Dorothy Jerse looks back at local history from 10, 25 and 50 years ago as reported in the Tribune and Tribune-Star.
1999
• Terre Haute Police Chief Joe Newport was leaving the department after serving 23 years to become associate director of Indiana State University public safety.
• Swope Art Museum was closed for reinstallation of the new first floor galleries, a part of the museum plan “to remove, revamp and reinstall.”
• The Sinfonietta, Terre Haute’s symphonic pops orchestra, marked its 10th anniversary with a concert titled “Shall We Dance” at the Scottish Rite Cathedral. Earl R. Melendy was the conductor.
• Jean Kristeller, Indiana State University professor of psychology, said, “The patterns of Internet addiction were similar to other compulsive habits, such as overeating and excessive gambling.”
• Sister Theresa Boland reported enrollment had increased 33.5 percent since 1990 at St. Patrick’s School in Terre Haute.
• Terre Haute South Vigo and Northview combined to outscore West Vigo and host Terre Haute North Vigo, 57-49, at the high school boys basketball jamboree.
• Old National Bank was constructing a new financial center at Fort Harrison Road and Lafayette Avenue with Deanna Sutton as manager and Ted Kraly as mortgage loan officer.
1984
• Tim Fortune and Rick Stephens announced they would be opening a business offering gasoline, convenience foods and an in-house bakery with drive-up service on the southwest corner of 13th and Locust streets before the end of the year.
• The 60th annual Tribune-Star Christmas Basket Fund opened with a $19,000 goal. Six hundred families, screened by the Salvation Army, had received baskets the year before.
• Santa Claus arrived three times in Terre Haute — by fire truck, motorcycle sidecar and sleigh. Thursday found him at the Hills Department Stores at Plaza North and Riverside Plaza, Friday at The Meadows and Honey Creek Square, and Saturday again at North Plaza.
• The Vigo County Historical Society celebrated the opening of three new display rooms — a dressmaker’s shop sponsored by the German Oberlandler Club as a tribute to the German heritage of the Wabash Valley, a Victorian bathroom funded by the Friends of the Museum, and a 1900 school room decorated with paper holiday ornaments made by Terre Town Elementary School students. Georgia Jones was the executive director.
1959
• The Christmas season officially arrived in Terre Haute with the annual Christmas parade of 17 units, including nine decorated floats, five bands and the arrival of Santa Claus.
• E. J. Rogers & Co., a jewelry store, was celebrating the completion of its remodeling project. Its building at Sixth Street and Wabash Avenue had been reduced from “an antiquated three-story structure to an up-to-date single story building as part of the downtown rehabilitation program.”
• Mother Agnes of Jesus and six Sisters left their monastery in Terre Haute to found the new Carmelite Monastery in Des Plaines, Ill. Mother Agnes had come to Terre Haute to establish the local monastery 12 years before.
• John A. Templeton, local insurance man, was elected president of the Indiana Association of Insurance Agents at the association’s 61st annual convention in Indianapolis. He was the youngest president ever to serve the state organization.
• The Elks Lodge stages its annual “Turkey Trot” Thanksgiving dance in the City Club ballroom for Elks and their out-of-county guests.
