East Side
The eastern side of the square runs along Highway 31 W, more commonly known as Main Street. Started most likely as a buffalo path, later used by Indians then settlers, this road became a main stagecoach route between Louisville and Nashville and this was probably the first side of the square to be built on.
In the picture above from the early 1900's looking north on Main Street, the Masonic Building is seen on the furthest left with the steeple of the Presbyterian Church behind it. Most recognizable on on the east side in this picture is the three story building with a prominent second story balcony in the middle of the block. This is the Keystone Hotel which burned in 1924 and also burned many surrounding buildings. The Keystone and the buildings on the furthest right of the picture were replaced by the Franklin Hotel which still stands today.
Unfortunately only two of the buildings on the east side when this picture was taken still exist, the McElwain-Meguire Bank building and Wades Hall.
This picture from the 1940 shows the Franklin Hotel on the right of the picture. The entrance to the lobby of the hotel was in the middle of the building with retail establishments on the first floor. At the corner of Main and Cedar Street is Bennett and Smith. On the north side of the hotel entrance was a telegraph office and coffee shop.
John Milliken wrote that on this lot around 1865 was the two-story frame home of Billie Roberts, a local blacksmith and wagon repairer. He says it was replaced by a frame building occupied by Leiber as a dry goods and clothing store. He also says the present building was built by W. G. Wade and was initially occupied by Lieber and Gross.
McElwain Meguiar Bank was started in 1881. Exactly when they moved into this building is unknown. The interior of the building was described as handsome and substantial. The interior is handsomely fitted up after the style of metropolitan banking institutions, the furniture being substantial as well as elegant. In the rear of the business department are found the consultation and directors rooms and private offices, the fire and burglar proof vaults, wherein the latest and most substantial Hall's time-lock safe finds protection as well as all collateral in general, is constructed of stone 24 inches thick.
The bank operated there until Monday, November 17, 1930 when it failed to open. It was Simpson Counties largest and oldest bank having opened in 1881 by Frank Meguiar and James McElwain. In October 1929, the stock market crashed starting the Great Depression. Their correspondent bank, the National Bank of Kentucky had closed earlier. In March 1931, bank president J. H. Covington was killed in a traffic accident as he returned from Frankfort with two other bank officials where they had been meeting with state officials about reopening McElwain Meguiar Bank. Covington was a former mayor and county clerk. On April 7, 1931 the bank reopened. O.B. Jackson was president, E.L. Norwood vice-president, John Lovell, James Pearson, James Shugart, Joe Kemble, Joe Ramsey, Joe Bryan and Ben Humphrey were directors. In January 1932 the State Banking Commission appointed CB Moore as liquidating agent for the bank and it closed its doors for good, a victim of the Great Depression.
The upstairs of the building was office space for several businesses over the years including John F. Larue Real Estate and Insurance (1908), H. H. Black Real Estate (1912), Harris and Larmon Radio (1946), and Godfrey Harris among others.
In 1934, Dr. J. G. Gray bought the building. The building became a restaurant of Clendenning and Thompson in 1935. The building was operated as The Sweet Shop in 1947 when its manager, Ed Snow, was killed in a plane crash. The business was then bought by Leon Page and continued to be operated as The Sweet Shop. In 1952, Page left The Sweet Shop and it closed in 1959 and the building housed Patsy’s Cloth and Sewing Shop until 1970. William McClave then purchased the building and opened the Village Inn Restaurant and operated it until about 1988. He then sold the building and it has been empty and left to deteriorate since.
