Showers Heights

Showers Heights was a proposed addition to the City of Bloomington that was never built. The Showers Brothers Furniture Company conceived of the addition as a way to provide housing for its employees. It was to consist of seventy five homes and a 'civic center' from which streets would radiate. The proposed location was 'north of the Cain Floral Plant between Walnut and Rogers streets', according to the Daily Telephone newspaper.

The Telephone may have had been a bit off on its geography. The 1911 city directory lists Cain Floral Company at the corner of College and Seventeenth streets. James and Helen Cain owned two acres of land on the north side of 17th Street between College and Walnut streets (currently the south end of Milller-Showers Park). The Showers Brother Company bought 15 acres between College and Rogers bounded by 17th Street on the south on November 1, 1912. As such, the new addition would have been to the west and northwest of the Cain property.

Included in the warranty deed for the Showers' purchase of 15 acres is the first known racial exclusion clause in Monroe County. This parcel would eventually become Northcrest Addition to the City of Bloomington.

References

Daily Telephone; Bloomington, Indiana; March 13, 1913; 'Addition for Showers Employees'

Monroe County Recorder, Deed Book 59, Page 444

Monroe County Recorder, Deed Book 59, Page 587