What to See in Evansville - Top Sights and Attractions

Stadium in Evansville, Indiana. Bosse Field is a baseball stadium located in Evansville, Indiana. Opened in 1915, it was the first municipally owned sports stadium in the United States and is the third-oldest ballpark still in regular use for professional baseball, surpassed only by Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley Field in Chicago.

It is the home field for the professional minor league Evansville Otters of the independent Frontier League, as well as high school and American Legion games, and in the past hosted spring training for the Detroit Tigers, college baseball, high school, college, and NFL football, college soccer, and concerts. Six Baseball Hall of Fame members played for Evansville teams at Bosse Field during their minor league careers, including Chuck Klein, Hank Greenberg, Warren Spahn, Bob Uecker, Bert Blyleven and Jack Morris. The historic stadium was also used in 1991 by Columbia Pictures for filming numerous game scenes in the 1992 comedy-drama, A League of Their Own.^[2]

Museum in the United States of America. Angel Mounds State Historic Site, an expression of the Mississippian culture, is an archaeological site managed by the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites that includes more than 600 acres of land about 8 miles southeast of present-day Evansville, in Vanderburgh and Warrick counties in Indiana. The large residential and agricultural community was constructed and inhabited from AD 1100 to AD 1450, and served as the political, cultural, and economic center of the Angel chiefdom. It extended within 120 miles of the Ohio River valley to the Green River in present-day Kentucky. The town had as many as 1,000 inhabitants inside the walls at its peak, and included a complex of thirteen earthen mounds, hundreds of home sites, a palisade, and other structures.

Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964, the property also includes an interpretive center, recreations of Mississippian structures, a replica of a 1939 Works Projects Administration archaeology laboratory, and a 500-acre (200-hectare) area away from the archaeological site that is a nature preserve. The historic site continues to preserve and relate the story of pre-contact Middle Mississippian indigenous culture on the Ohio River.

The site is named after the Angel family, who in 1852 began purchasing the farmland on which the archaeological site is located. In 1938, the Indiana Historical Society, with funding from Eli Lilly, purchased 480 acres (190 hectares) of property to preserve it and to use it for long-term archaeological research. From 1939 to 1942, the Works Progress Administration employed more than 250 workers to excavate 120,000 square feet (11,000 m2) of the site, which resulted in the recording and processing of 2.3 million archaeological items. After excavation was temporarily halted during World War II, work resumed in 1945 as part of the Indiana University Archaeology Field School during the summer months. In 1946, the Indiana Historical Society transferred ownership of the site to the State of Indiana. It manages the site through the Indiana State Museum. Archaeological research on Angel Mounds continues to be conducted through the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, established in 1965 at Indiana University Bloomington.^[3]

Casino in Evansville, Indiana. Bally's Evansville is a casino hotel and entertainment complex in downtown Evansville, Indiana, owned by Gaming and Leisure Properties and operated by Bally's Corporation.

Originally named Casino Aztar, it was opened by Aztar Corporation in 1995 as the state's first casino. The name was changed to Tropicana Evansville in 2013. In 2017, the casino moved from its original riverboat into a land-based facility.

The main entertainment facility consists of a 45,000-square-foot (4,200 m2) casino, a 250-room hotel, a 1,660 vehicle parking garage, and pavilion housing pre-boarding facilities, retail shops, restaurants, and lounge area. A new entertainment district with a 100-room boutique hotel and additional restaurants opened in late 2006.

In 2005, the casino generated $137 million in revenue and $41 million in profits.^[5]

Museum in Evansville, Indiana. The Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science is a general-interest museum located on the Ohio riverfront in downtown Evansville, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1904, it is one of Southern Indiana's most established and significant cultural institutions, with comprehensive collections in art, history, anthropology and science. It has a permanent collection of over 30,000 objects including fine arts, decorative arts, historic documents and photographs, and anthropologic and natural history artifacts. Also on the Museum's campus is the Evansville Museum Transportation Center, featuring Southern Indiana transportation artifacts from the late 19th through the mid-20th centuries. The museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.^[6]

Museum in Evansville, Indiana. The Reitz Home Museum is a Victorian house museum located in the Riverside Historic District in downtown Evansville, Indiana. The museum offers year-round guided tours.

