Photo supplied by Vic Kinney, President and Museum Curator, Owen County Heritage & Culture Center

1925: THE VIQUESNEY BLOCK

With the fantastic success of his "Imp-O-Luck", Viquesney financed the construction of a business building in downtown Spencer, Indiana, and later, in 1928, the Tivoli Theatre. The Viquesney Block, as the building was called, was also referred to as "The Imp-O-Luck Building" because of an eleven-foot electrified statue of the "Imp" on the roof (visible above).
 
Viquesney maintained his art studio in this building and rented out ground-floor space to other businesses. The second floor originally contained offices and shipping rooms for Viquesney's Imp-O-Luck Company. Later the second floor was converted to rental apartments. At right is an interior shot of an apartment in the Viquesney Building. It was provided to us by Stan Griffith of Ellettsville, Indiana, whose parents (and he, as a baby in 1944) once lived in it.

Viquesney began closing out his Imp-O-Luck business in 1929, finally selling the "Block" in 1939 and moving his studio to his residence on Fletcher Ave.

Photo supplied by Stan Griffith, Ellettsville, Indiana.

The Viquesney Block was featured in the August, 1926 issue of American Builder Magazine, and was described as made of "hollow tile construction" of a "yellowish-tan" color. Floor plans for the first story are shown. One of the stores was a Kroger Grocery which closed during the depression, and in 1940, there was a firm called The Log Cabin Pastry Shop.

According to Stan Griffith, In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Owen Litho commercial printing service occupied the middle street location. A few years later, the front was the entrance to Slim Tucker's 101 Club.

The building was destroyed by fire in the mid-1980s.