State Roads 46 and 135 in Nashville, Indiana, in the 1950s

This is the heart of Nashville, Indiana, in hilly Brown County. Based on the cars, this photo was made during the 1950s. Notice the state highway signs on the right. Whoever made this photo was standing at the curb on State Road 46 (Van Buren Street) steps away from Main Street. To stay on SR 46, drivers turned right onto Main Street, where a concurrency began with southbound SR 135. If you continued straight on Van Buren, you joined northbound SR 135. There was a time when turning left at this intersection placed you on SR 45 on its way to Bloomington. I don’t know (yet!) when that routing was moved north to its current alignment, which terminates at Bean Blossom five miles away. Here’s the view from above. You can see SR 46 entering from the south, and the intersection on the south edge of town where it and SR 135 concurrently head east. That alignment of 46/135 was built in 1965, according to historic aerial imagery I’ve found. Map data ©2026 Google. Check out the old alignment,…