Sixty plus years ago the area around and across from the Moraine Municipal Building has changed much through the years. Back then Main Street was called Sellars Road. In the 1950’s if you were traveling east on Sellars Road across the old steel bridge (Photo#1) from Miami Shores and had a thirst or were hungry, you could turn right and along the riverbank was the popular and somewhat notorious Bonnie-Lee Café. Built in 1948 locals referred to the bar as Bonnie Lee’s. After the Miami River protective levee was built, the greenspace area from the former Bonnie Lee’s to Dryden Road was turned into ballfields owned by Montgomery County. Athletic Supervisor Fred Armbruster administered county adult softball leagues there for men and women. Locals called the ballfields Stinky Park due to the odors at that time that emanated from the nearby water treatment plant or river. Over time the two ballfields were removed, and the county uses the land for the Western Regional Water Reclamation Facility.
Across the street the Miami Shores Auto Sales was located at the corner of Sellars and Dryden where Proprietor James Hatcher bought and sold used cars (Photo# 2). The site later became a gas station/garage and then today’s Fat Daddy’s Road Hog Convenience Store and Marathon. Behind that area, in the 1930’s a park and greenspace was located along the river but through the years the Riverview Plat housing subdivision grew to over 55 homes.
Just southeast across Dryden Road, many senior citizens remember the old Quonset hut that sat on the land where the future Moraine Municipal Building was built in 1969
