(calm electronic music) - [Narrator] We're back in Muncie, but today, we're headed south where the vibes are strong, community is loyal, and neighbors who will absolutely bring you a casserole when life gets hard.

The south side has changed a lot over the years, but one thing has not, the joy, the people, the grit, the we've-got-each-other- so-let's-get-to-work energy.

You're Now Entering South Muncie.

- [Narrator 2] Now Entering South Muncie is sponsored by Laborers Union 1112, Community Foundation of Muncie Delaware County, Three Rivers, the Zeigler Foundation, and Tom Cherry Mufflers with additional support from The Common Market, Crestview Golf Course, Mulligan's Clubhouse and Grill, Matt Weyand Repairs and Renovations, Old National Bank, the Muncie Southside Neighborhood Association, Polcz Volbrecht Homes, Maxwells Barbershop, Scott Trout Family Dentistry, Eight Twelve Coalition, Stallings Wealth Management, and Mid-West Metal Products, and with support from viewers like you.

Thank you.

- [Narrator] The south side of Muncie used to be so full of manufacturing jobs that if a place was treating you unfairly, all you had to do was go down the street and pick up a new job.

- [Dennis] And I've told this to many people, and my kids don't understand it today 'cause of the economic situation.

You could pick any place in this town to work in a factory, and you could virtually go to work.

All of 'em were hiring all the time.

- [Narrator] So if it's true that Muncie used to have all these amazing opportunities, then what happened?

For that, we have to go back to the early 19th century.

- The first railroad in Delaware County was built in 1852.

That was the Indianapolis and Bellefontaine.

It was called the B-line, and Muncie then started to grow south.

When the railroad came in, the city ended, or the town ended and there was a bunch of empty fields, and then the railroad.

No one believed that the city would ever grow south of the tracks.

Well, that lasted about 10 years, all the way up until about being developed slowly through the 1870s, and then when gas was discovered in 1886, it was explosive growth, quite literally, and a really major part of development of the south side of town happens beginning in the 1880s and 1890s.

- [Narrator] The boom attracted many large businesses and industries into Indiana and the south side of Muncie, specifically.

With established trains, companies like Borg Warner, Ball Corporation, Chevy factories, and the creation of unions, Muncie thrived and the south side started to build and developed its own personality.

- [Chris] So most people will define South Side Muncie as south of the what are now the CSX tracks.

Some people will say south of the river, but that would then include the Old West End, the Old East End, and downtown.

They're not really south side 'cause of the old Muncie.

After natural gas was discovered, the south side becomes developed very quickly, and one of the earliest biggest factories to come in was Ball Brothers, and they come in in the 1880s, late 1880s, sprawling factories at the corner of Macedonia and 12th Street on either side, is really when it grows, starts employing hundreds and thousands of people.

Borg Warner or Warner Gear, I guess, when it was originally founded, was on the north part of the south side of town, right along the railroad tracks.

GM comes in the twenties and ends up being a Chevrolet plant that lasts throughout the entirety of the 20th century.

There was Midland Steel, which was down in Congerville, sort of in between Congerville and Shed Town, which is like with a lot of manufacturing today.

You got a big plant, and then you've got these small companies that make parts for that big plant.

So there was lots of like little machine shops, gear shops.

At one point, there was maybe like 12 glass factories in Greater Muncie during the gas boom, and they all pretty much go out when the gas runs out, with the exception of Hemingray Glass and then Ball Brothers.

- My name is Lewis Coulter.

(upbeat country music) I'm the owner of the Red Dog Saloon.

I had a motorcycle wreck, and I was on crutches and full leg cast for about a year and a half, and I got tired of what I was doing.

So I looking for another job, and I found the Village Pub was listed in the paper for sale.

I went and looked at it and ended up buying it and started from there.

The four firemen bought a bar down downtown, and they ended up moving out here, and so they had a contest on what to name it, and the Red Dog was the one that won the contest.

