WASHINGTON’S WELCOME ARCH

The day after the Washington High School basketball team won the 1930 Indiana State Basketball Championship in Indianapolis, jubilant fans lined Main Street in Washington to welcome home the victorious Hatchets. As the caravan of cars carrying Coach Burl Friddle and his team headed slowly east on Main Street, the celebration was captured by James Bourgholtzer, a professional photographer.

                       Crowd welcoming home the Hatchet 1930 state basketball champions

The centerpiece of Bourgholtzer’s iconic photo was the 22 foot high steel Welcome Arch—with electrically illuminated letters—that spanned Main Street at East 3^rd Street. The structure was built in 1923 by Mayor John W. McCarty (1861-1937), a Democrat, and was one of his proudest accomplishments. It was torn down in 1936 by Dr. Solomon L. McPherson (1859-1947), a Republican, after he became Mayor in 1935.

   John W. McCarty (ca. 1916)                     Dr. Solomon L. McPherson (ca. 1934)  

McCarty was born in County Clare, Ireland. He settled in Washington in 1887 and opened a livery stable. He became active in Democratic Party politics and established himself as Washington’s quintessential Irish politician. McPherson was a physician/surgeon in Washington with a medical office at 217 E. Main Street. He was a fiscal conservative and a life-long Republican.

McCarty and McPherson were rivals in Washington City politics for over 20 years. McCarty was first elected Mayor of Washington in 1909 and again in 1913, serving from 1910 to 1918.  He was defeated in 1917 in his bid for reelection by Dr. McPherson, who served as Mayor from 1918 to 1922. In the rematch for Mayor in 1921, McCarty defeated McPherson.  McCarty was reelected as Mayor in 1925 and 1929, serving three consecutive terms from 1922 to 1935.   

After returning to City Hall as Mayor in 1922, McCarty drew up plans for the Welcome Arch.  It was built in April 1923, at a cost of $5,840.17 (the equivalent of $111,000 in 2026).The Washington Herald—the Republican newspaper in Washington—mocked the Welcome Arch as another one of Mayor McCarty’s vanity projects and a misuse of public funds.

Eleven years later, the country was in the depths of the Great Depression and the City of Washington’s finances were in a shambles. McPherson defeated McCarty in the 1934 election. One of McPherson’s first steps to save money after becoming Mayor in 1935 was to turn off the Welcome Arch’s electric letters. The next year he ordered city crews to demolish the darkened Welcome Arch.

The Washington Democrat protested the “work of destruction” by McPherson’s “wrecking crew.” The newspaper claimed the demolition was done “without public announcement or the consent of the [city] council.”     

John McCarty died September 19, 1937, aged 82, and is buried at St. John Cemetery in Washington. Solomon McPherson died December 31, 1947, aged 88, and is buried at Oak Grove Cemetery in Washington.

This article was compiled by Bruce Smith and Jeannie Eaton.