No Buildings Empty on the Square as City, Businesses Invest Millions in Downtown Redevelopment
No vacancies.
That’s the way it is for business buildings on the public square in Marion.
And that’s the way it is despite the opening of a new shopping center in Marion.
Merchants have spent more than $1 million for improvements in the downtown area, according to Milt Witt, Executive Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce. Continue reading
I-57 is Biggest of Marion’s Assets
“Interstate Rt. 57 is the biggest asset ever to come to Marion.”
Banker Oscar Schafale’s opinion is shared by others.
Franklyn Moreno, Greater Egypt Regional Planning and Development Commission, said I-57 with its connections to Interstate Rts. 24 and 64 and a proposed Southern Illinois freeway to St. Louis make “everything coming at Marion. It enhances it as being a central location.” Continue reading
Sale of Roland Building Stirs Memories of Theater’s Heyday
The news that the Roland Theater building had been sold recently stirred a lot of memories in the minds of the older Marion citizens, for that was the place the fellows took their girls and where pa took ma and ma took the kids.
C.F. Roland built the theater and named it for himself in 1906. Activities, however, really started one day when a man, his wife and small son came to town to play an engagement in the old Opera House. Continue reading
In November of 1950, the old Illinois Central train depot in the 500 block of N. Market Street got temporarily repurposed and was occupied as a grocery store for twenty years. Upon its original opening it was called Daniel’s Super Market, 514 N. Market St., and drew over 2,000 people who made purchases in the store. During the opening the store gave away 2,500 orchids to women who visited the store. Continue reading
Remember the days when glass bottles of milk were delivered each morning outside your door by a horse-drawn milk wagon? This was pre-depression days. The glass bottle had a little cardboard cap that kept the milk from spilling out. The bottle was returnable to the Marion City Dairy when empty with a note left in the bottle informing the delivery man how many bottles of milk you wanted. Continue reading