Andy’s Way: Street renamed in honor of Nashville business, civic leader

NASHVILLE, Ind. (Brown County Democrat) — Andy Rogers meant a great deal to Nashville, and one of the people who backed an effort to get a street named after the late longtime merchant and civic leader says Rogers meant a lot to him, too.

“I rented from Andy for 45 years and we became good friends,” said Larry Hawkins, who began renting commercial space from Rogers around 1970 and is now retired. “I could write a book.”

The two used to cross paths and chat when Rogers stopped in at The Nashville House, which he owned, and where for decades Hawkins rented the space downstairs housing Our Sandwich Shop. For a time, Hawkins also rented a small walk-up ice cream stand adjacent to The Nashville House along Van Buren Street. Later, Hawkins also developed the tour train that to this day ferries visitors on sightseeing tours around town.

Rogers, Hawkins said, always made time to talk to Hawkins about how he was, how business was. Hawkins said that Rogers “was one that wanted to do things for the town.”

And now, the town is doing something for Rogers — renaming Commercial Street/Gould Street as Andy Rogers Way. The change took effect Feb. 3.

‘The main man’

Frank Andrew “Andy” Rogers, who died in 2018 at age 87, was a driving force — some say the driving force — behind Nashville’s tourism development in the last half of the 20th century. Or, as Hawkins put it, “Andy back then was the main man in Nashville.”

In addition to owning The Nashville House, Rogers at one time or another owned and/or developed or supported a litany of other local landmarks and rented numerous downtown commercial properties to local merchants, artists and storekeepers.

Rogers’ father had been a successful businessman in Indianapolis who owned The Nashville House until his death in 1959, when Rogers took over the business, along with several other properties his father had owned, known as Shopper’s Lane.

“An astute businessman, (Rogers) continued to extend his commercial holdings in Nashville, building the Brown County Federal Building (later the Professional Building) in 1967, building the 88-unit Ramada Inn (later The Seasons) in 1969, opening The Ordinary restaurant in 1974, adding The Franklin House rentals in 1978, buying the Brown County Inn from a Cincinnati company in 1991, and acquiring Antique Alley from the Alice Weaver estate in 1992,” according to his obituary.

He also was active in tourism development and boosted many civic and artistic enterprises, including the Brown County Playhouse, Brown County Art Guild, Brown County Public Library, Brown County Community Foundation, Brown County YCMA, the Brown County Historical Society and more.

Rogers felt at home in Brown County. He managed the Abe Martin Lodge at Brown County State Park at different times, and according to his obituary, “He loved nature. He bought, restored and expanded an historic log cabin in the woods where he lived for many years, greatly enjoying feeding the birds and the squirrels. He was an active member of the Sycamore Land Trust, ensuring land was protected for the future of the environment.”

Hawkins said it’s fitting that Andy Rogers Way is located where it is. That’s because Hawkins remembers that back in Rogers’ heyday, it could be a hassle to get to town hall, the post office and banks. They were spread around downtown, and traffic, particularly in the fall when visitors jammed the streets of downtown Nashville more than in recent decades, could make routine visits a chore.

Rogers had a vision, though. Hawkins said he purchased what at the time was the Singing Pines Motel, which had been on the site just off East Main Street where now the post office, town hall and two financial institutions are located.

The site made sense, Hawkins said — centrally located, but a little easier for locals who use those facilities the most to get in and out during heavy tourist times.

In a resolution adopted last year to rename the street, the Nashville Town Council said of Rogers, “his service has always been an example of diligence, integrity, honesty, fairness and respect for all”.

Growing up in business

Carrying on some of the businesses her father operated, Andi Rogers Bartels retains The Nashville House, Antique Alley and The Ferguson House. A longtime art teacher, she’s now following in her father’s footsteps by being active in local businesses and civic and arts organizations.

But it’s not all new. Bartels grew up working in her mom-and-pop’s shops.

“I loved working at the businesses,” Bartels said, remembering that she had a job counting pennies at The Nashville House, complete with her own little waitress dress, beginning at age 7. “Any chance I got, I wanted to go help at the businesses.”

As a teen, she bused and waited tables, ran the steam table and more at The Nashville House. “It was really home to me,” she said.

She remembers her dad not as a stereotypical well-heeled businessman or “main man”, to borrow Hawkins’ phrase, but as someone who always drove an old truck, wore tennis shoes and jeans and, she said, worked too much, as did her mother, Fran.

Bartels recalled Christmases when her father would be up and out early in the morning checking on a hotel, for example, and the family would have to call to tell him to come home and open presents.

After she went away to college and returned to teach art for years in the local schools, she recalls Brown County High School then-principal Matt Stark telling her something about her dad that stuck with her.

“He said, ‘You don’t understand the amount your dad gave to the community,’” such as donations to the schools and the fire department, “… and never asked for recognition,” Bartels said.

“For him, I feel like it was always about the larger community,” she said, and that included helping other business people be successful, which in turn helped the town thrive.

After her dad died, many of his business holdings were sold, but Bartels said she wanted to keep some of those family traditions going.

“I didn’t feel like I could live in Brown County and not be a part of at least some of it,” she said.

And now, whenever she goes to town hall for a meeting of a board she serves on, as she does frequently, she’ll see a reminder of her dad’s enduring legacy in Nashville — the signs marking Andy Rogers Way.

“It’s really nice. I’m really glad to see it,” she said.

This story was originally published by Brown County Democrat on Feb. 5, 2025.