It came up for sale, and I ended up making a deal and bought it in January 1st, 1978, and it just looks the same.

I like the name and everything.

It's just been that way for the 48 years.

We're a family-run business.

We have about eight or nine of my family work here, and the customers are also family.

They've been here so long that they're considered family also.

If I hire a new person in out here in the dining area, I want 'em to learn everybody's names and call 'em by name.

We have one or two cooks.

I don't do a lot of the cooking anymore.

When somebody's sick, I have to go back and take over their job, and everybody else just puts stuff together, but I grew up on a farm.

We milked cows and farmed a lot of acres for our family back then.

Well, I've been involved in a lot of things.

I was on the Civic Center Authority Board when it first started in '81.

When the UEA came into Muncie, I got on it, and I became president for seven years.

The Tavern Owner Association, I was president for 50 years.

Well, I love Muncie, because I like the atmosphere around here.

I know the people.

You got something to look forward to or not to look forward to as the weather changes.

The people I care about are here.

All my family lives around here close, and I wanna keep them close.

(bright contemporary music) - So hi, I am Tiara Hicks.

I am the owner of Rosebud Coffee House.

I have been in the hospitality industry since I was 12 years old.

My first job was a waitressing position for the Oakville Diner.

Then I graduated college, got a degree in management.

Throughout my professional career, I would visit coffee shops when I traveled for work, and I would snap concepts and ideas and pictures and menus.

I bought an espresso machine, and I put it in my office as an HR person.

So we started calling it kind of T's place, and then we, you know, that evolved, and I made up a logo, and I was kind of like, I think I wanna open a coffee shop.

I think this is what I wanna do.

I ended up partnering with Open Door and the Eight Twelve Coalition, and they wanted a coffee shop cafe restaurant in the south side of Muncie.

Happens to be where I grew up out in the country.

So this was my side of town to support, and I pitched an idea.

I was one of four, and they selected me.

Rosebud is named after my grandfather.

That was his nickname, and if you knew my grandpa, he invited you over for a cup of coffee, and you sat at the kitchen table, and you just got to know one another.

I had this concept of bringing a quality product to the south side of Muncie and really creating a place where people could come and gather.

I'm all about creating something that last, and it was super important to me that the south side of Muncie have an establishment with the same level of quality that you find in these other big cities.

I was brought in to be a pilot program.

It was to really launch new businesses joining the south side of Muncie and continuing to grow, and so I was that poster child.

My dream is that other entrepreneurs would see this, they would see the potential, they would see the opportunity, and then they would also make that same investment on the south side of Muncie to join and become part of this community.

- [Sarah] The corner of East 16th and South Meeker has a little bit of history.

(upbeat jazz music) I guess that it used to be like a corner store.

It turned into a candy store.

It was a repair shop for Jukeboxes.

It was a dance club, and then it was apartments.

Then it fell into disrepair.

- [David] It went up for sheriff's sale.

sheriff's sale.

Nobody bought it.

The next step in the process was to offer it to the adjacent landowner, and we were interested in acquiring it.

- We went out one night and took some repurposed old swing set materials and put in a little station where people walking the greenway could take a break, and we put a free book box in there.

- So we just continued building on it and asked ourselves, what else can we do besides a little shelter to sit in and a swinging bench and a free library?

What else could we do?

And then the answer came.

- Calico Corner Park is a little pocket park, a food forest, which means that it's got several layers from the ground up of food that's going to be growing over generations, let's hope.

I first heard about food forests on YouTube, and I just started kind of looking into different gardening ideas and how to start a garden because I kill plants.

(chuckles) So I had to learn a little bit.

Then purchased a bunch of fruit trees from Smith's nursery.

We wanted really nice trees from a nursery that cares, which is why we went to Smith's.

- And then we had the kindergarten class at Inspire Academy.

They came over, and they helped us plant the trees.

- It was really cute.

