Until the early 1940s, the College Street Bridge was the chief entrance to Bowling Green from the Barren River's northern short.
A Lively Commercial Corridor
As one of the city's main corridors, College Street boasted a number of commercial properties - liveries, hardware and grocery stores, and other service related businesses - liberally complemented by churches and residences. The nearby area remained mainly residential, with the notable exception of the Kister Planing Mill, until the 1920s when new businesses opened to provide support to the constant flow of automobiles traversing the city on the old Louisville & Nashville Pike, later the Dixie Highway.
Businesses Changed with the Neighborhood
These new businesses included service stations, parts stores, repair garages, and car sales lots. One notable exception was the Willoughby Grocery at 631 College, where Lively B. Willoughby helped operate a grocery and bakery. In 1929, he moved to Louisville and is credited with perfecting and patenting the process of producing canned biscuits. This building later housed the venerable People's Supply Company, an old fashioned hardware store, from 1927 until it closed in the late-1990s.
No Frills Design and Moderne Style
Commercial architecture on College Street was severely utilitarian
and chiefly of masonry construction. Store fronts hugged the sidewalks and featured large display windows. The Kirtley Furniture Store (1939) and the Hanley Machine Company (1933) were typical of the area's mid-twentieth century construction.
The Powell Service Station at 731 College Street stood out because of its Streamline Moderne architecture and the façade's white and blue enameled metal tiles accented with blue piping. Many College Street businesses - particularly those that provided services for automobiles - were adversely effected with the U.S. 31-W By-Pass was completed and diverted traffic away from the downtown area in the late-1940s.
All the major street names in this area have changed over the years:
College was Bridge, then Summer
Center was Green
Kentucky was Mechanic
6th was Madison
7th was Shelby
8th was Washington
(inset photo captions:)
The Hanley Machine Company building.
Service stations began to replace livery stables in the 1920s. Auto travel and related businesses boomed in the 1940s and 1950s.
The People's Supply Company building.
The former Powell Service Station.
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