Interview 4 with Allen Watson (Georgetown Historic District)

Allen Watson, a resident of Madison, Indiana, shares the story of a local hospital's intentional expansion into a Black neighborhood on Poplar Street. Many houses were destroyed along with the Black community in that area for a parking lot.

***Transcript***

Allen Watson: The hospital, and I haven’t told this story much at all, but I think it’s a story that needs to be told. Back in the early [19]70’s, they started their expansion to the hospital. Well, they bought up some property on Poplar Street, and there was probably about nine homes on Poplar Street that they had bought and destroyed.

Carrie Vachon: Just tore them down.

Allen Watson: Just tore them down. Nice homes. I mean, it’s just like all the other homes in downtown Madison on Second Street, Third Street and whatever, East Street, but they wanted that property, so the Black community was just destroyed, it was torn down. I mean, you didn’t have a say. I mean, they wanted that property. Most of the property that they bought is used for parking, a parking lot, a parking garage and a parking lot.