So each kid in this class got to plant a tree, and I'm like, you guys need to come back and see as they grow up, you know, like get bigger.

It's a lot of fun.

Usually if there's fruit, and I post online like, hey, there's cherries today.

You'll see people just pulling all the cherries outta the tree.

- The community has really responded very positively.

There were people that were having a bad day, and they come down here to relax, to get perspective again, and it's meant a lot to them.

- We've seen so many kids like getting free books out of the book box.

We've put in a couple of other little free libraries, in a way.

They're like toys.

So you'll see 'em racing up on their bicycles and throw their bike down and run over and like see if there's any toys in there that they can get.

We've seen a lot of people hanging out in the prayer nook because we have a little plug where you can charge your phone.

- And the community has been very encouraging and supportive.

- It's really neat to see people just enjoying the park so much.

(upbeat pop music) - [Narrator] Now entering South Muncie will be back, but first, a quick word from our sponsors.

- [Narrator 2] Support for this program comes from LiUNA Local 1112, representing more than 850 construction workers throughout East Central Indiana.

Local 1112 supports family sustaining careers, healthcare, and opportunities for advancement.

The community foundation of Muncie and Delaware County helps people, supports place, and encourages possibility.

In South Muncie and across the county, the community foundation partners with neighbors and nonprofits to make this a community where people choose to be.

- [Narrator] Three Rivers Federal Credit Union, giving back to central Indiana communities through financial education, volunteerism, college scholarships and more, serving Muncie, Fortville, and Pendleton.

Learn more at 3riversfcu.org.

- [Narrator 3] The Sherman and Marjorie Ziegler Foundation is dedicated to enhancing quality of life across Muncie, Delaware County and Indiana through support of beautiful public spaces, cultural events, historical exhibits, and community celebrations that inspires appreciation of a shared heritage.

- [Narrator 4] Tom Cherry Mufflers has been proudly serving Muncie since 1946.

Located at the corner of Eighth and Liberty Streets, Tom Cherry Mufflers provides complete automotive service for cars, trucks, and large commercial vehicles with same day repairs and a large inventory.

- [Narrator] Thanks to our sponsors.

Let's get back to the south side of Muncie.

A big part of creating the Muncie golden age of industry was the most American thing you can think of, unions.

- The industry in this area of Muncie, the south side of Muncie, has made this area and all of southern Muncie into a blue collar area, and so communities were built around these industries to supply people the workforce to it, and so with this being a blue collar neighborhood and an area with these industries, the unions were a key part.

In fact, that's why people wanted to live in this area because the unions provided safe, secure, and well-paying jobs with benefits.

- Actually, the change was probably more like, not five years, but maybe 10 to 15 years ago, because that's when industry was moving out.

That's when people who wanted to start businesses were trying to come in and be success or failure.

- [Dennis] Okay, my dad was a General Motors worker, - Oh, okay.

- stepfather who raised me, which was called Chevrolet back then.

He worked there till he retired, and we've always been in Muncie.

My dad, he was kind of a tough guy, but he always, he told every one of us, there was five of us kids, he said, "You go to work, you do your job, "you give 'em the best you got, "they'll take care of your rest of your life."

Now that's changed.

- Yeah, it's changed.

- [Narrator] I know this all seems pretty bleak, but it's important to know that there are still unions functioning in Indiana today, and they employ a lot of Muncie locals.

- So my name's Marian Hammond, and I am a South Side Association board member.

I'm also a union laborer for the 1112 Local.

The Laborers Union Local 1112, their location on the south side is imperative because a lot of people come from out of town with covering 13 different counties.

We have, as a union laborer, we have our hands in everything, the roads we drive on, the buildings we go to.

So we don't just have the laborer's union here.

We also have the electrical union that's over here.

We have the county and city police union.

We've got the city workers union, like a lot of the small blue collar towns, like of course, like I said, we've had Warner Gear here at one point in time and that was a big thing for us, and it was devastating when they left, but we've also moved on from that and grown from that.