An authentic restoration offers visitors a step back in time with silk damask-covered walls, hand painted ceilings, delicately molded plaster friezes, and intricately patterned hand-laid wood parquet floors. Other features of the home include tiled and marbled fireplaces, stained glass windows, and French gilt chandeliers. Much of the home is decorated with original period furniture.

Considered by many to be one of the finest examples of the French Second Empire style architecture, the home has been featured in several issues of Victorian Homes magazine as well as Victorian Decorating and Lifestyle magazine.

In 2003 the home received a commendation from the Victorian Society in America for the preservation and restoration of the Victorian mansion.^[8]

Theater. Alhambra Theatorium is a historic movie theater in the Haynies Corner Arts District of Evansville, Indiana. It was designed by Frank J. Schlotter and opened on September 27, 1913, as a movie theater. The Alhambra was one of many influenced by the Alhambra Palace in Spain. Although Alhambra theatres opened all over the world, only a traditional playhouse built in New York in 1905 predates Evansville's in the United States.

The theatre cost $18,000 to build and was one of the largest movie theatres in Evansville at the time. It included a cigar shop and a confectionery, and spurred new business in the area now designated as the Haynies Corner Arts District. The theater ceased operation in 1956.

The Alhambra has been renovated a few times in the past 100 years and is in the process of being restored. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.^[9]

Theatre in Evansville, Indiana. The Victory Theatre is a 1,950 seat venue in Evansville, Indiana. It is home to the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra and also hosts local ballet and modern dance companies, theatre companies, and touring productions.

Opened on June 16, 1921 and originally seating 2,500 patrons, the theater was part of the Sonntag Hotel – Victory Theater complex that was organized by Marcus Sonntag and associates who were stockholders in the American Trust and Savings Bank across Sixth Street from the theater. Along with Frederick H. Gruneberg, St. President of the Consolidated Theaters Corporation, Sonntag and his associates contracted with Hoffman Construction Company to build the theater. It was air conditioned with commercial ice.

The Victory featured a daily program of four vaudeville acts, a movie, a comedy routine, organ music and a ten-piece orchestra. In 1926 the Victory was leased to Loews Theatres as a movie chain and was renamed Loew's Victory. In 1928 Loew's featured Evansville's first "talking picture," an epic titled "Tenderloin." Later that year, "The Jazz Singer," featuring Al Jolson, became the first stand-alone talkie shown in the city. The Loews's Victory Theatre closed in 1971. As the independent Victory Theatre it was divided into a triplex, but was closed in 1979. The theater was restored to its former glory and reopened in 1998 after a $15 million renovation.

The Victory was designed by architect John Pridmore of Chicago. The exterior is in the restrained style characteristic of commercial buildings of the era, but the auditorium is more ornate. The stage, 68 feet (21 m) wide and 82 feet (25 m) deep, was at the time it was built one of the largest in the Midwest. In 1982 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

It is owned by the City of Evansville and is co-managed with The Ford Center by VenuWorks.^[11]

Courthouse. The Old Vanderburgh County Courthouse, often simply called the "Old Courthouse," was once the center of Vanderburgh County, Indiana government. Construction started in the spring of 1888 and was completed in November 1890. The building was ready to be occupied by the county government in early 1891. It sits in the heart of downtown Evansville.

The building was designed by architect Henry W. Wolters of Louisville, Kentucky and constructed by the Charles Pearce & Company of Indianapolis. The 19th century German Beaux-Arts architecture masterpiece cost $379,450 to build. The Old Courthouse occupies an entire city block, bounded by Court, Fourth, Vine and Fifth Streets, with each side being encrusted with sculptures and stone carvings in Indiana limestone. The fourteen main statues of human figures are the work of Franz Engelsmann, who studied under the great German masters before setting up his studio in Chicago. In addition, carvings of vegetables, fruits, and flowers indigenous to the area adorn the capitals of the forty-eight pairs of pilasters around the entire building.

Before the courthouse was built, the site was a basin where canal boats on the Wabash and Erie Canal would deliver cargo and turn around for the return trip north. After the advent of the railroads and the canal's abandonment, the site was filled in and the courthouse was constructed upon it.

