MARION MAIN STREET, INC.
CrittendenPress HistoryVignettes
A collaborative project between The Crittenden Press, Marion Main Street, Inc., and the Crittenden County Historical Society is bringing history to life with virtual tours of some of Marion’s most unique and significant landmarks. See these short history vignettes on YouTube.
Historic Carlisle Street is a nostalgic one-way thoroughfare in Marion that runs in front of this enchanting building that was once a United States Ration Center.
In the 1940s, during those trying times of World War II, local residents would come here to be issued ration books, which contained removable stamps that could be exchanged for rationed items such as sugar, meat, cooking oil and even gasoline.
Built around 1905, this was also once the U.S. Post Office. Metal bars protecting the existing windows were characteristic of early American post offices.
This two-story structure has served the community in many ways. It was once known as the Blue-Nunn Building, named for its owners whose surnames were Blue and Nunn. They were also fluorspar mine owners. It was for many years a dry cleaning business, at one time run by a former football coach. It was called Coach’s Cleaners.
Stop by and check it out when you’re touring downtown Marion, Kentucky. A collaborative project between The Crittenden Press, Marion Main Street, Inc., and the Crittenden County Historical Society is bringing history to life with virtual tours of some of Marion’s most unique and significant landmarks. See more of these short history vignettes on The Crittenden Press YouTube channel.
Regular online releases of virtual history tours around downtown Marion will continue through the early fall. Narrated by a handful of local personalities including longtime civic leader Susan Alexander, local historian Brenda Underdown, local entertainer Brennan Cruce and newspaper editor Chris Evans, these video vignettes are highlighting and preserving the community’s rich local history.
The project is being funded by Marion Main Street, Inc., which recently dissolved as a non-profit corporation. As its final gesture to the community, Main Street pledged the last of its resources to producing short historical videos chronicling landmarks in the community. These videos are archived on YouTube with links from various community website. Watch for them to go public this summer and fall at The Press Online, Crittenden Press YouTube Channel and MarionKentucky.org.