Now our industry is growing.

You can go down to your local union hall and go in and talk to people.

They're always willing to talk to you, and everything that's built, again, everything that's built, the factories, the roads, is a job that a laborer has a hand in.

- My name is Rachel Weiland.

I'm from the Ross Community Center.

I am the organizational and programs coordinator there.

The Ross Center is a community-based organization.

We offer a bunch of different programming and resources.

Our goal is to provide the community with a safe place to thrive academically, creatively, and any other parts of their life.

So the Ross Center was built in 1974.

It was the Garland E. Ross Recreational Center then.

It was volunteer-run, and it was thriving for a long time, very important hub for the community.

We have a very robust sports complex.

We have three baseball fields, a soccer field, and we do a lot of basketball on the weekends.

Our biggest, most used programs as far as numbers go is baseball, little league, get a lot of little ones out there for that.

As far as, I would say, consistency in numbers would be our afterschool program.

I personally run the afterschool program.

So I really enjoy that.

We also have an English as a second language class for adults.

It really addresses a need in the community, brings a lot of diversity to the center.

It's very neat.

So we're all constantly trying to connect with the community.

What do you guys need from us?

Because that's the whole reason why we're there is for them.

So we don't only just get people from the south side, but we get people from Yorktown, from Cowan.

Just in my afterschool program alone, I serve, let's see, four community schools here in Muncie, but also I get a very large homeschool population and a few county schools.

So Muncie, it's a really easy place to get involved.

There's so many people that wanna do good things for their community, and we're a bunch of doers.

So we'll do it.

We'll figure out a way to actually do it, not just talk about it.

- So, Muncie is a little bit different in that we have a higher population of that southern twang than maybe you would see this far north in Indiana largely because the industries here needed workers, and there weren't enough.

- There was a group of folks that came from Tennessee, up from Tennessee, Kentucky when the coal mining kind of fell apart in the thirties in Appalachia, and so all those people were looking for jobs.

- And so the automobile industry, the Ball Company, they would bus in individuals from Kentucky and Tennessee, in particular.

to the 1950s.

By the 1950s, 8% of Muncie's population are from the south.

- You also have a tremendous amount of African Americans also moving up all the way from 1900 all the way through World War II, large numbers of African Americans, in addition to these white folks that are coming from Appalachia come to Muncie, because there is plentiful factory work.

- I'm a retired funeral director after 53 years in Muncie.

I came here when I was three years old.

My parents are here.

My dad was a funeral director.

Faulkner Mortuary, it's been in operation for 73 years, and I owned a nursing home and a construction company.

I was in business with the construction company and a nursing home administrator, plus being a funeral director, and my mother was a teacher in the Muncie school systems.

I've always wanted to be a funeral director, because when I was in high school as a junior, I decided to go to mortuary college.

So I liked helping people and serving in the community and that was a good way to do it.

there was a lot of industry in the neighborhood associations which may have sparked the name Industry, because Ball Corporation was, on Macedonia and 8th street.

And then there was a lot of small businesses that have started their way in the industry because primarily minority businesses that wanted to get started in a small area.

Well, we had parks, Heekin Park, baseball diamonds we played in.

Garfield School, was in the, Industry neighborhood on Madison Street.

That's pretty much what put us together as Industry.

Muncie has been a very prejudiced town.

(calm contemporary music) - [Lillian] And when we saw Martin Luther King's life, the story of his life, my kids said, "Is that true?"

They didn't know it, but I have lived in it and I know what it's like, and I know what it's like that we go at the little old dirty train stations colored only, then the water fountain is colored only.

I know what it's like.

- As the town got older and the black community became more involved, a lot of that dissipated, but it started off that way.

That's the reason you had so many variables as far as black businesses, because we had to serve our own.

- [Olivia] If you have got a brother hungry, that means you're half hungry, and your brother, basically speaking, is eating as well as you.

You're not up there.

