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.

 

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