HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: Promise of terminal arcade raises property values
Rob Robbins
Mike McCormick Special to the Tribune-Star
On or about March 23, 1907, Hugh
J. McGowan, Randal Morgan and W. Kelsey Schoepf formed the Terre Haute,
Indianapolis & Eastern Traction Co. (THI&E) by consolidating four
existing interurban companies.
Two days later, THI&E acquired
the Terre Haute Traction and Light Co., which operated interurban lines from
Terre Haute south to Sullivan, north to Clinton and west to Paris, Ill. Electric
transmission facilities were part of the purchase.
Within weeks, the
Philadelphia-based syndicate — with $25 million of authorized common stock and
$10 million in bonds — had control, by lease or purchase, of 363 miles of
traction lines.
The company continued to grow, purchasing or leasing all
Indiana traction companies except the Union Traction Co. and interurban
companies serving Fort Wayne, Evansville and South Bend.
Terre Haute
needed an interurban station. Before the THI&E began constructing the
artistic new Terminal Arcade depot at 820 Wabash Ave. in early 1911 — 100 years
ago — land values nearby, and even several blocks away, began to
skyrocket.
A large portion of the proposed depot site had been occupied
by The Coliseum — first a venue that hosted professional roller polo and then a
vaudeville and burlesque theater — on the southeast corner of Eighth and Cherry
streets, and Jehu Lewis’ livery stable on the southwest corner of Ninth and
Cherry. Both were destroyed by fire in 1909.
Though property owners were
reluctant to reveal values as assessment time approached, an investigative
reporter for the Terre Haute Tribune was able to provide a few
examples.
Minnie McNeff’s Norwood Hotel at the northwest corner of Ninth
and Eagle streets was placed on the market in 1906 for $12,000 but it was not
sold. In 1911, the hotel quickly sold for $22,000 soon after it was placed on
the market.
David Ryder’s saloon, restaurant and pool room at 830-832
Wabash Ave., on the northwest corner of Ninth and Wabash, was purchased in 1891
for $6,000. Ryder accepted a $35,000 offer from Louisa Zimmerman in 1911 but the
sale could not be consummated because the improvements were in such poor
condition.
Herman Hulman owned 824 Wabash Ave., west of Ryder’s saloon,
and leased it to barber Joseph A. Mooter, who sublet space for a billiard room
and a news dealership.
Hulman bought the lot and improvements for $6,000
in 1901 and offered it to Mooter for $8,500. The barber rejected the offer but,
in 1911, could not find a similar place for less than $25,000. Hulman refused
$20,000 for the building in early 1911.
Across the street from the barber
shop, John Plain operated a saloon in a building that raised in value from
$9,000 in 1900 to $27,000 in 1911.
The value of the Cook, Black &
Hoffman Drug Co. building at the northwest corner of Eighth and Cherry streets
was so volatile that appraisers varied by as much as $50 a front
foot.
Charles Stuempfle and Leonhard Welte, owners of the Washington
Saloon which had occupied the corner of the Reiss Building on the northeast
corner of Eighth and Wabash since 1878, was paying $150 a month rental.
Stuempfle and Welte were unable to renew their lease for that price and risked
eviction by staying as a monthly tenant.
The established home of the
Reiman Lime & Cement Co. (formerly Reiman & Steeg Co.), the southeast
corner of Ninth and Wabash was known as “Reiman Corner.”
It was
well-known in the community that Ewald E. Reiman turned down an $80,000 offer
for the property and allegedly refused to hear any other bids.
The
building owned by August E. Eiser on the southwest corner of Ninth and Wabash,
was conservatively valued at $65,000. It housed Harry Randel’s Drug Store and
Eiser’s wholesale confectionary.
Speculation that the Chicago, Terre
Haute & Southeastern Railway, which acquired the assets of John R. Walsh’s
Southern Indiana Railroad, would erect a depot immediately south of Wabash
between the railroad and Ninth and One-Half St., affected values,
too.
Before the Southern Indiana Railroad was forced into receivership in
1908, Walsh announced his plan to build a large depot in the block south of
Wabash Ave., back of Germania Hall, with entrances facing the railroad and Ninth
and One-Half St.
On Jan. 18, 1908, a jury in the U.S. District Court in
Chicago found the popular 73-year old entrepreneur guilty on 54 counts of an
180-count indictment charging him with the misapplication of funds of the
Chicago National Bank, of which he was president.
The bank was closed by
order of the Comptroller of Currency on Dec. 18, 1905. The law imposed a penalty
of up to five years for each count. On March 20, he was sentenced to serve five
years at Leavenworth Penitentiary.
On Nov. 3, 1908, at a sale conducted
in Terre Haute, receiver Myron J. Carpenter sold all of the stock of the
Southern Indiana Railroad to co-trustees Michael Loller and Raymond Martin to
form the Chicago, Terre Haute & Southeastern Railway.
At the time of
the sale it was announced that general railroad offices would be maintained in
Chicago but that operating officials would reside in Terre Haute. Meanwhile, the
Commercial Club of Terre Haute was taking steps to encourage the relocation of
the railroad shops from Bedford to Terre Haute.
Efforts to reverse
Walsh’s convictions or secure a pardon from federal officials or executive
clemency from President William Howard Taft were unsuccessful. Walsh’s rapidly
failing health also became an issue.
On Oct. 14, 1911, he was granted a
parole.
Walsh did not enjoy his freedom long. He died at his Chicago
residence on Oct. 23, 1911.
The Chicago, Terre Haute & Southeastern
did not build its own depot in Terre Haute but continued to use Union Depot. It
became a part of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad in
1921.
~Catherine Pulsifer~