You're still leaning and dependent, hoping brother can catch up with you, but you'll go much further if you take someone up with you.

- But a lot of people don't like my honest opinion about Muncie and toward racism, but it was very racial and it still is.

So you gotta understand that you are in a different world.

You know, to be a minority in itself in Muncie is unique.

- My name is Mike Martin.

I'm a local musician here in Muncie, and I'm the founder of The Common Market.

So The Common Market is essentially a bodega, but it's also changed a lot over the years that I've been here as the community has kind of come in with different ideas and different ways to utilize the space.

So it is really that third space where neighbors gather, but it's also a convenience store that you can drink beer in, play music in.

I used to run a music venue in downtown Muncie with Dr.

Peterson.

Doing that, I really fell in love with Muncie.

When Dr.

Peterson sold that building, I had moved down to Charleston, South Carolina, continuing pursuing music, and we played in one of these in Charlotte, North Carolina.

We walked in, I said, "Man, are we playing "in a grocery store?"

About that time, the manager comes over and says, "You know, we're gonna put you in front of the milk here "at night.

"Nobody, you know, buys milk at night."

And when I was leaving that night, I told my band, "I was like, man, this is what we need in Muncie.

"This is what doc should have been."

Because it's just a whole different business model that was a little more community friendly, a little more all-ages.

We looked around for a building, not in the heart of downtown, because that had become so successful, and I realized that the punk rock music venues that I loved to play at weren't in the heart of downtowns.

They were in the outlying industrial areas.

One of the things that makes The Common Market different is this coffee table we have up front where neighbors gather.

It can be, at one moment, a very conservative person and a trans person sitting there at the table who never talk face to face, and they see the humanity of each other.

I think what people leave with with all that experience is hope.

So the music room and the new music venue part of it that people talk about The Common Market, it's a place where local artists can go play original music and actually connect with the crowd, build an audience.

So if you go out to the east coast, like where I did in Charleston or Nashville or Brooklyn and that scene is there, but in the Midwest, there's not so much of that, and I want that here for the next generation of artists that want to be good but are still right in the open mic season of their building of their music.

The next 10 years is about now taking that foundation and building upon it one recycled brick at a time to help launch businesses in this area, to help bring back local food to this area, and so that's the part that I don't think people realize is what we're actually building is not just a little convenience store.

That's the financial engine to keep it sustainable so the other parts can actually have a chance to be successful here.

- The reason I love Muncie is it's just feels like home.

It's the blue collar work ethic.

Especially on the south side here, we've a very tight knit group.

Everybody looks out for everybody.

- I really love and enjoy South side of Muncie or the South Muncie area, because they help each other.

They are a group of people that are self-reliant, industrious.

They look after their neighbor.

- I'm originally from Southern California.

So I grew up in a very different culture.

So moving to Muncie was a bit of a culture shock, but then over time, I've realized that I can do a lot with a little.

- I love South Side Muncie because there's just such a cool mix of people.

I mean, you have so many people from all walks of life, and everybody's getting along.

It's like this kind of neat little, I'm getting tears.

I don't know why.

(laughs) - The grit of what it means to be working class is still here and alive, and when everybody else abandoned it, we came together and built it on our own, but we proved that, kind of like Shea said, you can kill the man, but you can't kill the spirit.

(upbeat electronic music) - [Narrator 2] Now Entering South Muncie is sponsored by Laborers Union 1112, Community Foundation of Muncie Delaware County, Three Rivers, the Zeigler Foundation, and Tom Cherry Mufflers with additional support from The Common Market, Crestview Golf Course, Mulligan's Clubhouse and Grill, Matt Weyand Repairs and Renovations, Old National Bank, the Muncie Southside Neighborhood Association, Polcz Volbrecht Homes, Maxwells Barbershop, Scott Trout Family Dentistry, Eight Twelve Coalition, Stallings Wealth Management, and Mid-West Metal Products, and with support from viewers like you.

Thank you.