Terre Haute - A history and a guide

This is my history and guide to my adopted home - Terre Haute, Indiana.

Old Postcards - 34

More postcards from my collection...

Old Wagon Bridge, Terre Haute, Ind.

This postcard stamped in Farmersburg on July 7th, 1909, has the printed text...

Made expressly for S. H. Knox & Co.
Printed in Germany

Old Wagon Bridge, Terre Haute, Ind.

This postcard stamped on 6th January 1911, contains no other text apart from the number 8902.

The Old Wagon Bridge stood from 1864 to 1904 when a new bridge replaced it. It was constructed as a covered toll bridge by the Terre Haute Drawbridge Company and the drawbridge allowed the passage of steam boats. Terre Haute Drawbridge Company comprised of local citizens with the following officers and stockholders: William K. Edwards, President; J.O. Jones, secretary; and William R. McKeen, guardian for the heirs of James Johnson. Trustees were W.B. Warren, Levi G. Warren and George W. Bement. It was purchased by the county in 1874 for $80,000 and made free. One of the board of county commissioners, Joseph F. Fellenzer, was instrumental in this move. A sign read "Keep to the Right. One Dollar Fine for Riding or Driving Faster than a Walk Over This Bridge." The bridge had been gone for 7 years before this postcard was posted.

In 1904, it was replaced with a steel bridge designed by Malverd A. Howe of Rose Polytechnic Institute and James E. Starbuck of Vandalia railway engineering department in Terre Haute. This bridge cost about $192,000, but the total project cost $271,200. This figure included the removal of the old bridge and the building of a temporary one to be used while the steel one was being finished. The bridge opened in 1905. Eight-seven years later, history repeated itself when two two-lane bridges, the Theodore Dreiser bridge and the Paul Dresser bridge, were built to span the Wabash and replace the old steel bridge.

Terre Haute Airport, Paul Cox Field, Terre Haute, Ind.

This unused postcard also has the following text...

OA3710
Genuine Curteich-Chicago "C.T. American Art" Post Card (Reg. U.S. Pat. Off.)
Levin Brothers, Terre Haute, Ind.

Passenger and airmail services started from Dresser Field in 1928, the 168 acres were acquired for $82,175. It became the Municipal Airport in 1930 and was renamed Paul Cox Field in 1933. Cox was one of the first main promoters of the airfield but on June 23, 1932, Cox, aged 35, and 30-year-old passenger William Root were killed when Cox's private aircraft crashed at dusk in a field near Farmersburg. It was closed to air traffic in 1959 and the site is now part of Terre Haute South Vigo High School.

For more information see Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields

Pettyjohn Company, Terre Haute

This postcard, stamped in Terre Haute on May 29th, 1913, has the following text...

13986
Art Concrete Piazza
Executed by
The Pettyjohn Co.
Terre Haute,
Ind.

The Pettyjohn Company were concrete contractors as well as sellers of concrete blocks and mixers. They has premises on 6th Street.

United States Post Office, Terre Haute, Indiana

This postcard, stamped in Terre Haute on August 1st, 1908, has the following printed text...

Tom Jones, Cincinnati, O.

United States Post Office, Terre Haute, Indiana

This postcard, stamped in Terre Haute on 31st October 1911, has the following printed text...

12177
Published expressly for S. H. Knox & Co.
Made in U.S.A.

United States Post Office, Terre Haute, Indiana

This postcard, stamped in Terre Haute on 23rd October 1912, has the following printed text...

12177
The Model

This building stood on the corner of Seventh and Cherry Streets. In 1883, the government purchased the land from William Riley McKeen and work on the building began in 1884. A former mayor of Terre Haute, Benjamin F. Havens, was appointed building superintendent by president Grover Cleveland. The building was completed in 1887 and was the first local building to house both a post office and federal offices. On the east side of the building was a bronze marker that read "U.S. Geologic Survey - elevation above sea level, 513 feet." Work to demolish the building was begun on May 27th, 1932, by R. C. Goldman Wrecking Company. A new post office was constructed on the site in 1935 and in 1936, the columns, triangular entablatures and eagle sculptures from this building were used in the construction of the Chauncey Rose Memorial in Fairbanks Park.

United States Post Office and Court House, Terre Haute, Indiana

This unused, linen postcard has the following printed text...

1B-H866
Wabash Valley News Agency. Inc., Terre Haute, Ind.
Genuine Curteich-Chicago "C.T. Art-Colortone" Postcard (Reg & U.S. Pat. Off.)

United States Post Office, Terre Haute, Indiana

This used, linen postcard, stamped in Bradford on November 9th, 1940,  has the following printed text...

14796
Pub. by Levin Bros., Terre Haute, Ind. (EIF)

Designed by Miller and Yeager in the Art deco style the building opened in 1935 on the site of the old Post Office at Seventh and Cherry Streets. The post office operation was moved in 1997 to Margaret Drive. "The Signing of Magna Carta" by muralist Frederick Webb Ross on the second floor courtroom wall is a notable interior feature.

This page created 15th March 2008, last modified 2nd May 2008