Photo and Story - 600 block E Broadway

 

Left in this photo (1910) is the Logansport/Cass County Public Library, 616 E. Broadway, next in the photo is the Roosevelt building, 7th Street intersects, then the Baptist Church (before the church's new structure). At right, notice the "Auto-Inn Buick" signage. This building was the former roller-skating rink building, which was torn down. On the roller rink property, the current Logansport City Government building was built. 

Ad from Logansport Reporter April 9, 1910

What follows are modern photos of the area. And if you care to scroll down further, you will find more historical photos and information about the area.

616 E. Broadway Logansport Cass Public Library, Logansport, Indiana.

Photo Google Maps

Library, parking lot where the Roosevelt building once stood, 7th St. intersects, Baptist Church.

Photo Google Maps

A little wider angle of above photos - Google Maps - 

Auto Inn would have been at the right in this image, across the 

street from the Library.

I want to draw attention to the building that housed Auto Inn in the 1910 photo at the top of the page, mainly because that building was gone by the mid 19-teens - in 1924 ground was broken on that site to build the Logansport City Government Building - and the history is rather interesting.

Before Auto Inn was housed in this building, it was used for gatherings, political meetings, and entertainment events, much like a community center of today is used. It was also the city's roller-skating rink, beginning in the late 1800s when roller skating became very popular.

SKATING RINK

Above: Members of the Logansport Fire Dept. pose in front of the skating rink

building. The fire station was next door to the west of the skating rink.  

Source: City Directories and Will Ball "This Changing World" columns.

Notice the Skating Rink roof at left. This photo was taken in 1898.

The city was welcoming home the soldiers from the Spanish-American War.

Looking west on E. Broadway the McCaffrey building at right; 600 E. Broadway 

(later Barton's and now Taqueria El Puesto), 6th Street intersects, then the

Keystone building at 530 E. Broadway and on and on.

There was a dirt lot south of the skating rink building. Buggies and wagons were parked there. And as the automobile became more popular such dirt "parking lots" became way less popular, with the dust and flies drawn to the horses and horse droppings.

In 1907 M. A. Cline bought the building.

AUTO INN

In 1909 Orpha Carter and Harry Moore bought the building.

October 31, 1909 Logansport Daily Tribune, page 5

May 11, 1910 Logansport Reporter page 8

As mentioned earlier, the building was eventually removed, the debris cleared away, and the beautiful new Logansport City Building was built. Before then the city government was conducted out of a building at 3rd and E. Broadway - a story for another time.

Photos: courtesy Cass County Historical Society, Info/history sources: Logansport newspapers, articles from "This Changing World" news columns by Will Ball (deceased)

HOLD-UPS, GUN BATTLES, AND SHOOT OUTS

 

SHOOTOUT....The year 1899 saw a shoot-out at "Kenneth" which was the name of a small community near to modern-day France Park in Cass County, Indiana, about 6.5 miles west of Logansport. This was a limestone mining quarry back in the day and most of the people who lived in the little village of Kenneth worked at the quarry. Many residents were Italian immigrants. A large, outdoor community oven for baking bread remains in the park to this day, a reminder of the local historical significance of the area.

 

On a Saturday night in April of 1899 Henry Price, a driller for the limestone operation in the quarry at Kenneth, shot a man named Jones three times with a .38 caliber revolver.

 

Price had fired Jones from his job at the quarry after a heated argument. An angered Jones, along with an unnamed accomplice laid in waiting for Price to pick up his laundry. All three men were armed.

 

None of the shots were fatal. One of the shots knocked a gun out of Jones’ hand. One hit him in the chest and the third struck Jones in the leg. Price fired another shot, which knocked the hat off of the accomplice.

 

The unnamed accomplice was said to be a desperate man. He was warned not to return to Kenneth. However, at 3 o’clock that same day the man procured two good revolvers and headed back.

 

The fear was that someone would probably be killed. However, it was reported the next day that Jones escaped arrest by leaving Kenneth without confronting Price a second time. Price swore out an affidavit in court for Jones. Constables Smith and Surface (no first names or initials given in the newspaper account) went to Kenneth, both “armed to the teeth”, but failed to find hm after a search of the vicinity. They suspected that Jones was hiding in the woods.

 

Two days later the limestone company discharged Henry Price, recommending that he leave the area for his own safety, which he did.

 (Source: Logansport Pharos Tribune)

Above: 1800s Indiana stone quarry workers

A 1922 GUN BATTLE

In Logansport, Indiana, in 1922, the Scagnoli grocery store was located at 1234 Woodlawn Avenue. The owner was Giuseppe Scagnoli and this address was also the Scagnoli family home, which was often the case in small grocery stores of yesteryear. 

On the evening of February 13, at about 7:30, a man wearing a ski hat, but no face covering entered the store and, pointing a gun, demanded Giuseppe put up his hands. Rather than comply, Giuseppe ran to the back of the building - to his living quarters - and grabbed a gun of his own.

Through a crack in the door Giuseppe could see the gunman was rifling through the cash register so he fired shots at him through that crack. The gunman returned fire; each shooting four or five times.

One of the bullets shattered the front window and other parts of the building were marked up. A scale directly in line with the robber at the cash register was hit by one of the bullets fired by Giuseppe.

A neighbor across the street later told police that he heard shots then saw the robber walk from the store, picking up a burlap sack from a barrel at the front of the store. Why he did this, police weren't sure, but Giuseppe believed that one of his bullets hit the bandit. The man got away with about $5 from the cash register.

It was considered miraculous that neither man was badly injured.

The newspaper story the next day started with this sentence "The Scagnoli store today presents a battle scarred appearance as a result of a gun battle between the proprietor and a hold up man".

 

Above is a 1920s Ad-  Scagnoli Grocery among the list of stores