It’s Been 25 Years Since ANOTHER Big Retailer Vacated Towne Square North for Its Current Location

With the recent news that Hobby Lobby (and Tuesday Morning) will be pulling up stakes and moving out OF Towne Square North and out TO Gateway Commons, I thought it would be interesting to find out when ANOTHER retailer vacated that particular strip mall.

That other retailer, by the way, is a little ol' thing called Wal-Mart.

I remember when Owensboro got its first Wal-Mart. It was where Big Lots is now on South Frederica.

Later it moved out to Towne Square North.

Well, 25 years ago today--July 14th, 1992--there was a story in the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer about Wal-Mart moving onto its next and current home, on Southtown Boulevard.

Can you believe that? It's been 25 years (this August) since Wal-Mart went all gigantic and opened on Southtown.

What I found interesting about this story was that a huge discount drugstore called Phar-Mor was eyed as a possible tenant for what would soon be Wal-Mart's former location.

It's a good thing that never came to pass Phar-Mor would go bankrupt within the year.

Of course, now we know that that space became the electronics chain Electric Avenue, followed by current residents Books-a-Million and Office Depot.

And soon, we'll be looking for MORE new tenants for Towne Square North.

The massive strip-mall-sized revolving door keeps on revolving.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Information used for this article was culled from the Daviess County Public Library's Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer archives. To learn more, go to www.dcplibrary.org/online-resources, then enter your library card number and click on NewsBank.