So You Think You Know Tupelo?

Eight facts about Tupelo that you might not have known:

1.) Evaporated milk was one of Tupelo's earliest industries.

2.) The last known bank robbery by Prohibition-era gangster Machine Gun Kelly, took place on November 30, 1932 at Citizen's State Bank in Tupelo. His gang stole $38,000.

3.) Tupelo is the seventh largest city in the State of Mississippi.

4.) The current location of Ballard Park & Oren Dunn City Museum were once the home of the Tupelo Country Club, a clubhouse and nine-hole goal course. After the country club moved to Bel-Air the property was a dairy farm before it was transformed into a park.

5.) The building that Harvey's restaurant on South Gloster Street occupies was once a Coca-Cola bottling plant that opened in 1954.

6.) Harry Truman, the 33rd President of the Unite States, visited Tupelo on October 22, 1960 and more than 10,000 people welcomed him when he visited. Truman was on the road campaigning for John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johson who were running for President & Vice President of the United States.

7.) The Comus Theatre, built in 1912, was located on the northwest corner of Broadway and Court Streets. It hosted live traveling vaudeville shows and silent movies. Its name was later changed to Strand Theatre and subsequently to the Lyric Theatre. It was purchased by the Tupelo Community Theatre in 1958 and once again used as a playhouse.

8.) The home of Private John Allen, United States Congressman from Lee County, was sold in 1949 and became the Lee County Library. In 1969, the building was torn down and the current library was built on the site.