

when it housed Citizens Bank

(courtesy of Citizens Bank)

(Below) Advertisements from the 1955-1968

Wagon Trails, Mooresville High School's yearbook

Those last three advertisements show Citizens Bank at its current location on the east side of North Indiana Street downtown.

The Bass Building has been an important part of Mooresville history for well over a century.  Restoration was not possible, but at least we can honor its place in our hometown community story.

UPDATE FALL 2022:  The Bass Building was demolished in September and October, 2022.  Learn more from this blog post.