1963
Approximately $900,000 was appropriated for four state highway projects which will affect Washington residents, including preparation for the long-awaited McCluggage Road, the interchange with Rt. 150-116, and mercury lights on Rt. 24 west of Washington.
Dominating the front page in Washington during the week of Jan. 10 was the opening of the $200,000 addition to St. Patrick’s School, which was begun in June 1962, and became the third extension of the original building, constructed in 1951.
Plans to build a new $65,000 gym at Central School and to annex the Hopewell District were approved by the Central School Board of Education.
The Town and Country Garden Club’s project to install a fountain in the Square “to build community pride” was given the go-ahead by the City Council. The Garden Club’s fountain was accepted by the city, which then assumed maintenance of the $3,000 project, and its lights were turned on for the first time.
By April 18 the Champion Furnace Pipe Co. began an expansion program, including ground-breaking for a $20,000 addition to the old Libby plant, and announced that it soon expected to employ 110 persons instead of the 55-60 then working there.
Washington was assigned ZIP Code number 61571, thus allowing 24 hours to be subtracted from delivery time.
Members of the Washington PTA were offered the first view of the completed WCHS gymnasium at an open house Sept. 12.
The rain poured down in Washington on the sad day of November 22, as Washingtonians heard of the President’s death. Churches were opened and stores and local schools closed on the day of John F. Kennedy’s funeral, and here, as everywhere, there were reappraisals of our country’s course.
Plaza Lanes officially opened August 24, 1963.
The Tally Ho restaurant opened on the square under the ownership of Marshall Underwood.
The Santa Fe depot on the east end of town, an obsolete anachronism to an earlier time, was demolished.
