Check out the ol' downtown bus station

Mike Paulus |

Image: Steve Johnson
Here's what a chunk of Eau Claire Street used to look like. Check out the brickwork
along the top of the building. Image: Steve Johnson

Hey, remember when the ol' Greyhound bus station used to snuggle up next to The State Theatre (where they showed movies – not plays – and had a bowling alley in the basement)? And remember when the Moose Lodge was just plopped on top of the bus station like it was no big deal? Of course you don't! Well, most of you don't. That photo up above is from the mid 1940s.

The State Theatre's sign is all curly. You just don't see curly signs like that anymore.

Steve Johnson posted the image to the You Know You Are From Eau Claire When... Facebook page last week, and we asked Eldbjorg Tobin (who maintains the Chippewa Valley Museum’s collection of historic photos) to date it. Eldbjorg tells us the photo was taken sometime between 1945 and 1946, a time when movie theaters, bowling alleys, clubs, and bus stations where somehow shoehorned into just one part of a single city block.