Old National Bank remembers 420 Main ahead of implosion

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) - 420 Main, which started its life as the Old National Bank Building, is slated for implosion on Sunday morning.

Things are starting to look pretty jolly inside Old National Bank’s headquarters downtown as they decorate for the Christmas season.

But at their old headquarters, not as much. Crews are preparing to bring 420 Main down on Sunday morning.

Old National Bank moved its headquarters about 17 years ago. For some bank employees, like Lynell Walton who started her career at 420 Main, it will be an adjustment not seeing it on the Evansville skyline.

”Just part of the landscape, Evansville doesn’t have many towers and with one of them coming down, especially one that is sentimental to me and where I started my career at Old National. It’s going to be different.”

The building made its first appearance on October 20, 1967 when its image appeared in a newspaper ad on the same day the building was announced. That ad read, in part, “We’re changing the face of our hometown -- going head and shoulders above the past, to prove our faith in Evansville’s progressive future.”

Now that future continues, but it’s leaving the building behind.

Walton said, ”I’m also involved in E-REP, economic development non-profit organizations, so I’m excited about what the future of that land there holds and the economic development activity it’s going to bring to downtown Evansville.”

It may only have days until leaving its spot downtown, but it will leave behind a legacy.

”I got married after starting there, I had both of my kids, I had baby showers there,” said Walton, “and just made a lot of good friends and have a lot of good memories in general from my time there.”

When the bank was first announced in 1967, the president of the Evansville chamber of commerce said it was the most significant development in the city since the civic center.

[Related: County Historian looks back at the history behind the 420 Main building ahead of implosion]

We have until Sunday to appreciate 420 Main until it changes the face of Evansville once again.

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