108 West Main Street
Plainfield, Indiana

This upright little building, standing like a stair step between its neighbors, has hosted a series of eating and drinking enterprises in the century and a half it has stood on the north side of Main Street. Despite its narrow silhouette, more than a dozen food and beverage establishments have called it home. This unlikely looking venue has had one of the most consistent uses of any building on this stretch of Main Street.

Early Years: From Storefront to Bakery

Built around 1869 by storekeeper and real estate investor William Wilhite.
Changed hands several times—Isaac Shidler (1869), Asa Hunt (1871), and John Walker (1883)—with few records of use.
An 1886 fire map shows a millinery shop; an 1893 map lists it as vacant.
Solid history begins in 1896, when Frank J. Lipps, who already ran a bakery/grocery, bought the building and moved his business in.
The 1898 map confirms a bakery and grocery operating here.

Krebs Era: Bakers and Barbers

Lipps sold the property in 1902; it changed hands several times until Joseph & Etta Krebs purchased it in 1922.
The Krebs family, children of Bavarian immigrants, were long involved in both baking and barbering in Plainfield.
Though the Krebs Bakery only operated here briefly (1905–1907), the Krebs family owned the building for nearly four decades (1922–1960).
Their ads promised fresh bread, pies, and cakes delivered anywhere in town—six loaves for 25¢!

Restaurants Begin to Take Over

By the 1910s, the building had firmly entered its restaurant phase:

C.R. Harvey (1912) opened the first of many eateries.
Robert & Marie Townsend took over in 1915, running Townsend’s Café; their ads promoted ice cream sodas—even after an exploding soda bottle injured Marie.
In 1920, the café became Sturgeon’s Restaurant, operated by Marie’s mother-in-law Emma and stepfather Frank Sturgeon. They ran it successfully for a decade.
The 1930s saw a succession of cafes:
- Maurice & Olive Latta
- Delbert & Eva Vaughn (Vaughn Café)
- Jewel & Maude Summers (Summers Café)—famous for its blue-plate specials, leather stools, and cool dining room.

The Legendary Town Café & Taverns (1947–1990s)

Beginning around 1947, 108 West Main entered its longest and most stable chapter:

The Town Café operated for roughly 25 years, gradually becoming known more as a tavern than a restaurant.
Run at various times by:
- Marion & Virginia Wilcox (1950s)
- Mont & Gertrude Dailey, who bought the building in 1960
- Leslie Holmes, after liquor license debates in the early ’60s
- Dale & Joanne Unger, who purchased the building in 1969
The Town Café later became:
- Quarter Horse Bar (mid-1970s)
- Plainfield Town Tavern (1980s–1990s)
- The Downtown Connection (early 1990s)