Tri-State Motors Company
by Pat Sides
This block, located on the northwest corner of First and Locust streets, has seen a variety of businesses for well over a century. The building pictured in the foreground is the Tri-State Motors Company, which was near completion when photographed in 1920. Sitting behind the building is the Bement & Seitz wholesale grocery warehouse, which was occupied by Keller Crescent Printing Company a few years later.
For several years, Tri-State Motors displayed and sold Marmon, White, and Jordan automobiles and trucks. In 1937, Davidson-Amos, which sold major household appliances, moved into the spacious structure for several decades, until urban renewal forced the firm to relocate.
The Tri-State Motors building replaced the old Orpheum Theater, which had burned in 1917. It was razed around 1969, and the block is now the site of Old National Bank.
