100 YEARS AGO — 1920

 

• The Danville Library has purchased the house and lot on the northwest corner of Third and Broadway, known as the Downtown House, from owners Capt. A.B. Massey and Sam Lyons for $6,500. The first payment on the property was made possible by the generosity of a few friends of the library. Possession will be given about Sept. 1, when the lease on the quarters on Third Street expires. This is the first time that the Danville library, which was organized in 1893, will own a permanent home. The building will be remodeled to take care of the large number of books now in the library, as well as others that are added from time to time. One feature of the new quarters will be a large reading room, which will be provided for the public free of charge. The library has a membership of 384 who pay $1 per year in dues. There are 4,500 well selected books and is open everyday from 3 to 5 o’clock when members may get books and when the public is given free access to the reading room.

 

• A memorial day service for Boyle’s heroic dead which will be held on Washington’s birthday, Feb. 22, is planned by Boyle Post of the American Legion. On that day, certificates from the French government to the nearest of kin of the soldiers who died in France will be given out. Also, Danville has a Legionairess. Miss Lula May Bruce, a teacher at Kentucky School for the Deaf, is a member of the greatest patriotic organization in America — The American Legion. Though unusual for a woman to be a member of the Legion, women who served actively in the war are eligible to be a member and Miss Bruce served for 13 months as a reconstruction aide in two U.S. hospitals — at Cape May, N.J. and at Fox Hills, on Staten Island. In her work, Miss Bruce taught soldiers who had been deafened by wounds or shell-shock how to read lips and how to talk on their fingers. The uniform she and other construction aides wore was a blue dress with white apron and a blue cap, topped off by a blue cape. Danville is proud of its Legionairess. She is a valuable adjunct to and a hard working member of the Boyle Post of the American Legion.

 

• Richard Cornelius of Harrodsburg claims to be the happiest man in Mercer County. On Sunday night, his wife presented him with twins — a girl and a boy. The father is 42 years old and the parent of 19 children. During the war two of his sons served in France and since the war, two more have enlisted in the Army.

 

• The department store of Messrs. Pushin Bros. in Danville is becoming more popular all the time for marriages. When couples come in to purchase their wedding clothes, they are so pleased with the attractiveness of the place that they decide to get married then and there. During the past week, two brothers married two sisters in the ladies parlor on Pushin Bros. Store. On Feb. 3, W.M. Lister and Gurtha Plummer were married there. 

 

75 YEARS AGO — 1945

 

• About 30 enumerators were assigned to call upon a total of 600 Danville residents who were chosen to answer questionnaires as part of an impartial survey on the probable spending in Danville during the early days of the post-war period. 

 

• The support of municipal law enforcement officials in Danville, as well as in other cities, to obtain compliance with the fuel conservation brownout order has taken effect. Considerable savings of coal was made in Danville when theater managers, store owners and others voluntarily curtailed their use of electricity during the last few days of January. The brownout order prohibits the use of electricity for specified types of unnecessary outdoor signs and decorative lighting.

 

• Reporting in at his fighting weight of 118 pounds, Frank Sinatra was being thumped, peered at and charted by Army doctors at Governor’s Island to find out if he is still 4-F. Sinatra’s eardrum was punctured in December of 1943 and doctors were checking to see if he was still rated a 4-F. “If I get into service, I will not sing songs. I want active combat service,” Sinatra said.

 

• A number of items for use in the occupational therapy department of Darnall General Hospital have been requested from the public. Desired for the use of patients are old leather bags and pocketbooks from which the men make leather wristbands, picture frames, ornaments and other articles; women’s colored felt hats rom which purses may be fashioned; old costume jewelry, especially earrings, broaches, and pins from which the fastenings are detached to use in new jewelry; and old toothbrush handles, particularly the colored plastic type from which patients make jewelry and ornaments.

 

50 YEARS AGO — 1970

 

• The Boyle County Purgation Board, which has been in session at the Boyle County Courthouse, completed 20 days of working after checking on the status of all registered voters in this county’s 15 precincts. A total of 823 voters names have been removed due to moving out of the district, not voting within the past two years, duplicate registrations and death.

 

• A Boyle County Industry, The Griffin Meat Packing Co., has ceased to exist because the owners felt they could not invest in the approximately $250,000 they were told was necessary under provisions of the “Wholesome Meat Act” that was passed three or four years ago. The 45 employees, many of them old-timers, will lose their jobs. The site of the Griffin Packing Company, just beyond Clark’s Run Bridge on South Second Street, will be deserted and forlorn looking. There is no plan to utilize the buildings and no one knows what to do with them.

 

• About 400 people are expected to be on hand for the annual Benefit Tea sponsored by the Kentucky Club. It will be held Sunday afternoon in the Masonic Club room on South Second Street. Mrs. Susie Bailey is serving as general chairman of the tea. Mrs. Bailey is a Danville native but spent a number of years in New York. Since returning to Danville, she has become active in various church, civic and social organizations. Proceeds from the tea will go toward the Danville Homecoming of the Kentucky Club of Detroit, Cincinnati and Chicago, which will be in Danville on the third Saturday in August. About 2,000 from the four cities will be here for the homecoming activities.

 

25 YEARS AGO — 1995

 

• The Danville Police Department has received a federal grant to hire another officer. The grant pays 75 percent of an officer’s salary for three years. Danville received $41,472 for just one officer. Police Chief Michael Lamb had requested two officers. One of the goals of the federal grant is to increase community policing where police and residents will work together.

 

• A facilities plan that recommends about $20 million in renovations and additions to all five county schools, bus garage and central office was approved by the Boyle County Board of Education. However, the plan doesn’t call for construction of new schools and it recommends continuation of the current grade structure. Also, the plan opposes the idea of merging the Boyle and Danville school systems, saying such a move would not benefit either system.

 

• More changes are taking place in Danville’s downtown. The 213 on Main restaurant closed on Saturday. M. Alfred Hall Galleries will be moved out by the end of the month. The owners of the Toy Box deli have closed in order to focus full-time on catering. And Wright’s Sporting Goods is now The Sports Center of Danville.