Having been born and raised in Evansville, I'm old enough to remember when Stratman's Pharmacy was open on the corner of the Main Street Walkway and 4th Street. The pharmacy was more than just a place you stopped to pick up your prescription, or grab some cold medicine. Like CVS or Walgreens, it also had candy and snack aisles, magazines, health and beauty products, so on and so forth if you needed something in a pinch. Unlike CVS or Walgreens, it also featured a small cafeteria with a few tables where you could pop in, grab a plate lunch of fried chicken, or whatever the meal was that day, sit and eat, or get it to go. When our studios were on the corner of 5th and Walnut Street, it was nice to be able to walk down there to get a bite to eat, or grab a candy bar if I needed a mid-afternoon sugar fix to get me through the rest of the day. Unfortunately, the long time business closed its doors a few years back and left a void in downtown that I've always thought is the one thing the area needed. Thankfully, I was the only one. About 200 feet north of where Stratman's now sits vacant on 4th Street, a new market is getting ready to fill that void.

Named after the neighborhood market that once sat several blocks away on the corner of 2nd and Oak (now Madeleine's Fusion Restaurant), work on the new Barge Town Market has been underway for the past few months. Located on the backside of the building that's also home to Jimmy John's sandwich shop, next door to United Fidelity Bank, the Market looks like it will offer many of the same items Stratman's once offered, and even a few it didn't based on the photos below the people behind the Market were nice enough to let me share with you.

Take a Sneak Peak Into Downtown Evansville's New Barge Town Market

When exactly will we all be able to shop inside Barge Town? That's a great question which doesn't have an answer right this minute. However, based on the photos above, and others posted on the store's Facebook page, it seems that it should be happening sooner rather than later as it seems to me the final touches are being put together. Whenever it happens, I have a feeling I'll find myself there regularly as our studios are just one block away in the Fifth Third Building on 3rd Street.

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