Workman’s Bar

Location: 809 W. 8th Street

Year Opened: Unknown, after 1911.

Current Use: Demolished, Planned site for new crisis center

The Workman’s Bar was opened on the site of an old barber shop sometime after 1911.[1] The bar served as South Muncie’s primary watering hole and meeting place for workers at the nearby Chevy Plant, with its clientele being those who had just gotten off their shifts.[2] The Workman’s Bar outlived the factory that employed many of its patrons and finally closed in August of 2021.[3] After its closing, the community pushed for the building to be converted into a crisis center for anyone facing addiction and other health-related issues.[4] A collaboration between the City of Muncie, Delaware Advancement Corp, and IU Health went forward with plans for a 24/7 crisis center, but due to extensive termite damage the building was demolished in January 2024.[5] Despite this setback, plans to build the center on the foundation of the Workman’s Bar are still moving forward.[6]

[1] Muncie, Indiana Sanborn Map, 1911, Sheet 63, Muncie Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps Collection, Ball State University, University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections, https://dmr.bsu.edu/digital/collection/SanbrnMps/id/237/rec/69.

[2] Middletown, DVD, directed by Peter Davis, Tom Cohen, E. J. Vaughn, Richard Leacock, and Marisa Silver (Brooklyn, NY: Icarus Studios, September 21, 2010).

[3] Davis Penticuff, “Crisis center to confront addictions, mental stress cases in Muncie community,” Muncie Star Press, March 7, 2023, https://www.thestarpress.com/story/news/local/2023/03/07/crisis-center-to-confront-addictions-mental-stress-cases-in-community/69932816007/.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Penticuff; “Muncie Crisis Center Will Start From Scratch,” Woof Boom Radio News, January 23, 2024, https://www.woofboomnews.com/2024/01/muncie-crisis-center-will-start-from-scratch/.

[6] “Muncie Crisis Center Will Start From Scratch.” Woof Boom Radio News.