Style Selector
Layout Style
Boxed Background Patterns
Boxed Background Images
Color Scheme
Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10am to 4pmJoin & Give

Taco Takeover

Tales of the H-T: blog posts taken from or inspired by The Herald-Times archive at the Monroe County History Center. Blog post by Rod Spaw Three of the most successful college basketball coaches in the nation got together in Bloomington for a few days in early 1996, but the purpose was only indirectly related to

March Is For Magic and Memories

Tales of the H-T: blog posts taken from or inspired by The Herald-Times archive at the Monroe County History Center. Blog by Rod Spaw.   March is a special month for fans of Indiana University basketball, a time of magic, memories, and championships. This year, Hoosiers will be watching both the men’s and women’s tournaments closely,

Elvis and the Student Power Movement at Indiana University

Tales of the H-T: blog posts taken from or inspired by The Herald-Times archive at the Monroe County History Center. By Rod Spaw. For much of the 1960s, Indiana University could boast of having its very own Elvis, but about the only thing IU’s Elvis had in common with the King of Rock ‘N’ Roll was

Happy Birthday, Joshua Bell

Tales of the H-T – stories taken from or inspired by the Herald-Times Archive at the Monroe County History Center. Article by Rod Spaw. Monroe County residents of a certain age feel really old: Joshua Bell just turned 55. Yes, the violinist extraordinaire who grew up in Bloomington now is eligible for a whole bunch of

Election Central

Tales of the H-T: blog posts taken from or inspired by The Herald-Times archive at the Monroe County History Center Blog post by Rod Spaw   Election night is a special time to be around a newspaper office. It’s sort of like Christmas Eve in Santa’s workshop; weeks of careful planning and preparation come down

Server Success at Boxman’s and Groves Restaurant

Blog post by Assistant Curator, Gabby Krieble. Be sure to stop by the History Center to see the “Order Up! Restaurants of Monroe County” exhibit before it closes on November 5. Many mid-century American sit-down restaurants prided themselves on excellent service. Boxman’s and Groves Restaurant in Bloomington were no exception.             The photo above shows the

Looking Back on Old Bloomington

This is a newspaper article from the “Bloomington Daily Telephone” from December 16, 1929 by Blaine W. Bradfute. Four and five decades ago the boys of the north end of Bloomington found amusement at the Showers pond and the Hunter pond. How many people of today can recall the sites of these two ponds? The

Hail and Farewell

Tales of the H-T: Stories taken from or inspired by material in the Herald-Times archive at the Monroe County History Center. By Rod Spaw The image is surreal. The figure of a woman, blonde and tan, floats on a sea of bobbing heads against a green backdrop. She is wearing bikini bottoms and a white

Here are Harrowing Details of I.U’s First Football Game

Many students and alumni are looking forward to the start of the 2022 IU football season. Let’s hope they have a better start than the 1889 team. Below is an undated article about Old Bloomington found in a donated scrapbook. All photos are of early IU football teams. As soon as I.U. organized its first football

Irish Immigrants Valued Education

by Rose McIlveen March 22, 1986 For the Irish, the trauma of uprooting themselves from the old country may have been offset by the promise of a fresh start, but most of them who came to Monroe County did not leave the futures of their children to chance. Fully 64 percent of the Irish families

Newsboy a Witness to Wave of Terror in Monroe County

Blog post by Rod Spaw Tales of the H-T: stories taken from or inspired by the archives of The Herald-Times at the Monroe County History Center. For more than 40 years, the limestone sculpture of a newsboy has graced a corner of the yard at the home of Chris Kohler and Sherry Rouse in Monroe

The PCB Display at the Public Library Didn’t Go As Planned…

Blog post by Rod Spaw Tales of the H-T: Stories taken from or inspired by the Herald-Times archive at the Monroe County History Center. A display intended to inform the public about an environmental hazard had unintended consequences for the Monroe County Public Library and its patrons in the summer of 1984. The issue was

Frontier Feud Played Out in “Post” Ads

by Rose McIlveen March 8 1988 Despite the august presence of the Indiana Seminary in Bloomington in the 1830s the town exhibited some of the rough characteristics of the frontier. One of the earliest cases on the court docket here was typical of the many slander and “affray” disputes. Seth Goodwin had been charged in 1818

Tales of the H-T: The One That Got Away

Stories taken from or inspired by the H-T Archives at the Monroe County History Center By Rod Spaw John Terhune can tell you a thing or two about The One that Got Away, but his is no fish story. It is a tale of the elusive moment, and what it takes to capture history, turning

Smithville Saloon Gets Rude Treatment

“Looking Back” by Rose McIlveen March 28, 1987 Monday, August 29, 1898, was not a run-of-the-mill kind of day in Smithville. That was when the locals awoke to discover that in the near future, at least, they would have father to go to to “wet their whistles.” Chirped the Bloomington Courier, “The people of Smithville have a