Showers Brothers Furniture Company

“A history of Bloomington itself, telling the story of how an industry helped drive the development of one of the Midwest’s most vital university towns.”—Bloom

When the Showers family arrived in Bloomington, Indiana, the railroad had only recently come to town and a modest university was struggling to survive. Having spent the prior 18 years moving from place to place, the family decided to settle down and invest its modest resources to start a furniture company. The business proved to be extremely profitable and a stroke of good fortune for the small community. The company’s success strengthened Bloomington’s infrastructure, helping to develop new neighborhoods, and the philanthropic acts of the Showers family supported the towns continued development. The family’s contributions helped Indiana University through difficult times and paved the way to its becoming the largest university in the state. In this detailed history of Showers Brothers, Carrol Krause tells the story of a remarkably successful collaboration between business, town, and gown.

“Author Carrol Krause has chosen a very interesting subject and writes with an especially good eye for ‘telling detail’ and for imagining sounds, images, and smells of long ago. The illustrations combined with the engaging style will attract an enthusiastic local audience.”—James H. Madison, author of Hoosiers: A New History of Indiana

“This once dominant and still prominent building houses the story of a city’s past manufacturing prowess, a downtown in decline, and an urban renaissance. The roots of that important story are now available in this written history of Showers.”—Mark Kruzan, former mayor of Bloomington, Indiana