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Take an early-1950s walk up Main Street

Thanks to this photo by Paul Diller and a list of businesses by Richard Jordan
Posted by Fred Steiner on April 14, 2021 - 12:23pm

Compare the 1950-era photo with one taken today at the bottom of this story - 

Unlike many small towns, Bluffton's Main Street outlived the malls, survived an interstate bypass and today is home of over 40 small businesses located between the town hall and the public library.

Almost seven decades ago Paul Diller photographed this iconic Main Street scene. When this photo was taken Main Street was also U.S. 25, known as the Dixie Highway. (There existed no interstate highway bypassing town.)

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Historical Bluffton
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Did you ever cross this Bluffton bridge?

Posted by Fred Steiner on April 5, 2021 - 10:45am

If you are, say 50 or younger, you may not know the location of this photo. Icon viewers 50 and older recognize it as the East College Avenue bridge, looking toward Harmon Field.

Paul Diller took this photo on a foggy morning in the fall. Who knows, perhaps he even posed the farmer on his tractor.

Some things to notice:
• One wooden sidewalk on the north side of the bridge
• No curb or additional sidewalk anywhere in sight
• Although College Avenue is paved, it appears that it could use a upgrade

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Historical Bluffton
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Bluffton College campus 1949

Posted by Fred Steiner on March 29, 2021 - 11:17am

Here's a look at the Bluffton College campus from the air in 1949. We know the year because Founders Hall is under construction. It's on the top of the photo just to the right of center.

What else is in this photo? 

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Historical Bluffton
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Screaming steam through Bluffton

Posted by Fred Steiner on March 22, 2021 - 11:06am

Paul Diller snapped this photo and then very quickly stepped aside as this giant Lima-built Berkshire steam locomotive barrelled toward him at about 65 miles per hour.

We can only guess what the engineer and fireman thought as they approached a photographer, standing in the middle of the rails.

Coming from Bellevue, it was westbound to Lima, and onto Muncie, Indiana, and headed perhaps as far west at St. Louis.

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Historical Bluffton
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You've never seen this view of the Buckeye

Posted by Fred Steiner on March 15, 2021 - 4:51pm

Jim Diller shares this late 1930s-era photo of the Buckeye, taken by his father, Paul.

From the Main Street end, here's the famous wooden floating swimming pool. Icon viewer comments are welcome.

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Historical Bluffton
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West College Avenue bridge ribbon cutting?

Posted by Fred Steiner on March 8, 2021 - 11:44am

Here’s a Bluffton ribbon-cutting photo without any information, but we are working on a theory and we are checking it out with our esteemed list of Bluffton history fact-checkers, so stay tuned.

Jim Diller provided this photo, taken by his father, Paul Diller.

Our guess is this is 1960, based on the yellow-orange license plate on a Chevy station wagon. The tan and white car is a 1959 Pontiac.

The persons we’ve identified from left are William “Kaiser” Gaiffe, Clayton Bixel, _____, _____, Wilbur Amstutz (he was mayor from 1960-65), ___, ___, ___.

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Historical Bluffton
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