This afternoon I went downtown to our museum to watch an IMAX film on Jerusalem. I’ve only visited the museum once since I moved here. It was shortly after I moved and I wasn’t enthralled with my new home. The museum visit did nothing to endear itself to me and I haven’t been back. But in the years since then I’ve grown to love Indy – I’ve gotten to know some aspects of its history and I have a desire to learn more. So I might be giving the museum another chance. The IMAX film was very good and as the audience exited, our route took us by the gift store. I saw a display of minerals for sale and wandered in, then browsed around until a book with a great big clock on the cover caught my eye. Entranced, I immediately went to investigate and it turned out to be a history of L.S. Aryes Department Store. I knew nothing of this. Apparently from 1905 until 1992, this downtown department store was one of the best known and largest stores in the Midwest. The clock hung over the entrance to the store. It was 8 floors of shopping goodness in this amazing old building with crystal chandeliers and fine carpets! It was known for its Tea Room which served meals to its customers for decades – apparently chicken pot pie was a favorite. Ayres was one of the first businesses to establish discount stores. They had a bargain basement, and during the 30s and 40s the bargain basement brought in more profit than all the other departments together. They had branch stores throughout the Midwest, but the flagship location remained the grandest. It must have been something to see in its heyday.
I left the store and went to visit another display that had caught my attention because it had festive garlands strung up and I thought it might be a Christmas scene. It was. In fact, it was the window display that Ayres had made for 1983 Christmas season. The display itself was the outsides of Ayres in the 1920s and features animated figurines looking at the bright shopping windows and strolling the streets. They even had the clock. It was really neat to see a display that was actually part of the store and that showed what it might have looked like way back.
I must say that I am now thoroughly enchanted with this store and would love to read the book on its history. I did briefly read about it on Wikipedia and found the address where it used to be. So on the way home, I drove by to see what it looks like now. Still a grand, beautiful building, it now houses a Carson’s and is adjacent to our downtown Circle Center Mall. And yep, that clock is still there.
I also learned from Wikipedia that a replica of the Tea House is on display at the Indiana State Museum. That settles it, I’m going back.
Blessings to you,
Sarah
anordinarymiracleday 
Sounds like you had a nice day. Before we moved to Texas in 1983, we lived in Batesville, 65 miles south of Indpls on I-74. My dentist, and some eating places, were in your town, and of course, we took the kids to Conner’s Prairie a timeor two. I hope you’re able to stay warm as the cold wintry weather “does its thing.” It is nice to have a fireplaceto use on occasion here, but most days, we just rely upon our central heating. Most mornings, I am tutoring one granddaughter, via SKYPE, in English and math, and later this week,Paul and I plan to travel to Joel’s home in GA so we can help another granddaughter celebrate her 3rdbirthday. We’ll have to do a return trip next month because Joel’s youngest will turn one in February. Theone I tutor will turn 13 in Feb also, but she and her sister live in San Jose, CR, so we won’t be going there for a while. We did spend over three weeks there last fall when Krista was receiving her certification forher masters degree in Biblical counseling at Masters Seminary in CA. For about ten days, we were the”substitute parents” until Krista and her husband returned. I began my tutoring while down there and havecontinued ever since. I intend to keep writing, but I’m afraid I rushed the last one a bit because we’re finding typos! I will pull itoff the market as soon as I’m ready to correct the errors. I guess we were too rushed to have another setof eyes go over it, and as an author, it’s too easy to think what I wrote was what I thought…. I really dislikehaving errors so it bugs me to have copies out there with mistakes. Hopefully, I’ll still get them corrected yetthis week before we leave. Okay, time to do some lesson planning again, but just read your note. You are a disciplined writer and you find interesting topics to write about in a creative way. Later… Margery Kisby Warder, Author/Speaker Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Margery-Kisby-Warder/e/B00GPELE7I/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marge.warder.1
From: anordinarymiracleday To: mawarder@yahoo.com Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2015 9:39 PM Subject: [New post] Gift #759: Surprise at a museum #yiv7934538639 a:hover {color:red;}#yiv7934538639 a {text-decoration:none;color:#0088cc;}#yiv7934538639 a.yiv7934538639primaryactionlink:link, #yiv7934538639 a.yiv7934538639primaryactionlink:visited {background-color:#2585B2;color:#fff;}#yiv7934538639 a.yiv7934538639primaryactionlink:hover, #yiv7934538639 a.yiv7934538639primaryactionlink:active {background-color:#11729E;color:#fff;}#yiv7934538639 WordPress.com | ordinarymiracletoday posted: “This afternoon I went downtown to our museum to watch an IMAX film on Jerusalem. I’ve only visited the museum once since I moved here. It was shortly after I moved and I wasn’t enthralled with my new home. The museum visit did nothing to endear itself ” | |