As some of the older Lintonians may recall, G.C. Murphy was an almost magical place of retail in downtown Linton many years ago — offering candy, toys, vinyl records, and more. It was part of a much larger chain of “five and dime” or variety stores in the United States from the time period spanning 1906 to 2002. Later, the same building would become known as the Linton Variety Store, a local remake of sorts of the past G.C. Murphy “five and dime” store era.
After a Florida-based bank foreclosure and a subsequent Chicago-based owner receiving a cease-and desist order for its operations, a lot of hope was restored when local business owners purchased the location at 15 East Vincennes Street for approximately fifteen thousand dollars at a tax sale. That was in early-2016, though, making that now over four years ago.
After removing the hundreds of the small offices that were hastily-built by the previous whole auto dealer franchising owner (to offer anyone online with a credit card and a will to become an Indiana-based auto dealer), the building is up for sale — again. This time via an online auction with WB Auctioneer Service. For $25,000 — the opening amount which has not received its first bid yet — you can become the new owner of this 16,000+ square foot building.
The building has a lot of history, including its upstairs being used as Linton’s first library until the then-new Carnegie library was built. It was even a haunted house one year for the downtown.
In any event, the building is in dire need of some TLC, including major roof repairs and tuck pointing, especially to the brick wall on the west side. Hopefully, these are made soon, so this grand old building does not meet the same fate as the building on the other corner of this block, the Roosevelt Hotel, did earlier this year.