Throwback Thursday: When the Bowling Green Bank & Trust building got a facelift

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59 years ago, the Bowling Green Bank and Trust Company announced plans to renovate its
building on Fountain Square. Built over 150 years ago in 1866, the building was designed to be
an Opera House. Originally called Odeon Hall, it was later known as the Potter Opera House.
Located on the corner of East Main and College Street, this building has appeared in past segments.
Currently not active for any public use, it’s the towering black building with only a few visible hints
that it was once a bank. In the story we told about Durbin’s department store, we mentioned it filled
this building in between the original opera house and Bowling Green Bank and Trust. The building
suffered a fire in 1899 and a portion had to be rebuilt. Some even said the building was haunted
by an old opera house ghost.

The Bowling Green Bank and Trust company was incorporated in 1911, took over the building in
1927, and according to a Bowling Green Daily News article from September 1964, the bank
spent about 15 years working on renovation plans. The remodel design was from a Louisville
firm, and the construction would cost around $150 thousand dollars – that’s the equivalent to
almost $1.4 million dollars in today’s money.

The building’s new facade would be black and gold granite. A huge granite panel would be
attached to the side of the building and reach all the way to the top. A white and gold composite
material would also cover the facade. Its three floors would all be used by the bank, with the
second floor for book keeping and conference rooms, and the third floor as lounge and storage
space.

At that time in 1964, the C.D.S. drugstore #2 occupied the first floor corner.  An afterhours
depository on the College Street side of the building is still there today, as well as the bugler alarm
mounted on the Main Street exterior wall , the last remaining signs of the Bowling Green Bank and
Trust.

Right now, the building is privately owned and a peek in its first floor windows indicates a
somewhat melancholy use for antique storage. Let’s hope one day that building again becomes
an active space in our bustling downtown.