A tunnel runs beneath Vine Street connecting the Old Courthouse to the Old Vanderburgh County Jail.^[12]

Nature preserve in Evansville, Indiana. Wesselman Woods Nature Preserve is a 240-acre nature preserve located in Evansville, Indiana. It is a National Natural Landmark and a State Nature Preserve owned by the City of Evansville and operated by the non-profit Wesselman Nature Society.

The preserve consists of over 190 acres (0.77 km2) of virgin bottomland hardwood forest complemented by an additional 50 acres (200,000 m2) of younger forest, field, and pond. The woods consist of sweetgum, sugar maple, tulip tree, Shumard oak, and green ash throughout. It is the largest tract of virgin forest located inside any city limits in the United States.

The oldest trees are over 400 years old. Among the largest of their species are 24 state champions and two national champion trees. One of the tallest trees in the state is a tulip tree located within the park. It is 147 feet (45 m) tall with a 13.2-foot (4.0 m) circumference and 81-foot (25 m) canopy.

Animal species include squirrels, raccoons, gray foxes, coyote, and whitetail deer. The woods also serves as a refuge for a variety of woodpeckers and owls.

A nature center welcomes visitors with interactive exhibits, animals, special events, wildlife observation areas, educational programs, summer camps, and a 3-acre (0.012 km2) nature playscape. The woods offer a variety of hiking trails of varying distances. The amphitheater near Odonata Pond may also be rented for outdoor activities.

The Wesselman Nature Society also manages Howell Wetlands, a 23-acre (93,000 m2) wetlands property located at 1400 S. Tekoppel Avenue in the urban western area of Evansville.^[16]

Museum in Evansville, Indiana. The Koch Family Children's Museum of Evansville is an interactive children's museum in Evansville, Indiana. The museum educates and inspires children about the world. Exhibits include deconstructing objects, a water exhibit that spans multiple floors, experiences about the human body and its senses, and a gallery for freedom of expression.

Built inside the historic old Central Library, the museum opened in September 2006. The Art Deco building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and now offers visitors three floors of interactive exhibits and galleries. The museum was designed by Roto Studio, a museum design and engineering firm specializing in creating interactive educational environments and experiences for children as well as adults.^[17]

The Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library is a public library system serving Evansville and Vanderburgh County in Indiana, USA. The EVPL also supplements the services provided by the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation and has the authority to approve the tax levy of the independently run and operated Willard Library.

The EVPL had a total circulation of 2,922,126 and had 1,842,085 in-person visits to its system in 2013, making it one of the largest public library systems in Indiana. EVPL was rated a five star library by the Library Journal, which places it in the top 1% of public libraries in the U.S. EVPL also obtained a Top Ten library ranking in the 2010 edition of Hennen's American Public Library Ratings, achieving a number eight ranking within its population category.^[22]

Convention center in Evansville, Indiana. The Old National Events Plaza is a 280,000-square-foot convention center and auditorium in Evansville, Indiana that consists of a 2,500-seat auditorium, a 38,000-square-foot exhibit hall, 14,000-square-foot ballroom, and 12 flexible 1,000-square-foot meeting rooms.

The facility hosts small and medium-sized conventions ranging from 20 to 4,000 people. The auditorium is also frequently the site a variety of concerts and special events. Formerly known as Vanderburgh Auditorium, the building underwent a major renovation and expansion in the mid-1990s and was renamed the Centre. The architects involved with the project included HOK Venue and Veazey Parrot & Shoulders.

It is co-managed with the Ford Center, Mesker Amphitheatre, and Victory Theatre.^[24]

The Greyhound Bus Terminal in downtown Evansville, Indiana, also known as the Greyhound Bus Station, is a Streamline Moderne-style building from 1938. It was built at a cost of $150,000. Its architects include W.S. Arrasmith who designed numerous other Greyhound depots. The terminal, at the corner of Third and Sycamore streets, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

In July 2008, the long-unused bus terminal and its site had been considered in discussions about potential locations for a new arena that would replace Roberts Municipal Stadium. By December, city council approved plans to build the Ford Center in another downtown location.

In December 2011, then Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel announced plans to turn the adjacent property into Bicentennial Park to celebrate the city's upcoming bicentennial in 2012.

In 2016, a restaurant named Bru Burger opened inside the old terminal.^[26]