We found a terrific Mexican Restaurant "Hacienda" and Sunday May 11 night we had a delicious dinner for Mother's Day.
Monday when the Goshen Chamber of Commerce opened, we picked up brochures on the town's major attractions, shopping and restaurants. We also asked for a Downtown Walking Tour brochure so we could read the history of the many business buildings we had admired on Saturday. The walking tour also included historic homes very close to downtown Goshen. Escapade's Opening Ceremony didn't start until 3PM so we had time to look at and photograph most of the homes and businesses in the Goshen Historic District, but it was drizzling out so we opted to drive the tour. Following are photographs of our favorites!
We were amazed that there were so many really beautiful classic homes in such a small area, and on wide, maple tree lined streets! The City offices are now located in the Beaux Arts style 1903 Carnegie Library, the first of Andrew Carnegie's libraries in Indiana. The city built a canal in 1867 to divert Elkhart River water for hydraulic power, which attracted industry to Goshen and the handsome houses followed, being built by wealthy business and merchant families. Some of the old 2-3 story brick factories still stand and several have been remodeled into boutique complexes. One of the most amazing buildings is a large Second Empire-style home at 311 S. Main St. on a prominent downtown corner built in 1868 by a local druggist. It served as a residence until 1923 when it became a funeral home as it still is today.
After our driving/walking tour, we stopped at the Walmart SuperCenter for shopping and saw the first signs of the large Amish population centered around a 25 mile circle of Goshen. The Amish use horses and buggies, as you probably know, and Walmart has built a long covered shed in their parking lot that can park at least 20 buggies with horses while their owners shop!
Back to the Fairgrounds and the Escapade, we attended the Opening Ceremony followed by the customary ice cream
social--yum! Almost every night, there are door prize drawings (usually 15-20 per evening) followed by entertainment, which this evening was Johnny Counterfeit and his 3 piece band. This guy does terrific very realistic impersonations of many famous entertainers including Elvis, Johnny Cash, Dean Martin, many country singers and a lot of comedy. Really an enjoyable couple hours! And the Escapade program really gets going tomorrow--stay tuned!
We saw other things too. What about a scary spider(??)on top of the roof in an Art Alley and a local family with lots of "kids" in the Elkhart River.
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